A country’s UA-spend growth is not its return on spend

AppsFlyer’s release puts 2025 gaming UA spend at $25 billion and reports growth of 29% in Turkey and 19% in India. Those are spending observations, not country profitability rankings.Release.

Separate destination from opportunity

A market can attract more spend for several reasons: more active advertisers, larger budgets from existing titles, a different mix of games or changing acquisition prices. The aggregate does not isolate which mechanism matters to a specific studio.

Our recommendation is to begin a market-entry discussion with the game’s own product, language, payment and measurement constraints. Then compare the proposed test against a clear alternative use of the same budget. An external growth percentage can justify a research question; it cannot supply the answer to that allocation decision.

Preserve the geography of the evidence

The report introduction describes the broader gaming analysis. It does not turn a global expenditure estimate into a complete census of every transaction in every market. The card therefore preserves the vendor and period, and leaves the country estimator unspecified where the public text does.

If the team commissions a pilot, define success using its own cohort economics and a pre-agreed observation window. Record whether the comparison is about volume, cost, payback or strategic learning. This prevents a fast-growing spend market from being labelled attractive merely because competitors are buying more there.

Inspect the evidence

Download the source-population and comparability card. The extraction separates documented facts from our analysis and unknowns.

Further reading in the existing archive: The state of mobile game acquisition in 2026; ROAS targets versus payback windows. These links provide background; this check does not independently verify their full contents.

Frequently asked questions

How should UA teams read a country’s UA-spend growth when it is not that country’s return on spend?

Geographic spend totals describe where money went, not where a particular game should go next. AppsFlyer’s release puts 2025 gaming UA spend at $25 billion and reports growth of 29% in Turkey and 19% in India — those are spending observations, not country profitability rankings. A market can attract more spend because more advertisers are active, existing titles enlarge budgets, the mix of games changes, or acquisition prices move; the aggregate does not isolate which mechanism matters to a specific studio. Begin a market-entry discussion with the game’s own product, language, payment and measurement constraints, then compare the proposed test against a clear alternative use of the same budget. An external growth percentage can justify a research question; it cannot supply the answer to that allocation decision. Preserve the vendor and period, and leave the country estimator unspecified where the public text does. If the team commissions a pilot, define success using its own cohort economics and a pre-agreed observation window, and record whether the comparison is about volume, cost, payback or strategic learning — so a fast-growing spend market is not labelled attractive merely because competitors are buying more there.