Why we exist

Game Monetization Guide started because two things were true at once: game developers had more ways to earn than ever, and the public information about those methods was either shallow or wrong. Most of what we found online was either vendor marketing or forum guesses. We wanted a place where a small studio could read how an ad mediation waterfall actually behaves, what a 2% conversion rate means for revenue, or how Apple’s 30% cut interacts with a subscription price test.

So we built one.

What we do

We research and write about the money side of games and apps: business models, metrics, and payments. That means we spend our time reading developer agreements, running small tests, and talking to people who handle revenue operations day to day. When we publish a number, we show where it came from. When we don’t know, we say so.

Our work is not sponsored by ad networks or payment processors. We do not accept payment for coverage. If we ever take affiliate revenue, it will be labeled on the page and will not change what we write.

How we work

Three rules guide every article:

1. Show the mechanism. A claim like “rewarded video pays better” is useless without the fill rate, eCPM, and session assumptions behind it. We include the math or the source.
2. Name the trade-off. Every model has a cost. Subscriptions bring predictable revenue but require ongoing content. Ads scale but can hurt retention. We write about both sides.
3. Correct in public. When we get something wrong, we fix it and note the change at the bottom of the article. No quiet edits.

We also keep a public changelog for major updates to our guides, so you can see what changed and when.

Who we are

We are a small editorial team with backgrounds in game development, ad operations, and payments. Between us we have shipped games, managed ad mediation stacks, and integrated subscription billing. We are not a news site chasing headlines. We publish when we have something useful to add.

Our team includes:

• Maya Chen – Editor. Former producer at a mid-size mobile studio. Spent three years running live ops and monetization tests.
• Derek Okafor – Research lead. Previously worked in ad operations at a mediation platform. Knows the difference between a waterfall and bidding from the inside.
• Priya Nair – Payments and compliance. Helped indie developers set up tax handling and payout accounts across regions.

We also work with a group of external reviewers—developers and analysts—who check our technical claims before publication. They are not paid; they get early access and a credit line.

What we don’t do

We don’t sell consulting. We don’t run a course. We don’t promise revenue lifts. If you need hands-on help, we can point you to people we trust, but we don’t take a cut.

We also don’t pretend to know everything. Mobile monetization changes fast, and platform policies shift. When we’re unsure, we say “we don’t know yet” and follow up when we do.

How to reach us

If you spot an error, have a data point to share, or want to suggest a topic, email us at [email protected]. We read everything, though we can’t always reply.

If you’re new here, start with our guide to monetization models or our metrics glossary. Both are kept up to date.

— The Game Monetization Guide team