"We don’t talk about low CPIs anymore" as hybridcasual raises player retention

• Rollic VP of gaming Utku Erdinç and i-h.dev indie developer Teemu Kokkonen discussed genres and player retention.
• They spoke at PGC Helsinki 2025.

The rise of hybridcasual has brought with it an increase in player retention, compared to the days of hypercasual’s dominance. This is leading some companies to worry less about the CPI of attracting new players, instead shifting focus to retaining them.

Rollic VP of gaming Utku Erdinç and i-h.dev indie developer Teemu Kokkonen spoke at PGC Helsinki about emerging trends and coming expectations around hybridcasual. In particular, they highlighted the genre’s long-term potential with players and how users themselves are changing.

"We don’t talk about low CPIs anymore. It gets higher and higher every year and we don’t talk about it. Obviously it has to be low but if it’s lower than $5 in a small campaign, then you’re good to go," said Erdinç.

Kokkonen followed: "That logically explains that you might want to focus on the players who are actually playing right now."

And, Kokkonen noted how demographics are "evolving" too. He said: "Hypercasual players maybe grew up a little bit, maybe they want to get something more serious, and then all these demographics mix up."

As a result, having more options within a game can be a good thing to cater to a wider spectrum of players.

Erdinç suggested players are "starting to look for new mechanics", and expects to see gameplay in the opening 20 minutes of a title to evolve as developers look to grab attention.

Responding to retention

Erdinç explained that he focuses more on the retention of a game than its genre. He argued hypercasual titles don’t have any long-term retention, and thus developers don’t add anything new to the game over time. Meanwhile, a hybridcasual game can have long-term retention of 2% to 3% yearly, so developers do add new features.

"You start adding IAPs and metagames, or different processes or bundles," he said.

"Hybridcasual opened up this space between casual and hypercasual."

Kokkonen added: "The player doesn’t necessarily understand that they are going to play a hypercasual game or they are going to play a midcore game. They don’t necessarily know the difference between these. They just want to play something that is super easy to get into."

We also spoke with Erdinç this summer about Rollic's shifting strategy and how ideating "more than a thousand games a month" leads to the best game mechanics.

Pocket Gamer Connects London 2026 is taking place on January 19th and 20th, set to feature plenty of talks on emerging trends and the latest developments in the hottest genres.