Achieving Success in the 2025 Gaming Industry: A Data-Driven Approach

Evgeniy Kurenkov, founder and CEO of Magify, an analytics and live-ops platform for game studios, emphasizes the importance of data-driven decision-making in the gaming industry. A review of the top free-to-play games reveals that they are predominantly developed by well-established studios with substantial marketing budgets and expertise in player engagement. Emerging studios are noticeably absent from this list, and while high user acquisition costs and limited access to business intelligence tools are often cited as obstacles, Kurenkov argues that the real challenge lies in the lack of understanding of game economics and forecasting models. The key to success in the gaming market is the ability to extract insights from data and use them to inform decisions. Even experienced teams often struggle with resource allocation due to inadequate analytics platforms or outdated systems. Modern free-to-play game development relies heavily on metrics and maximizing user lifetime value, making it a high-tech industry driven by numbers. The balance between customer acquisition cost and customer lifetime value is critical, and achieving this balance requires robust data, analytics, and live-ops tools. Every stage of game development should be backed by A/B testing and data analysis to avoid wasting budgets. Without data, decisions become mere guesses, and a data-driven approach has become an industry standard for casual mobile game developers. A successful studio in 2025 is not just a content creator but a systems operator, with success depending on personalization, hypothesis testing, monetization strategy, and thoughtful live-ops planning. Analytics and live ops should be integrated, and end-to-end tracking is necessary to understand which in-game events and offers drive retention and revenue. Building a business intelligence system from scratch requires significant expertise and time, and the trend towards automating live ops with machine learning and AI demands a new tech stack and talent. Internal business intelligence solutions rarely contribute to a company's valuation as expected, and a mature software-as-a-service ecosystem now offers top-tier analytics, attribution, and live-ops tools. The trend is moving towards long-term, data-driven product management, with return on ad spend as the key metric. Data maturity directly impacts margins, and successful studios use data-driven tools to personalize gameplay experiences, monetize through segmentation, and engage with players. By controlling these levers, studios can make their games appealing to a broad audience and drive direct engagement.