Subway Surfers City just hit 10 million downloads in 3 weeks — but is it actually a good business? We tear apart Sybo's long-awaited follow-up to one of the most downloaded games in history. We break down the gameplay, the surprisingly advanced (and stingy) economy, Felix's obsession with the ad placements, and why the UA setup is basically a ghost town despite having MiniClip's full weight behind it. After 5+ years of development in Denmark and a soft launch back in July 2024, Subway Surfers City finally went global — but the numbers are already declining. Is this a profitable sequel or a $20K/day money pit that'll never recoup its dev costs? Topics covered: Game breakdown: gacha system, hoverboards, shard economy, modes & daily trials Ad monetization deep dive: 8 rewarded ads/day cap, ad boxes, interstitials done right Why Felix wants to sell you a subscription to watch MORE ads Revenue reality: ~$100K/day total, DAU at 730K and shrinking UA analysis: 51 creatives, mostly Facebook, no AdROAS, no AppLovin — why? The organic trap: can Subway Surfers City ever escape the shadow of the original? Cross-promo mystery: 16M monthly downloads next door and zero funnel into City Was this game worth building at all? Get our MERCH NOW: 25gamers.com/shop -------------------------------------- PVX Partners offers non-dilutive funding for game developers. Go to: https://pvxpartners.com/ They can help you access the most effective form of growth capital once you have the metrics to back it. - Scale fast - Keep your shares - Drawdown only as needed - Have PvX take downside risk alongside you + Work with a team entirely made up of ex-gaming operators and investors --------------------------------------- For an ever-growing number of game developers, this means that now is the perfect time to invest in monetizing direct-to-consumer at scale. Our sponsor FastSpring: Has delivered D2C at scale for over 20 years They power top mobile publishers around the world Launch a new webstore, replace an existing D2C vendor, or add a redundant D2C vendor at fastspring.gg. --------------------------------------- This is no BS gaming podcast 2.5 gamers session. Sharing actionable insights, dropping knowledge from our day-to-day User Acquisition, Game Design, and Ad monetization jobs. We are definitely not discussing the latest industry news, but having so much fun! Let’s not forget this is a 4 a.m. conference discussion vibe, so let's not take it too seriously. Panelists: Jakub Remiar, Felix Braberg, Matej Lancaric Join our slack channel here: https://join.slack.com/t/two-and-half-gamers/shared_invite/zt-3bckldvr8-8PXvzciMWdheOzED9hq0SA Chapters 00:00 intro 02:38 Game overview – What is Subway Surfers City? 04:13 Background – Sybo, MiniClip, and the original game 05:49 Monetization model – IAPs vs. the original's ad-only approach 06:26 Ad placements deep dive – Rewarded ads, revives, doubler 07:32 Economy breakdown – Shard gacha, currencies, and the 8-ad daily cap 21:13 Felix's wild idea – Pay to watch MORE ads 22:07 Interstitial placement & eCPM balance 23:37 Numbers – Downloads, DAU, revenue 26:14 Revenue reality – $20K/day IAP, ~$100K/day total 31:03 UA breakdown – 51 creatives, Facebook only, no AdROAS 33:05 Why is the UA so weak? MiniClip, earn-outs, LTV issues 36:06 Cross-promo – Why isn't Subway Surfers 1 pushing City? 39:10 Final verdict – Was this game worth making? Matej Lancaric User Acquisition & Creatives Consultant https://lancaric.me Felix Braberg Ad monetization consultant https://www.felixbraberg.com Jakub Remiar Game design consultant https://www.linkedin.com/in/jakubremiar Please share the podcast with your industry friends, dogs & cats. Especially cats! They love it! Hit the Subscribe button on YouTube, Spotify, and Apple! Please share feedback and comments - matej@lancaric.me
