Live Ops
Live ops in 2026: What 2025 revealed and how studios should prepare
Balancy's leaders speak on the evolution of live ops and what comes next for studios
Aurora Award
Aurora celebrates women in the UK games industry
Ten women recognised for leadership, creativity, sustainability and long-term industry impact live at Pocket Gamer Connects London 2026
Pgc London
Pocket Gamer Connects London welcomes UK Minister of State for Trade Policy Chris Bryant to showcase country's bustling game industry
The Minister offered support for the UK's creative industries and shook hands with the industry on the show floor
Esports World Cup
Esports World Cup 2026 to feature a $75m total prize pool
The winning Club will earn $7m as part of the expanded Club Championship payouts
Pgc Summit San Francisco
Save up to $300 on PGC Summit San Francisco
Super Early Bird prices end at midnight Thursday, January 22nd
New Partnerships
Coda partners with Unity to integrate in-app purchasing into web store platforms
Developers can manage digital catalogues across mobile, web, and PC through Unity’s existing IAP workflow
Milestone
RuneScape surpasses $3bn in lifetime revenue as Jagex marks 25th anniversary
The RS25 programme is positioned as the most ambitious evolution in RuneScape’s history
Talent Development
Belfast XR Festival launches £200,000 immersive development programme
Teams will receive stipends, mentoring, masterclasses, and hands-on prototyping support
Growth Strategies
How developers can build games for the long haul and why not every project is cut out for it
Sergey Martinkevich talks on long-term growth in a mobile market dominated by legacy hits
Lack Of Support
"If I had to start a 100 person studio today in games, I wouldn't do it here in the UK"
Members of the newly formed UK Video Games Council had stark words for government support as they look to help chart a new path forward
Vision 2030
Scotland targets £1bn games sector by 2030 with new national action plan
The plan reframes games as a driver of economic growth, skills development and cross-sector innovation
Regulations
Italy watchdog opens probes into Activision Blizzard over mobile game monetisation
Diablo Immortal and Call of Duty Mobile are under scrutiny for allegedly misleading free-to-play practices
Funding News
Turborilla secures $5m non-dilutive user acquisition funding to accelerate growth
The studio reported its strongest financial performance in more than three years in December
Here We Go
Pocket Gamer Connects London 2026 kicks off with talks from Arcadia Gaming Partners, Duolingo, the UK Video Games Council, and more!
PGC London takes place across January 19th and 20th - and we're anticipating it will be our largest show ever
Pgc London
Thanks to the sponsors of Pocket Gamer Connects London 2026
The fantastic companies that make this week's two-day event possible
New Offerings
Orbital expands to PC after surpassing 200,000 downloads on mobile
The mobile title recorded more than 180,000 hours of player engagement since its 2022 launch
Industry Insights
When should a mobile games studio hire a CFO?
Martin Macmillan explores why finance leadership in mobile games is driven by complexity not just revenue
Speaker Spotlight
"Focusing on UA alone is no longer healthy in today's more competitive environment"
Snapchat's app growth strategy lead Sara Antonelli discusses ser acquisition challenges, sustainable growth and adapting to a world with fewer deterministic signals
Investment News
Play-to-earn app MoneyTime secures $3m seed funding round
Akin Babayigit’s Arcadia Gaming Partners leads investment round in rewarded play platform
Podcast | Episode 79
Pocket Gamer Connects London preview | Week in Mobile Games podcast
The PocketGamer.biz podcast team give you the state of play every week. Here's where to get it and what's inside this week's episode 79...
Company Spotlight
Company Spotlight: Exmox
Find out more about user acquisition partner helping companies scale and engage their audiences sustainably
Speaker Spotlight
Duolingo's Osman Mansur on the power of relentless optimisation
The learning app's senior product manager discusses optimisation, retention and how the platform has 10 million users with a 365+ day streak
Speaker Spotlight
"Don't be scared of data, learn to live alongside it"
Persona.ly head of ML product Joseph Iris discusses in-app advertising, gameplay loops over monetisation, and a key benefit of AI tools
Here We Go
See you at Pocket Gamer Connects London 2026 on January 19th and 20th!
