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• The Billion Dollar Industry Behind Fake Mobile Game Ads

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The Billion Dollar Industry Behind Fake Mobile Game Ads

I was scrolling through Instagram late one night last week when an ad for a mobile game caught my eye. It actually looked pretty fun. One of those puzzle games where you pull the right pin to get the treasure, avoid the lava and save the day. But in the ad, the person playing was struggling hard.

They were making all the wrong moves, and I remember thinking to myself: “How are they messing this up? I could solve this in two seconds”.

Naturally, I downloaded the game, convinced I’d breeze through it and grab that treasure. And then reality hit. The game that seemed so satisfying in the ad? Yeah, it didn’t exist.

Instead, I was stuck playing a game where I had to build my own empire and all that stuff aka a base-building strategy game. I sat there staring at my screen, thinking, “What just happened? Where’s the pin-pulling puzzle I signed up for?”

Naturally, I uninstalled the game but it got me thinking. What’s really happening here? 

Scammy Mobile Games Ads

Mobile gaming is a massive industry - like $90 billion massive. According to some reports, that’s almost half of the entire gaming market, and it’s $40 billion more than what PlayStation, XBox and Nintendo console games raked in last year - combined (excluding the console themselves). 

And yet, despite the industry being this massive, mobile game ads are, well …. weird and deceptive.

I’m pretty sure all of you must have come across at least any of these types of ads. The ads will feature a clip of a word game, shooter game, or puzzle, but the person controlling the game is a masochist. In a 30-second ad for a word-unscrambling game, they’ll repeatedly attempt something like “hitnk” but never “think”.

In a shooting game where players control a mob that moves through barriers that change in size, the ad’s player will frequently select a counterintuitive option like “subtract 10” instead of “add 50.”

Yet, these misleading ads do work. And really well. 

The psychology behind these ads is pretty easy to understand. They create an ad so frustrating, with such an obvious solution, that you download the game just to prove you can do better. They’re playing on your need for satisfaction, turning your irritation into action. 

In fact, there’s even a whole Reddit community dedicated to this. The aptly named r/shittymobilegameads has almost 160,000 subscribers who get together to roll their eyes at these ads.

It seems pretty clear that all these ads need to do is convince you to download the games. But then again, what is the point if most people, just like I did, will uninstall the game because it's not what it seems.

How are these gaming companies making any money off of this?

Whale Hunting

Well, since I quit the game after a couple of minutes, I’m definitely not their target customer. What these mobile gaming companies are really after are Whales.

No, I’m not talking about the kind you see on Animal Planet.

You see, most players actually drop off and never play the game. But there is a small percentage of people who do stick around the game. 

Most mobile video games follow a freemium model. You can play the game for free but if you really want to make quick progress in the game, you’ll have to make in-app purchases.

As you would expect, more than 98% of the players never make any purchases. Around 1.5% of the players do make a couple of purchases here and there but nothing significant. But the remaining 0.5%? 

Those gamers are exactly what the gaming companies are looking for. These people are addicted to the games and make so many purchases that they are essentially fueling this multi-billion mobile gaming industry. These are the Whales I’m talking about. 

These whales will spend astronomical amounts of money on the game, so much money that it makes up for all of the other people who never spent a penny combined. 

If you’re still in thoughts about how much do these whales really spend, then go watch this video about this guy who’s dropped over $70,000 on a mobile game. 

Think about that for a second - $70,000. For a game you can play for free!

Why Spend So Much Money?

So, why are these whales willing to drop so much cash for virtual items? 

It all comes down to how these games are designed.

These games aren’t heavily reliant on a user’s skill level. You can play for hours, but you won’t get any better or faster at progressing through levels. That’s because the game is designed to slow you down - meaning you’re either stuck waiting forever for progression or forced to make a purchase to speed things up.  And when the frustration builds up, guess what? 

A shiny new in-app purchase option pops up, offering to relieve all that tension for just a small fee.

It’s psychological manipulation at its finest. 

These games have mastered the art of creating a “pay-to-win” system where players are nudged into spending money to feel powerful. Sometimes, the in-app offers come with limited-time discounts, which adds a sense of urgency. 

Now, you’re not just buying in-game currency, you’re making a smart financial decision by buying something at a discount …. or at least that’s what the game wants you to think. 

If you don’t spend real money, you won’t get much ahead because you’ll simply have to just wait for so long if you’re just trying to progress on merit.

When someone uses in-game currency, they make rapid progress in the game. However, when their purchases run out, they are back to making slow organic progress. For the people who are addicted to the games, they want to go back to making quick progress again and thus start making more in-app purchases. 

Why Not Just Make the Advertised Game?

So there’s still a burning question. If the ad that is shown is wildly popular, why don't these companies simply create the games that they’re showing their in advertisements.

People genuinely seem to like that game and want to play it. So what’s the catch?

Well, like most things in business, it boils down to one thing - MONEY.

Yes, these companies want whales. But they want the whales to spend money. A LOT OF IT. 

And the games you see in those ads - while fun to watch - aren’t designed to squeeze money out of players. Most of the games these developers build are base-builders or RPGs (role-playing games). These genres are addictive by design and lend themselves perfectly to the pay-to-win model. The more you play, the more you’re tempted to spend money to keep playing. 

At this point, you might be thinking: Isn’t this straight up false advertising then? 

And you’re not wrong for asking. But technically, it’s not. 

You see when I said that these games that are displayed in ads don’t exist, I was almost telling the truth.

The games that appear in the ads do exist …. well, kind of. It’s usually just a mini-game hidden inside the actual game that you can play only for a limited time after which you have to go back to the original game.

So, it's not false advertising. Just disingenuous advertising. AND disingenuous isn’t illegal. 

PS: If you really want to play these games, developers at MonkeyCraft actually created a game very creatively titled:

Yeah! You Want "Those Games," Right? So Here You Go! Now, Let’s See You Clear Them!

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