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As has change into a daily, we’re as soon as once more trying out the newest direct-to-consumer numbers. This time trying on the high public cellular video games corporations for the interval of April to June 2026. You may check out our analysis of the previous quarter here.
After some staggering will increase over the previous 12 months – are publishers hitting a plateau?
Playtika, a longtime poster little one for the D2C motion earlier than it was even cool, posted a 1.7% decline sequentially of D2C income in Q2 to $286.9m. Price noting, although, that was up 63.1% Y/Y.
Regardless of this, Playtika D2C income share rose very barely to 39.3%, up from 39.2% in Q1. In Q2 2025, that determine stood at 25.3%.
Additionally fascinating to notice – Playtika mentioned that by way of its personal inner proprietary platforms, cost processing charges and different associated bills for in-app purchases are sometimes 3% to 4%. D2C platforms can cost round 5% to fifteen%, so it’s a formidable reduce.
Over at Fashionable Occasions Group (which incorporates Innogames, Plarium and Snowprint), D2C accounted for 38% of group income. That was down from 39% within the earlier quarter. Nonetheless, inside the newly rebranded midcore Playamp division, D2C made up 51% of income, up from 49% in Q1 and 31% the 12 months prior – tipping the scales away from the app shops.
Stillfront (which owns Goodgame Studios and Babil Video games) mentioned D2C made up 46% of bookings in Q2, up from 39% within the earlier 12 months and up from 44% final quarter. The corporate mentioned the migration of gamers to its platform was “unfavourable for web income however accretive to gross revenue and gross margin” because it regarded to incentivise gamers to make the D2C leap.
G5 Leisure reported that G5 Retailer income elevated 14.8% Y/Y and 4.6% Q/Q, accounting for 25.5% of whole gross income. Direct processing of cellular participant funds additionally scaled, reaching 17% of cellular gross income, in comparison with 11% in Q1.
Social on line casino gross sales
Within the social on line casino realm, SciPlay reported that D2C contributed $53 million in income, or 29% of earnings for the quarter. Playstudios mentioned D2C gross sales stood at $14.7m in Q2, up some 120% from $6.7m the 12 months prior. By way of proportion of digital foreign money income, D2C accounted for 34.4% of gross sales for Playstudios, in comparison with 13.9% in Q2 2025.
DoubleDown Interactive reported income D2C income rose to $40.5m in Q2, versus $10.7m in Q2 2025 – a close to four-times enhance. D2C now makes up 52.4% of social on line casino income on the firm, up from 15.4% in Q2 2025. It’s value noting that in July 2025, DoubleDown accomplished the acquisition of Whow Video games, which can have impacted outcomes.
Whereas Take-Two hasn’t revealed precisely how a lot it makes from D2C, CEO Strauss Zelnick as soon as once more highlighted its significance – at the same time as cellular bookings declined 7% Y/Y final quarter, which he put right down to final 12 months’s success of Rollic’s Colour Block Jam.
“There is no such thing as a doubt that our direct-to-consumer enterprise has had a cloth impact constructive on our margins within the cellular enterprise,” he mentioned throughout an earnings name.
It appears some corporations are beginning to hit a plateau for his or her D2C earnings, whereas others are seeing revenues develop considerably.
This report comes simply as Apple is going through extra scrutiny within the Epic Video games courtroom case within the US – the place the iPhone big is proposing charging up to a 15% commission for purchases outside of the App Store. Any closing choice could have a big influence on the state of D2C.
Additional insights
If you’d like extra insights, take a look at the PocketGamer.biz YouTube channel for the newest periods from Pocket Gamer Connects Barcelona. On the present, I hosted my own talk about trends in the space, with comparisons to UA spend.
I additionally moderated two panels on the subject: one on the promise vs. reality of D2C with Xsolla’s Inês Ramalho, Breeze’s Peter Gerson and Worldline’s Jonas Matins. The opposite centered on the D2C playbook with Pixel Federation’s Gustav Pastucha, Stash’s Valerie Alfimova and Aghanim’s Benjamin Lyon.
Final month I spoke with Appcharge CMO Gil Tov-ly on the podcast concerning the truth behind mobile gaming’s $17bn D2C market.
There are a lot extra movies on the subject over on our YouTube channel. If you’d like extra insights in-person, you possibly can head to Pocket Gamer Connects Nordics in Helsinki on October twentieth and twenty first.