B2C · mobile game studio

How Plarium grows

1 tactic and 5 figures from 2 interviews.

About Plarium

What it is: Maker of RAID: Shadow Legends, a hero-collection RPG that did about $1B a year at its peak.
Business model: Free-to-play with in-app purchases

As described in the interviews, not independently verified.

Plarium's tactic

Plarium · B2C · mobile game studio

Sell mugs, t-shirts and hoodies to a game's biggest spenders

Built a physical merch line for RAID: Shadow Legends. Analyzed player segments and preferences; framed merch not as a new revenue stream but as a way to raise LTV (and so support more marketing spend). Price ladder: mug ~$6, t-shirt ~$20, premium hoodie ~$50, aimed at whales (~2% of users spending thousands).

Unknownupsell-expansion

Sub Club by RevenueCat · 2025-10-15

Plarium by the numbers

Metric	Value	Context	Said in
revenue	USD 1,200M/year approximate	RAID: Shadow Legends revenue at its peak	App Masters 2026-04-11 3:02
cost	USD 100M approximate	M&A budget for acquiring mobile game studios ('upwards of 100 million')	App Masters 2026-04-11 3:24
revenue	USD 1,000M/year approximate	RAID: Shadow Legends at its peak	Sub Club by RevenueCat 2025-10-15
share	2% approximate	Whales (spending thousands of dollars) as share of RAID's user base	Sub Club by RevenueCat 2025-10-15
price	USD 6–50/one-time illustrative	Physical merch ladder: mug $6, t-shirt $20, premium hoodie $50	Sub Club by RevenueCat 2025-10-15

Topics

Upsells and expansion revenue1

Interviews

How to Build an App Studio by Buying Apps [The Wall Street Playbook] · App Masters · 2026-04-11
Buying vs. Building: Scaling Beyond a Single App — Josh Peleg, BlueThrone · Sub Club by RevenueCat · 2025-10-15