DaGame · B2C · DaBaby meme racing game
Show an ad every second death and a 30-second ad to revive
Brought in all $100K+ of a month's revenue, but only ~10 cents per user
Mixedad-monetization
What they did
Google AdMob only, no in-app purchases: an ad pops up every second time you die, and players who want to revive and keep going watch a 30-second ad. Ads earn even at a few hundred to a few thousand daily players. Games were gimmicky with very low retention.
What happened
Drove all revenue (over $100K in the best month), but only about $0.10 per user versus $0.80-$1 for well-monetized games; Rafael says better monetization would have made much more.
In their words
The Superwall Podcast · Rafael Kramer - this 14 yr old makes $100k/mo PROFIT building apps with ai (here's how)“you know, every second time you died, you would have an ad pop up. If you want to revive uh to continue playing, you would watch a 30-second ads and uh that drove in all the revenue, like didn't even have in-app purchases”
“funny enough, if I would have monetized it better, I could have made much more money”
Get tactics like this every Monday
New tactics from the week's founder interviews, each linked to where it was said.
More from this episode
- DaGame: Turn a trending meme into a simple game overnight and release itAbout 2M downloads in a month; #2 on the App Store
- DaGame: Post 'Day 4 of making a DaBaby game' videos and add what commenters suggestTop video 4M views; first videos drove 300-400K downloads
- Skibidi Toilet mobile game: Build a game set in a creator's story world and split revenue 50/50One Short got 50M+ views; 2-3M downloads in about two weeks
- Message influencers on Instagram from a profile they recognize, not by cold emailBeat 50-100 cold emails a day; now 2 of 3 DMs answered overnight
- Make a game with every influencer who agrees, whatever their audienceMost flopped, including one with 5M followers; a few hits
- Hold weekly calls with partner influencers and build in their ideasFounder calls it transformational; no numbers
- Debloat AI: Pay a handful of people per view to run faceless slideshow accountsProfitable, nearly free installs; no numbers
- Debloat AI: Run TikTok ads for a new app idea, scaling the videos that workA few cents per install for days, then ~30% profit on ad spend for weeks
- Debloat AI: Build the app for what TikTok commenters keep asking 'how?' about40,000 downloads with little effort; app sold
- Debloat AI: Scan the user's face and show a harsh bloat rating just before the paywallFounder says it worked well; no numbers
- Amanda AI: Run TikTok ads for an AI relationship coach appAds were restricted and suppressed; app later sold
- DM the team behind a viral AI influencer and launch an app with them
- Debloat AI: Find video editors in Discord servers and ask for a free sample firstWorked better than Upwork; script writers never worked out