Growth is unlocked

MAU Vegas - just two months ago I was getting ready to descend in sin city. The mood heading in was palpable.

And now we look back on the themes discussed during one of the best weeks I've experienced.

Next week the team will head into strategy sessions. We have a new home at the Bellagio and with that comes opportunity to change things up. I invite everyone to DM me with any feedback or ideas.

Instead of a deep dive from me this month, please take a look at our new monthly newsletter. Don't worry, I'll still be here each month oversharing. But let's give the newsletter some love since it's full of insights and updates on the state of mobile.

Link to read it in your browser here, or below. MAU VEGAS 2027

We’re Back.

TBH, MAU Vegas 2026 was a force. We took a well-earned breath after the show — because when you bring together nearly 3,000 mobile app practitioners from 53 countries for three days of relentless connection and conversation, you need a minute. The community showed up, the energy was real, and the business that got done on that expo floor was the kind that doesn’t happen on Zoom. Themes that defined the week:

• AI as infrastructure. App innovators across every track addressed how AI is reshaping mobile app growth — not as a future roadmap item, but as active production infrastructure. Creative programs, campaign management, and measurement stacks are all being rebuilt around it.
• Retention over pure acquisition. Sessions addressing challenges and breakthroughs in growth consistently returned to the same theme: optimizing well past the install. With CAC inflation squeezing margins, the conversation has shifted from getting more users to making every user count.
• Incrementality took center stage. Incrementality testing, incremental lift, incremental inventory — the concept ran through sessions and booth conversations alike across all three days. It was the measurement framework the community is actively building around.
• CTV crossed into the mainstream. Connected TV was among the most-searched product categories in the MAU app. The expo floor reflected it. The channel has moved from experimental budget line to a standard part of mobile growth strategy.
• Founders and deal-making front and center. With 1 in 6 attendees being a founder and 48% influencing or controlling purchasing decisions, MAU has become a high-intent deal-making environment. App roll-ups and UA financing were live, active conversations on the floor.
• A truly global community. 29% of attendees traveled internationally, representing 53 countries and 45 U.S. states. Growth Marketing, User Acquisition, and Business Strategy were the most represented roles — practitioners doing the work were in the room.

→ Read the full recap

We’ve got a new home. MAU Vegas 2027 is moving to the iconic Bellagio on the Las Vegas Strip — and honestly, it feels right. Same community, bigger energy, and a more relentless focus on what actually moves the needle in mobile growth.

AppsFlyer returns as Presenting Sponsor for 2027 and 2028 — a signal of the confidence the industry has in what MAU has built and where it’s going. → See the official press release Early registration details are coming. → Be the first to know

Curated from our partners and across the mobile growth ecosystem. Ads overtake subscriptions as streaming’s biggest revenue driver Advertising has surpassed subscriptions as the primary revenue source for video streaming apps — a significant shift in how the category is monetized. Implications for rewarded, interstitial, and in-stream formats are already showing up in budget conversations. → Learn More

The $5M/month formula behind Simply Sing, Guitar & Draw Jacob Rushfinn breaks down the monetization engine behind the Simply app suite — three apps generating a combined $5M+ per month. The common thread: obsessive paywall design, tight trial logic, and a progression model borrowed from gaming. → Learn More

3 easy paywall tests to run right now Three quick, actionable experiments for subscription teams. No major engineering lift required — Rushfinn’s specialty is tactics you can ship this week. → Learn More

AI is bigger than the companies building it Sharon Goldman argues that as AI moves into infrastructure, security, work, and policy, the story is becoming far more complicated than any one company’s roadmap. A useful frame for anyone thinking about where the AI-in-mobile conversation goes next. → Learn More

Monthly mobile game launches doubled year-over-year New data shows monthly mobile game launches have doubled YoY, reflecting an increasingly crowded market. For growth teams, this raises the stakes on UA efficiency, creative differentiation, and retention engineering — themes that ran through MAU Vegas all week. → Learn More

Retention benchmarks for mobile games in 2026 Gamigion’s Matthew Emery breaks down what D1, D7, and D30 retention looks like across mobile game genres in 2026. Useful benchmarking for any team calibrating their own retention targets heading into H2. → Learn More

Global time spent on generative AI apps projected to more than double year-over-year Sensor Tower’s State of AI 2026 report puts hard numbers on what the industry has been feeling: generative AI app usage is growing at a pace that will reshape how developers think about surface area, engagement loops, and platform strategy. → Learn More

Adjust: 112 billion app downloads in 2025 — and the behavior shifts behind the number The Adjust Mobile App Trends 2026 report breaks down what’s behind the headline download figure: session length changes, category-level retention patterns, and the user behavior divergences that will define growth strategy through the rest of 2026. → Learn More

Thoughts - DM me and save the date now for next year!