🚙 30 Rewarded Ads, No Daily Cap: How Hill Climb Racing 2 Monetizes 2.5 Billion Downloads
two & a half gamers · 2026-10-28
💡 Quick Take
1. According to the host, Hill Climb Racing 2 balances monetization carefully with a split of roughly thirty percent in-app purchases and seventy percent ad revenue.
2. The hosts note that the game features nearly thirty different rewarded video placements, with some having no daily cap on views.
3. According to the host, the team ran an ad progression bundle experiment that increased first-day rewarded ad impressions by over ten percent.
4. The speaker mentions that the team completely removed geo-segmented mediation groups in AdMob in favor of a five-tier value-based setup.
5. According to the speaker, preloading and caching ads in the background helps avoid latency issues and prevents lost impressions at the end of a race.
📊 Detailed Explanation
According to the speaker, Hill Climb Racing 2 operates as a physics-based arcade driving game (where players control gas and brake pedals while managing vehicle balance and fuel) with a massive install base of over two and a half billion downloads across the franchise. The progression relies on a deep economy where players upgrade multiple vehicles and customize them with parts obtained through gacha-style loot boxes. While the first game relied almost entirely on ads, the sequel achieves a balanced monetization model where in-app purchases make up about thirty percent and ad revenue makes up seventy percent.
The speaker points out that the game features close to thirty rewarded video placements throughout the experience, and many of these do not have a daily cap. According to the host, the team does not limit rewarded ads for paying users because data shows that purchasers regularly engage with both in-app purchases and ads. To boost engagement among new players, the team tested an ad progression bundle mimicking chain step offers, which successfully lifted first-day rewarded ad impressions by more than ten percent.
According to the speaker, the team utilizes a hybrid monetization setup and has moved away from geo-segmented mediation groups in AdMob. Instead, they rely on a five-tier value-based segmentation using key-value pairs to dynamically group users by impression value rather than geographic location. This approach allows them to identify high-value engaged users versus casual players and feed custom cost-per-action data back into user acquisition channels.
The speaker highlights technical strategies for ad delivery, such as preloading and caching ads in the background while the player finishes a race. This background loading prevents latency and ensures that impressions are not lost while waiting for an ad to load. Additionally, the developers maintain live operations through public events, such as a Halloween pumpkin-smashing event, which temporarily shifts the core pace and drives significant spikes in ad impressions.
🎯 Gaming Expert Opinion
As a Gaming Expert, the monetization strategy of Hill Climb Racing 2 offers a masterclass in blending deep power progression with high-frequency rewarded ads without alienating the player base. The decision to avoid capping rewarded videos for paying users challenges the conventional wisdom that ads cannibalize in-app purchases. By recognizing that whales and casual players often overlap in their engagement habits, Fingersoft successfully monetizes every minute of user attention.
The transition away from rigid geographic segmentation in AdMob toward value-based dynamic tiers reflects a mature approach to ad mediation. Filtering users by behavioral data rather than simple country tiers ensures that high-value players in secondary markets are treated with the right eCPM expectations. This data-driven feedback loop into user acquisition channels helps scale campaigns profitably across global markets.
Developers attempting to replicate this model must heed the underlying design warning: a hyper-casual core loop cannot support aggressive ads unless backed by a deeply engaging progression system. Hill Climb Racing 2 works because the physics-based driving, asynchronous ghosts, and frequent live events keep retention high despite heavy ad exposure. Without robust gameplay variety and a deep parts economy, pushing thirty ad placements would quickly trigger severe player churn.
Kanal: two & a half gamers