Market research firm Statista predicts significant expansion in Russia’s casual gaming market, expecting it to grow by 10.52% from 2022 to 2027. This growth translates into a projected market size of EUR 105.6M by 2027.
Among casual game categories, action, simulation, puzzle, tabletop, and card games are the most popular in Russia.
This growth trajectory, coupled with the diverse gaming preferences of the Russian population, asserts the promising future of mobile casual gaming in Russia.
Examples of successful casual game ad campaigns
How Yandex helped a crossword puzzle game 4x their app downloads with only a slight increase in CPI
This casual game developer created a stimulating crossword puzzle that helps players improve their vocabulary and spelling as they discover the world’s seven wonders and tour incredible cities.
The game was a success with the Russian audience, resulting in over 100 million app downloads. By launching ad campaigns across multiple geographic regions, the game developer found that the performance in the Russian market was the most promising. Inspired by these results, the publisher scaled their ad campaign in this region and leveraged an interactive “playable” ad format to ensure their target audience was consistently engaged and encouraged to download the game.
The strategic combination of well-crafted targeting and the playable creative ad format, which allowed users to experience a “teaser” version of the game right in the ad, further encouraged downloads of the gaming app resulting in a remarkable 4-fold increase in app installations with only a slight increase in CPI (cost per install) of about 12% in just a month.
The publisher’s decision to focus on the Russian market and systematically scale the ad campaign with an interactive format ensured their target audience was consistently engaged and motivated to download the app.
As one of the leading market players, Yandex helped the game developer craft this campaign strategy that led to a 4x increase in app installations with only a slight increase in CPI.
How Yandex helped a viral online card game decrease CPI for their mobile game version while increasing app downloads.
A game developer decided to release a mobile app version of their viral online card game with over 10M downloads.
Objective: Noting a decrease in CPI, the developer’s main goal was to increase app downloads.
Yandex’s impact: Since Russia is the top country with a keen interest in casual online games — on par with the United States — Yandex was a logical partner to bring this game to the Russian audience.
Results: Yandex helped the game developer increase app downloads by 10%, resulting in 320K app installs in one month while decreasing the cost of installations. When we first launched the campaign, there were only 12k monthly installations.
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