Gamers decry clumsy advertising strategies, even in popular games | Mobile Premier League

Online gaming company Mobile Premier League (MPL) this week published a new study revealing a trend in reviews of some of the most popular mobile games: namely, that many of the gamers who play these titles are unhappy with in-game advertising. Players may have similar negative reactions to things like updates and technical issues, but the distribution of their positive and negative sentiments can reveal different sentiments toward different approaches to the game.

For its study, MPL selected the top 5 most downloaded games from Google Play, as identified in AppRadar’s 2024 report, and then analyzed the 75,000 most relevant user reviews of those games. An MPL spokesperson summed up the general sentiment of these reviews in a statement, “Data reveals that download volume does not necessarily correlate with player satisfaction. Games with similar market penetration can have dramatically different player mood profiles.”

As an example of the varying sentiments of players, the report shows varying player reactions to in-game monetization, with Candy Crush Saga showing a huge spike in negative sentiment, with many reviews specifically calling out intrusive ads. While many of the other games have shown similar dissatisfaction with ads, the increased mention of them in this game’s ads suggests that gamers are unhappy with this particular monetization model.

The report shows that players have similarly strong reactions to other issues in the game, with reviews of Talking Tom being positive about the gameplay, while Ludo King shows a high number of negative mentions. Similarly, Subway Surfers reviews showed a large number of positive reviews that mentioned in-game updates, while Free Fire players showed negative sentiments towards them.

It’s worth considering that players who have negative experiences and impressions of a game may be more likely to leave a review than those who have more tepid or pleasant but unexceptional experiences. But the MPL report is an interesting snapshot of player satisfaction and engagement that goes beyond download numbers.