How much direct-to-consumer revenue are publishers actually making?

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As has become a regular, we’re once again checking out the latest direct-to-consumer numbers. This time looking at the top public mobile games companies for the period of April to June 2026. You can check out our analysis of the previous quarter here.

After some staggering increases over the past year – are publishers hitting a plateau?

Playtika, a longtime poster child for the D2C movement before it was even cool, posted a 1.7% decline sequentially of D2C revenue in Q2 to $286.9m. Worth noting, though, that was up 63.1% Y/Y.

Despite this, Playtika D2C revenue share rose very slightly to 39.3%, up from 39.2% in Q1. In Q2 2025, that figure stood at 25.3%.

Also interesting to note – Playtika said that through its own internal proprietary platforms, payment processing fees and other related expenses for in-app purchases are typically 3% to 4%. D2C platforms can charge around 5% to 15%, so it’s an impressive cut.

Over at Modern Times Group (which includes Innogames, Plarium and Snowprint), D2C accounted for 38% of group revenue. That was down from 39% in the previous quarter. However, within the newly rebranded midcore Playamp division, D2C made up 51% of revenue, up from 49% in Q1 and 31% the year prior – tipping the scales away from the app stores.

Stillfront (which owns Goodgame Studios and Babil Games) said D2C made up 46% of bookings in Q2, up from 39% in the previous year and up from 44% last quarter. The company said the migration of players to its platform was “negative for net revenue but accretive to gross profit and gross margin” as it looked to incentivise players to make the D2C jump.

G5 Entertainment reported that G5 Store revenue increased 14.8% Y/Y and 4.6% Q/Q, accounting for 25.5% of total gross revenue. Direct processing of mobile player payments also scaled, reaching 17% of mobile gross revenue, compared to 11% in Q1.

Social casino sales

In the social casino realm, SciPlay reported that D2C contributed $53 million in revenue, or 29% of earnings for the quarter. Playstudios said D2C sales stood at $14.7m in Q2, up some 120% from $6.7m the year prior. In terms of percentage of virtual currency revenue, D2C accounted for 34.4% of sales for Playstudios, compared to 13.9% in Q2 2025.

DoubleDown Interactive reported revenue D2C revenue rose to $40.5m in Q2, versus $10.7m in Q2 2025 – a near four-times increase. D2C now makes up 52.4% of social casino revenue at the company, up from 15.4% in Q2 2025. It’s worth noting that in July 2025, DoubleDown completed the acquisition of Whow Games, which may have impacted results.

While Take-Two hasn’t revealed exactly how much it makes from D2C, CEO Strauss Zelnick once again highlighted its importance – even as mobile bookings declined 7% Y/Y last quarter, which he put down to last year’s success of Rollic’s Color Block Jam.

“There is no doubt that our direct-to-consumer business has had a material effect positive on our margins in the mobile business,” he said during an earnings call.

It seems some companies are starting to hit a plateau for their D2C earnings, while others are seeing revenues grow substantially.

This report comes just as Apple is facing more scrutiny in the Epic Games court case in the US – where the iPhone giant is proposing charging up to a 15% commission for purchases outside of the App Store. Any final decision will have a significant impact on the state of D2C.

Further insights

If you want more insights, check out the PocketGamer.biz YouTube channel for the latest sessions from Pocket Gamer Connects Barcelona. At the show, I hosted my own talk about trends in the space, with comparisons to UA spend.

I also moderated two panels on the topic: one on the promise vs. reality of D2C with Xsolla’s Inês Ramalho, Breeze’s Peter Gerson and Worldline’s Jonas Matins. The other focused on the D2C playbook with Pixel Federation’s Gustav Pastucha, Stash’s Valerie Alfimova and Aghanim’s Benjamin Lyon.

Last month I spoke with Appcharge CMO Gil Tov-ly on the podcast about the truth behind mobile gaming’s $17bn D2C market.

There are plenty more videos on the topic over on our YouTube channel. If you want more insights in-person, you can head to Pocket Gamer Connects Nordics in Helsinki on October 20th and 21st.