Mobile games show so many ads because most of them are free, most players never buy anything, and ads are how a free game earns money from everyone else. Each ad pays the developer very little, so making a living takes a lot of them, and games with short rounds have plenty of breaks to put them in. Some developers push that too far. Others space their ads out or make them optional, and a few simple rules tell you which kind of game you’re playing.
Why does a free game need so many ads? #
A free game still has to pay for development, updates and servers, and there are only a few ways to do that: ads, in-app purchases, a one-time upgrade or a subscription. We compare them in how free mobile games make money. Ads have one big advantage over the rest. They earn something from every player, not only the few who spend.
The catch is scale. A single ad is worth very little, so an ad-funded game needs a huge number of them. When a game gets big, that adds up fast: at its peak in early 2014, Flappy Bird’s creator said the game was making around $50,000 a day from ads, as we cover in what happened to Flappy Bird. Most games never get near that, which is why so many lean on ads harder than players would like, or add purchases on top.
Where does the money from an ad go? #
Advertisers pay an ad network, such as Google’s AdMob, to show their ads inside apps. The network picks an ad each time the game asks for one and pays the developer a share of what the advertiser paid. How much a single ad is worth depends on the ad type, the country you’re in, and whether the ad is personalized to you. Personalized ads usually pay more, which is one reason games on iPhone ask for permission to track you.
The advertisers are often other game studios. The people most likely to install a new game are people already playing one, so a big share of in-game ads are for other games, sometimes as short playable demos. That’s also why those ads can look nothing like the game they’re selling, which we explain in why mobile game ads are so fake.
What types of ads do mobile games show? #
Banner ads #
A strip along the top or bottom of the screen. Banners are the least annoying and earn the least. The trouble they cause is accidental taps when they sit right next to the controls.
Interstitial ads #
Full-screen ads between rounds, levels or menus, usually with a close button after a few seconds. These are the ones people complain about. They pay much more than banners, which is exactly why some games show one after every short round.
Rewarded ads #
Optional videos you choose to watch for something in return: an extra life, double coins, a free chest. Because you opt in, most players tolerate them, and many games now lean on rewarded ads instead of full-screen ones. The catch is that a game can tune its difficulty so the reward starts to feel necessary.
Why do short games show the most ads? #
The more breaks a game has, the more places an ad can go. A match-3 level takes a few minutes. A run in a tap-to-fly game can end in ten seconds. If a developer shows a full-screen ad at every game over, someone who crashes 40 times in half an hour sees 40 ads, and the game starts to feel like an ad player with a bird attached.
That’s the tension in the whole one-tap genre. The instant restart is what makes these games fun, and it’s also what makes aggressive ad placement so tempting. Hypercasual games, the ultra-simple ones built to be downloaded and played for a few minutes, tend to be the worst offenders, because ads are often their only income.
Why do some games show more ads than others? #
It comes down to the business model and the developer’s choices. A game that sells nothing depends entirely on ads, while a game with in-app purchases can afford fewer. Some games stop full-screen ads once you’ve bought anything at all. Others cap how often an ad can appear, or never show one in your first few minutes.
Many developers also test different ad schedules on different groups of players, so a friend playing the same game may genuinely see fewer ads than you do. The number can change after an update, too, without any announcement.
What does fair ad design look like? #
You can learn a lot about a free game from its ad rules. Flappy Kittens, a free tap-to-flap game (listed as Flappy Cat on Google Play), is a useful example because its rules are simple to state:
- A banner sits in its own strip below the play area, so it can’t overlap the part of the screen you tap.
- A full-screen ad can appear at most once every four game overs, never within three minutes of the last one, and never in your first two minutes of play.
- No full-screen ad follows a new best score or a revive.
- Rewarded ads are optional: one revive per run, double fish after a run, or a 75-fish gift in the shop.
The shop runs on fish you collect while flying, not money, so ads are the whole business model. You’ll still see ads, but the game isn’t built around interrupting you.
Use the same lens on any free game. Signs of a fair setup are optional rewarded ads, no ads in the middle of play, and a close button you can find. Signs of an aggressive one are a full-screen ad after every round, fake or tiny close buttons, ads that open the app store by themselves, and difficulty that seems tuned to push you toward “watch an ad to continue.”
Why don’t developers just charge a dollar? #
Because far fewer people download a game that costs anything. Even a small price stops most browsers from trying it, and a game nobody tries earns nothing. Free with ads lets everyone play and pays the developer a little from the whole audience. Some studios offer both, a free version with ads and a paid one without, and let you choose.
Can you get fewer ads? #
Yes, though you usually can’t switch them off in a free game. A one-time “Remove Ads” purchase, the paid version of the game, or a subscription like Apple Arcade or Google Play Pass will do it, and airplane mode stops most ads in games that work offline. Skip “ad-free” modded versions from outside the official stores, which are a common way to spread malware. Our guide to stopping ads in mobile games walks through each option and what it costs.
Frequently asked questions #
Why are so many mobile game ads for other games? #
Game studios buy a lot of mobile ad space, because people already playing a game are the easiest to convince to try another. That’s also why the ads sometimes show gameplay that looks nothing like the real game. They’re built to get a tap.
Why do I see the same ad over and over? #
Games cap how often a single ad appears, but with a small pool of advertisers you’ll still see repeats. Turning off ad personalization can make repetition more noticeable, because the network has less to go on when choosing what to show you.
Are rewarded ads worth watching? #
When the reward is something you’d otherwise pay for or grind a long time to get, yes. They’re optional, so treat them as a trade: usually less than a minute of your time for the bonus. If you’re watching them out of habit, skip a few and see whether you miss the reward.
Does Flappy Kittens have ads? #
Yes. It’s free and ad-supported, with a banner below the play area, occasional full-screen ads between runs, and optional rewarded ads for a revive or extra fish. The shop takes fish you earn in the game, not money.