Gamesforum Hamburg 2025: Rewarded UA, Smart Segmentation, and a Player‑First Future

Last week, the mobile gaming world gathered high above the Reeperbahn for Gamesforum Hamburg 2025. Set in the panoramic Nord Event venue, this year’s forum felt sharper, more curated, and more relevant than ever. After our experiences at Gamesforum Barcelona and Gamesforum Cyprus, Hamburg felt like both a continuation and an evolution of the conversation.

Across two packed days, the conversations were fast-paced, practical, and refreshingly honest. From the unscripted energy of Gamesforum Unfiltered to Matej Lancaric’s tactical breakdown of what’s working (and what’s not) in mobile UA, every session delivered something real for UA leads, monetization managers, and growth-focused founders.

Our Marketing Manager Justine Lortal was on the ground soaking it all in. The signal was clear: the next chapter of mobile growth is being written by teams who know how to blend performance with personalization. Smart segmentation, AI-fueled optimization, and respectful monetization are the new baseline.

With genre-specific tracks tailored for casual, mid-core, and hybrid-casual studios, names like Activision Blizzard, Rovio, Ubisoft, Stillfront, and Sunday in attendance, Hamburg positioned itself as the most dialed-in Gamesforum yet. 

Rewarded UA is More Than a Trend

Rewarded advertising is most definitely rewriting the UA rules.

Paid UA, while still a vital channel, no longer guarantees results on its own. For smaller studios, especially those with just one or two titles, the era of blanket campaigns sprayed across every platform is over. It’s too expensive, too noisy, and too often misses the mark. Relevance has officially replaced reach. 

Sessions like “Beyond Downloads: Your UA Blueprint to Navigating New Channels and Acquiring the Right Users” made the point bluntly: winning today means finding the right players, not all the players. And finding them means drilling deep into genre nuances, behavioral patterns, and channel-specific strengths.

That underlying theme of resourcefulness came up time and again. Especially when the conversation turned to AI. From creative automation to bid strategy, lean UA teams are now using AI to run circles around larger ones. Panelists from DECA Games, Kolibri, exmox, and others shared insights on how nimble teams are now handling tasks that used to require much larger groups, including testing, scaling, and optimizing campaigns. 

Then came segmentation. Quietly, almost universally, studios are moving beyond demographics and installs. The most effective teams are going behavioral (tracking how players interact, where they drop off, and what keeps them coming back) and building monetization paths around those insights. Deep segmentation can drive up to 25% more monetization, especially when tied to how players unlock features and return to play.

This point, among others, came through clearly in the session led by InnoGames’ Gabriele Chaloudi alongside five fellow experts, “Defining a User Journey: Creative, ASO & Featuring in Hybrid Titles.” Their talk emphasized the power of aligning creative, ASO, and product strategy to boost retention and drive meaningful LTV. 

Of course, none of this works if your ads are mistimed. A refreshing development this year was the decline of the old “early-session ad dump.” Studios are now refining ad pacing, running thoughtful A/B tests, and respecting player flow. In particular, the "Rewarded UA Strategies That Work: Driving Engagement, Retention & ROAS in Gaming" roundtable, hosted by Yoni Nijboer from exmox at Gamesforum Hamburg, highlighted that success isn’t about shoving in more ads, it’s about inserting them when they matter most.

What really matters is this: rewarded ads are no longer just a monetization tactic. They’re a retention tool. Especially for non-payers. Be it unlocking that next level, skipping a cooldown, or grabbing a bonus skin, these units now drive progress in a way that feels natural, not forced.

This became a foundational pillar of user acquisition strategy in 2025 and beyond. It’s anchored in AI, powered by segmentation, and fine-tuned through smart, respectful delivery.

If you’re looking to better understand how rewarded ads fit into modern UA strategy, our comprehensive guide breaks it all down.

Sustainable UA Loops

One more big shift kept bubbling up is that growth in 2025 isn’t about grabbing as many installs as fast as you can. It’s about building something that actually lasts.

Across the board, the mood was less “scale at all costs” and more “grow with intention.” Studios are moving from brute-force expansion in favor of sustainable, loop-driven UA strategies - ones that blend paid acquisition with smart segmentation, lifecycle marketing, and hybrid monetization built for longevity. We’ve explored this evolution in more depth in our 2025 playbook for mobile user acquisition.

Short-term UA spikes are out, what matters now are systems that keep players coming back and spending for the long haul.

That message echoed throughout Gamesforum Unfiltered, where Christoph Sachsenhausen (Sunday), Jess Banunaek (adjoe), and Anna Mamontova (Com2uS) joined others in unpacking what growth really looks like in 2025. The focus wasn’t on aggressive land grabs, but more on sustainable, player-centric strategies built around long-term value.

And that shift is about mindset as well. Sara Ecem Kir (BoomBit | App Lifters) captured it perfectly in her post-event reflections: rewarded mechanics are no longer confined to bonus currency or skip timers. They’re becoming part of the core progression system. 

That “player-first” mentality ran like a current through the entire event. Studios are realizing that the more respect you show your players, the more they reward you back. 

And it wasn’t an accident that this year’s agenda was deliberately built around this shift. The advisory board curated sessions that pushed long-term thinking: durable monetization loops, live ops strategy, and the next wave of AI-powered UA forecasting. 

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Hamburg was a blueprint of where the industry’s going. 

What’s Next?

The brainstorms haven’t stopped since we got back, and honestly, it feels like we’re just getting started.

Between tightly run panels, focused roundtables, and a crowd that actually wanted to talk shop, Gamesforum struck that rare balance between structure and spontaneity. Add in an amazing view, delicious lunches, and rooftop drinks that kept the momentum going long after the last session wrapped, and you had an environment that made it easy to think big - and get specific.

Looking back, Hamburg wasn’t just another stop, it felt like the final chapter in a larger narrative we’ve been following this year. Starting with Gamesforum Barcelona, the focus there was on identifying untapped market segments and exploring fresh, innovative UA strategies. With rising UA costs, the spotlight turned to performance marketing, affiliate networks, and polished creatives as the most viable strategy stack for small to mid-sized studios navigating tighter budgets.

Then came Gamesforum Cyprus, where the conversation shifted toward hybrid-casuals and monetization intelligence. Industry leaders talked about the evolution of rewarded ad formats, the growing importance of CPA-based partnerships, and a smarter, more seamless integration of monetization into core gameplay loops. It was clear the focus was beginning to shift from short-term acquisition to long-term engagement.

By the time we arrived in Hamburg, the pieces were coming together. What we’re taking home is this: Player-first UA isn’t optional anymore, it’s the only way forward.

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