Original Games lifts IAP revenue per user 25.6% and grows paying players _{with Almedia Link}

Overview

Original Games, the studio behind Merge Inn, added Link to its games and tested a question that matters to any studio: does rewarding players through Freecash make them more engaged with your game?

Original Games started with Link in a few games as a small rollout, then gradually expanded it to all of its games.

Original Games integrated Link through the Almedia SDK and used the same SDK to run a 90/10 holdout test in four of those games. Since mid-September 2026, 90% of new players have been offered Link, while 10% never saw it.

By Day 14, players offered Link outperformed the holdout on every in-game revenue metric:

Higher IAP revenue per user

25.6%

Higher revenue per user (ARPU)

17.5%

More players making a purchase

9.1%

All of these figures exclude Link CPA payments. The CPA comes on top as an additional revenue stream.

Challenge

Original Games is an AI-driven mobile developer, which specializes in Merge-2 games, with a 50/50 split between IAA and IAP.

Because engaged players drive both in-app purchases and ad revenue, the team wanted to measure Link's effect on engagement and spending against a holdout, not only track CPA income.

Integrating Link in Original Games titles

Link sits in an in-game progression view where linked players track the Freecash rewards they earn as they play. Almedia funds the rewards and pays Original Games a CPA for every verified connection, including from players who already use Freecash. For the full mechanics, see Link for games.

Results

Original Games integrated Link with the Almedia SDK. The holdout ran in 4 titles and was measured through the same SDK: new players were split 90/10 into a Link group and a holdout group that never saw Link. Results only include cohorts that reached Day 14, so every player has a full 14 days of data.

By Day 14, players offered Link spent more on in-app purchases, and more of them paid. Ad revenue and Day 14 retention also came in higher in the Link group.

Revenue figures cover in-game IAP and IAA revenue only and exclude Link CPA payments. On top of this, 15.2% of players offered Link connected to Freecash, and Original Games earned a CPA payment for each of those connections.

What this means for studios

Original Games' holdout showed that players offered Link engaged more with its games, and for longer. By Day 14, more of them were still playing, they spent more on in-app purchases and generated more ad revenue, and the Link CPA came on top as a separate revenue stream.

The Almedia SDK lets Original Games integrate Link and measure its impact with a holdout in one setup, across four of its games.

Explore Almedia Link

For publishers considering Link, the best next step is a holdout test in your own game. With the Almedia SDK, you can integrate Link and measure its impact on revenue per user and retention against a holdout, before deciding how widely to roll it out.

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