Phased release / staged rollout checklist during a monetisation change

Google Play staged rollouts send an update to a percentage of users you choose. Percentages do not increase automatically. Halting then resuming affects the same user set. Users are not notified that they are on a staged build. Staged rollouts apply to updates, not first publication.

During a monetisation change (price map, pity, battle pass), a partial rollout creates a split economy: support, CRM and UA see two live states.

Checklist

1. Decide if the economy change is binary-bound. If yes, prefer reaching 100% before announcing the new economy in creatives.
2. Set the initial percentage deliberately. Start small enough to catch crashes; large enough to see purchase errors.
3. Freeze UA claims that depend on the new economy until halt risk is past.
4. Monitor reviews and crashes — staged users can leave public Play reviews.
5. Halt correctly. Halting stops new exposure; users already updated stay on that version.
6. Resume or replace. Resume the same package if healthy; otherwise ship a new release with a fixed bundle.
7. Store listing changes. Google recommends updating the store listing after the release reaches 100% when the update requires listing changes.
8. Country-limited stages. If used, remember countries cannot be removed once a staged rollout has started.

Apple phased release nuances are not body-read in this draft; confirm App Store Connect behaviour separately before dual-store economy flips.

Download the artifact.

Research checked 20 September 2026. Local draft; human editorial review pending.