Mobile game UA beyond Meta and Google: the other ad networks, by supply type

Meta (Facebook and Instagram) and Google take the biggest single shares of mobile game UA spend. The alternatives to Meta and Google for mobile game user acquisition sort into eight supply types: rewarded and offerwall networks, in-app ad networks, programmatic DSPs, retargeting networks, OEM and on-device placements, connected TV, other social and community platforms, and App Store search. Below, we group the other networks in the SuperScale Media portfolio by type, with what each type sells and a link to our write-up of each network as it goes live.

Where game UA budgets go

Singular, writing up a 2025 report it produced with Moloco and Sensor Tower on 2024 data, says games send about 30% of their ad spend to each of Google and Meta, and 35% to the wider app ecosystem.

AppsFlyer's 2025 Performance Index found spend growth concentrated at the top. Of the five biggest media sources globally, 60% grew their spend year on year, as did 80% of those ranked 6 to 10, against 30% of those ranked 11 to 20. The index covers all app categories, games among them. AppsFlyer's Shani Rosenfelder describes "a market driven by a handful of large platforms."

Games also run fewer ad partners than they did. Adjust's Mobile app trends 2026 report counted an average of 5.3 per gaming app in 2025, down from 6 in 2024. Three genres went the other way: hybrid casual rose to 9.8, simulation to 6.8 and idle RPG to 6.7. Adjust's reading is that, with acquisition costs high, studios now pick channels by the lifetime value of the players they bring.

The other networks, by supply type

Rewarded play and offerwalls

Players opt in. They pick a game from a list of offers inside another app, then earn points, coins or gift cards for the minutes they play, the levels they reach or the purchases they make. On Tapjoy, now Unity's offerwall, you pay only when a player completes an offer. The reward follows play, so the format suits games with a long progression. In AppsFlyer's 2025 index, rewarded platforms such as adjoe posted major gains in Android gaming.

In the SuperScale Media portfolio: Mistplay, adjoe, Tapjoy, Almedia, EarnOS and TyrAds. Read our intros to adjoe Playtime and Mistplay.

In-app ad networks

These networks sell ad space inside other mobile games and apps through their own SDKs, mostly as full-screen video, rewarded video and playable ads. You set a CPI or ROAS goal, and the network's model decides who sees your ads and at what price.

In the portfolio: AppLovin, Unity Ads, Mintegral, Chartboost, InMobi and BIGO Ads. Read our intros to Unity Vector, AppLovin Axon and Mintegral.

Programmatic DSPs

A demand-side platform (DSP) buys single ad impressions through exchanges in real time. Its model picks which impressions to bid on and how much to pay, across many apps at once, toward the goal you set. Several DSPs also sell retargeting and CTV, noted in those sections below.

In the portfolio: Moloco, Liftoff, RZR (formerly Aarki), Bigabid, Bidease, Kayzen, Smadex, Persona.ly, AppSamurai, Appier and Jampp.

Retargeting and re-engagement

Retargeting networks show ads to people who have already installed your game, to bring lapsed players back or move active ones toward a first or repeat purchase. You build the audiences in your MMP and judge each campaign by what it adds over a holdout group that saw no ads.

In the portfolio: Adikteev, Remerge, RevX and RTB House. Jampp, Moloco and RZR, listed with the DSPs, run retargeting campaigns as well. Read our intro to Adikteev.

OEM and on-device

OEM supply reaches players through the phone itself. Digital Turbine, the portfolio's OEM network, delivers apps to phones through partnerships with wireless carriers and device makers, and also sells user acquisition on in-app inventory of its own.

In the portfolio: Digital Turbine.

Connected TV

Connected-TV (CTV) networks run video ads inside streaming apps on the TV. A player sees your ad on the big screen and installs later on a phone, so check how your MMP attributes CTV before you test.

In the portfolio: Vibe.co, Amazon Ads and tvScientific. Moloco and RZR, listed with the DSPs, sell CTV campaigns too.

Other social and community platforms

Beyond Meta's apps, social budgets can go to short video on TikTok, Story and AR ads on Snapchat, and the feeds and communities of X (formerly Twitter) and Reddit. Discord sells Quests, a rewarded format in which a player accepts a Quest, plays a game or watches a video, and earns in-game items or avatar decorations. WEBTOON, the webcomics platform, sells display and video ads in its app, and Coin Hunter, an offerwall in which readers earn coins for completing missions such as an app install.

In the portfolio: TikTok, Snapchat, X, Reddit, Discord and WEBTOON.

App Store search

Apple Ads, formerly Apple Search Ads, places your game in the App Store: in search results, on the Search and Today tabs, and on other apps' product pages. In search results you choose the keywords to bid on, so the ad reaches people right after they search.

In the portfolio: Apple Ads.

What each extra network adds to the workload

Each network you add brings its own contract and billing, its own setup in your MMP, its own creative specs and its own reporting to reconcile. Creative specs alone vary from one sheet to the next. AppLovin asks for portrait 9:16 video of up to 60 seconds, and for playables as a single HTML file of 5 MB or less that supports MRAID 2.0. Unity takes landscape 16:9 or portrait 9:16 video of 60 seconds or less, and playables under 5 MB built to MRAID 3.0. Budget the team's hours for that setup along with the media spend.

How to test a new supply type

Add one supply type at a time, on one network, with a fixed daily budget. Send your post-install events through your MMP before launch, because ROAS bidding runs on them. Give the network the learning period it asks for. Then judge the cohort at day 7 and day 30 on retention and ROAS, side by side with your existing channels. Each intro in this series sets out its network's own guidance on budget, countries, learning phase, events and creative.

Running them through one IO

SuperScale Media is our managed UA service, powered by the SuperScale Stack, and every network above is in its portfolio, along with Meta Audience Network and Google. Your spend runs through SuperScale's own network agreements — one IO, 35+ networks. Onboarding is a tracking link, not an integration project. SuperScale Media charges an 8% management fee on managed spend. If your team keeps Meta and Google in-house, SuperScale Media can run the other networks alongside them. The SuperScale Media page sets out what the service covers.

If a new supply type is on your list to test, put your own numbers into the ROI calculator. It lists every network in the portfolio.

Sources

SuperScale

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