Gamesforum London ‘25 Take-aways x 4

DTC, Playables and Apps leading the way.

I just got back from two days at Gamesforum — and if you’ve never been, it’s one of the most operator-focused conferences in gaming. No fluff, no empty hype. Just people who actually do the work sharing what’s working, what’s not, and what’s coming next. Half Moon Studios showed up in full force, and as always, huge thanks to John Speakman and the Gamesforum team for putting together another excellent event.

Here are my four takeaways in case you missed it:

1. Webshops & Gaming Hubs dominated the conversation

If there was one big theme, it was web shops. Xsolla was front-and-centre. They were proudly positioning themselves as the premium (and yes, most expensive) solution, with the broadest reach. Jon Winters (CMO at Snowprint) ran an interesting session on how Tacticus does webshops (they use Stash). And quietly, a lot of chatter was about the gaming hubs Aghanim — signing up a lot of studios despite not even being present at the conference. The bottom line: webshops and gaming hubs aren’t a “nice-to-have” anymore. They’re front and center.

2. Ads Mon is stuck in the Applovin Monopoly

Ad monetisation? Honestly, not much has changed. Applovin’s grip remains tight. Studios grumble about their growing net margin, but with so many relying on their UA ROAS machine, real alternatives are thin on the ground. DTC (direct-to-consumer) offers a way around Apple/Google’s app store tax — but when it comes to Ads mon… Applovin still feels like the only game in town. The monopoly is real, and the room knew it.

3. Playables remain the weapon of choice — but beware

Playables continue to drive UA performance. No surprise there. But here’s my take: probabilistic measurement tools might well be misreading the signals. Playables generate lots of intended user activity, and I wouldn’t be shocked if organics are getting misattributed, inflating performance. Proceed with caution and track like crazy.

Meanwhile, UA financing is going mainstream. Jeff from PVX (part of General Catalyst) had a strong presence, and Martin MacMillan’s roundtable on the topic was one of the highlights of the conference.

4. Apps were exciting, Games… same-same.

The event introduced Appsforum for the first time… as well as the usual Gamesforum. The apps session were higher energy with a sense of excitement. The games content felt like it could be been the same topics three years ago. Leading the way in apps is most certainly 44 Pixels who are applying total best-practice from their experience of games into their app products. Keep an eye out for what Anton, Noam and Adam are building!

And of course everyone has now seen this chart by now:

But let’s connect the dots here. $2bn of that growth is ChatGPT and OpenAI enabled products. Another $1bn is probably TikTok. And gaming revenue is simply moving revenue moving off stores… which Data.ai won’t track for you.

What’s next?

The sense I got leaving Gamesforum is that the industry is at a crossroads. Webshops and hubs are exploding, Applovin’s monopoly still looms large, UA playables remain powerful (but possibly misread), and financing options are opening up in new ways. For those of us building the next generation of games, it’s an exciting time.