Live ops in 2026: What 2025 revealed and how studios should prepare

• Portfolio-level live ops governance became necessary for studios with multiple live games.
• Economy tuning became more disciplined, focusing on controlled A/B testing, measuring lift, and validating reward pacing.

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This guest post was written by Antonina Belova, Balancy's growth & partnerships manager.

As part of a year-end review of operational trends across the industry, I sat down with Balancy co-founder Pavel Ignatov and product owner Mikhail Khripin to reflect on how live ops evolved in 2025 - and what studios should be prepared for in 2026.

Their insights highlight a year in which live ops matured into a structured operational discipline across genres and studio sizes.

1. Live ops becomes operational, not reactive

According to Pavel Ignatov, many teams fundamentally changed how they run live ops: “Teams formalised their live ops processes this year. Many treated live ops as an ongoing production track rather than a collection of one-off updates.”

A major pressure in 2025 was reducing dependency on engineering. Ignatov’s team explored this by building an internal visual configuration layer internally - a UI system that enables designers to adjust offers, events, and reward structures without shipping a new build.

This isn’t universal across the industry yet, but Pavel notes the underlying shift is clear:

Studios increasingly need:

• faster iteration

• fewer handoffs

• safer experimentation

• non-technical ownership of live ops content

“Speed and flexibility became essential for teams iterating daily.”

2. Reusable systems become the backbone of live ops

2025 brought a noticeable shift toward template-driven operations. Studios leaned heavily on reusable building blocks such as:

• reward ladders

• limited-time missions

• seasonal progressions

• chain offers

• side-activity minigame loops

• Royal Match–style event structures, now widely adopted across puzzle and hybrid titles

These reusable patterns help teams:

• reduce production overhead

• maintain predictable cadence

• avoid reinventing systems

• ensure consistent live ops quality across titles

Mikhail Khripin underscores their importance: “For teams managing multiple live titles, templates became essential for maintaining consistency and scaling operations.”

3. Portfolio-level live ops emerges as a necessity

A major trend in 2025 was the need for portfolio-wide live ops governance.

Studios operating five or more live games looked for ways to unify workflows, share systems, and compare outcomes across titles.

Teams needed:

• unified live ops calendars

• shared event templates

• consistent permissions

• cross-game performance insights

• operational oversight at scale

Khripin explains that this shift prompted his team to create a centralised Publisher Account system, reflecting an industry movement toward managing live ops not at the game level, but at the portfolio level.

“Live ops knowledge became a shared asset, not something rebuilt per game.”

4. Personalisation moves from segmentation to context

Segmentation remained foundational, but 2025 saw studios push toward context-based personalisation. Content increasingly adapted to a player's:

• pace of progression

• recent friction or difficulty

• session patterns

• resource conditions

• churn predictors

• milestone states

As Ignatov explains: “Context-driven personalisation was one of the most meaningful evolutions of the year.”

5. Cadence shifts toward modularity and flexibility

Large, monolithic updates continued to fade. Teams prioritised:

• short-form, stackable events

• mission-driven mini-activities

• flexible event timelines

• mid-event tuning (conditions, rewards, duration)

• lightweight seasonal content

Live ops teams increasingly expect the ability to adjust live content while it is running, not only during planning.

6. Economy management becomes more disciplined

Economic tuning grew more rigorous in 2025. Studios focused on:

• controlled A/B testing

• measuring lift before wide rollout

• validating reward pacing

• understanding ad–IAP interactions

• tightening progression flows amid rising UA costs

Mikhail Khripin highlights this shift: “Economy tuning shifted from instinct to measurement.”

7. Tooling expectations evolve: full-stack, connected, and fast

Consolidation was another clear trend.

Pavel Ignatov notes: “Teams want end-to-end live ops workflows instead of stitching tools together.”

Studios increasingly evaluated tools based on:

• unified segmentation + event management

• integrated experimentation frameworks

• portfolio-level oversight

• ability to edit live content without client updates

• overall iteration velocity

The critical metric: how quickly a team can design, test, and learn.

8. What 2025 taught the industry

Key takeaways:

• Build service foundations early: analytics, segmentation, and configuration must be in place pre-launch

• Understand player behaviour deeply: personalisation depends on behavioural insight, not assumptions

• Design for adaptability: roadmaps must allow rapid course correction

• Empower live ops teams: autonomy accelerates iteration and experimentation

• Communicate transparently: clear reasoning reinforces trust and retention

9. What will shape live ops in 2026

Looking ahead, Mikhail Khripin sees several strong signals:

Expect momentum in:

• Automation (churn prediction, behavioural recommendations)

• Predictive live ops (forecasting feature performance before rollout)

• Logic-based templates (reusable behavioural systems)

• High-leverage tools for small teams

• Cross-genre borrowing (puzzle → hybrid → RPG → midcore)

“These trends point to live ops as a discipline increasingly defined by speed, data, and systemisation.”

10. Preparing for 2026

Ignatov concludes: “Across the industry, the mission is the same: make live ops faster, more adaptive, and more informed. Strengthening templates, enabling cross-title governance, and adopting automation will be central to how teams approach 2026.”