Conference will bring together as many as 3,000 industry professionals to network, share insights and do deals
Industry Views
Why 2026 is about smaller teams, ethics and sustainability
Hannah Wright, Emil Kjaer and Carina Kom share industry expertise ahead of PG Connects London 2026
Week In Views
Legal pressure in the Warner Bros. deal and Umamusume expands to US cinemas | Week in Views
The Pocketgamer.biz team pick their highlights from the headlines this week and deliver the stories behind the stories
Company Spotlight
Xsolla's bold rebrand signals a new era for game developer events
Xsolla will be demonstrating its new visual identity at PGC London on the second floor of The Brewery on January 19th and 20th
Company Culture
"This is bullsh*t": Supercell opens up on cancelled projects and the role of failure in creativity
The company celebrates cancelled projects with a champagne toast to courage, not success
The Slingshot Formula
Podcast: How Angry Birds reached the stars
The Slingshot Formula book author and ex-Rovio leaders discuss Angry Birds Rio, Space, Star Wars and more
Candy Crush Challenge
Crafting Candy Crush’s difficulty: Blockers, level design, AI and the "complexity staircase"
Candy Crush’s senior product manager John Davies shares level design insights and tips on making a challenging puzzle fun
Strategic Move
Spry Fox founders take substantial pay cuts following Netflix buyback
The founders reduced their salaries to $20,000 per year during the "extremely fast" sale
Milestone
Fingersoft's Hill Climb Racing passes 2bn downloads worldwide
The physics-based driving title still attracts over 4 million daily players
New Games
New release roundup: A Webbing Journey, MU: Dark Awakening, Motto Immortal, and more
We highlight the latest new games that have broken cover over the past week
Milestone
Game District surpasses 2.2 billion downloads in 2025
The mobile developer reached a peak of 22m daily active users last year
Next Steps
Krafton enters execution phase of long-term franchise IP strategy
The publisher plans to increase first-party investment while expanding its publishing output and tightening resource allocation
Pgc London 2026
Meet companies like Supercell, Epic Games, CD Projekt Red, and Square Enix at Pocket Gamer Connects London
From vibrant indies to the biggest brands - see who’s attending the global games industry event on January 19th to 20th
City Expansion
How Subway Surfers City aims to expand the franchise with unique ways to play
Sybo studio director Rafael Rodrigues discusses expectations for the new spinoff title launching on February 26th, 2026
Subway Surfers City
Subway Surfers City opens pre-registrations ahead of February launch
The "next chapter" for the Subway Surfers IP will release on February 26th, 2026
Layoff News
Playtika to lay off 500 employees in latest round of cuts
CEO Robert Antokol says the company is moving away from an unsustainable growth strategy
Pgc London 2026
PG Connects London 2026: Latest speakers announced
Learn games business insight from Zynga, TikTok, King, Twitch, Duolingo, Konvoy and many more, January 19th-20th
Speaker Spotlight
"Live ops is not a game with events, it is a game revolving around events"
We speak to Metaplay co-founder and CPO Teemu Haila about live ops ahead of his panel at PGC London
Hybrid Monetisation Domination
IAA, IAP, or both? Why hybrid monetisation now dominates mobile apps
Hybrid monetisation may have emerged from the hypercasual games genre, but is now becoming the dominant business model across multiple app categories.
Market Growth
German games sector hits €3.73bn in revenue
Federal games funding has been a key growth driver, providing studios with $145m in annual support
Pgc Summit San Francisco
PG Connects returns to San Francisco with a streamlined mobile-centric summit in 2026
A focused gateway to the mobile games sector, March 9th
Funding News
Liquidnitro Games raises $19.1m to scale AI-driven live services platform
The company is targeting growth across India, MENA, and Southeast Asia
Funding News
TaleMonster Games raises $30m Series A to scale Match Valley
The Istanbul-based studio plans to scale its debut title and launch a second game later this year
Funding News
Khosouf Studio secures $600,000 to fuel next phase of growth
The funding will support the studio’s relocation from the UAE to Saudi Arabia
Direct-to-consumer
Appcharge: US web store purchases are 3x higher on average than payment links
Appcharge claims 65% of one-time buyers on web stores make a second purchase
Milestone
Scopely’s Monopoly Go fastest mobile game to hit $6 billion
Hit title hit the milestone in 1,275 days, according to Sensor Tower estimates
Speaker Spotlight
Appcharge's Omer Torok-Arlosoroff to discuss how to get to 30% D2C revenue share at PGC London
Ahead of PGC London, we speak with Omer Torok-Arlosoroff quick-fire chat to discuss the benefits of a solid direct-to-consumer strategy.