How Merge Mansion Reclaimed Market Leadership with a 50% Revenue Surge

LiveOps Transformation: Strategic Event Innovation Turned a Mobile Game's Decline into Record-Breaking Growth

In early 2024, the mobile game Merge Mansion faced a critical challenge – declining revenue and losing category leadership after 3.5 years at the top. Through strategic LiveOps transformation, developer Metacore engineered a remarkable turnaround, achieving record-breaking revenue and demonstrating the power of event-driven engagement strategies.

📊 Key Turnaround Strategies:

• Quadrupled monthly event frequency (8 → 20+)

• Diversified event types across core, meta, support, and feature categories

• Introduced innovative monetization touchpoints with a Weekly Pass system

• Strategically closed competitive gaps in event cadence and player motivation

🚀 +50% Game Recovery Masterclass: Merge Mansion’s Strategic LiveOps Revitalization

Authors: Shilpa Gaur and Alexandra Doroshenko

Merge Mansion, developed by the Finland-based studio Metacore, pioneered the Merge-2 with Complex Meta genre when it launched in 2020. For 3.5 years, it maintained its position as the genre’s top-grossing title, remaining the only Merge-2 game to consistently generate solid IAP revenue.

However, in 2023, as Merge Mansion’s revenue plateaued for almost a year, three emerging competitors—Gossip Harbor, Travel Town, and Seaside Escape—saw rapid revenue growth. By introducing fresh ideas in both retention and monetization, they challenged Merge Mansion’s dominance, pushing it down to fourth place, where it remains as of Q1 2025.

Merge-2 with Complex Meta: Genre Revenue Dashboard from AppMagic

While the situation may seem grim for Merge Mansion, a closer look at its revenue chart tells a more nuanced story. After hitting its highest-ever monthly revenue of $11.4M in December 2023, the game experienced a sharp decline in early 2024, bottoming out at approximately $9M in February of the same year.

Faced with this downturn, Metacore took action. The studio intensified its efforts, making strategic adjustments to the game’s LiveOps and monetization. These changes paid off—by December 2024, Merge Mansion not only recovered but hit a new all-time revenue record of $12M, surpassing its previous peak by nearly $600K.

Merge Mansion Revenue Dashboard

While this represents just a 5% YoY growth, it’s also a remarkable 50% revenue increase from the game’s lowest point in February 2024. But how was that achievement possible? Firstly, revenue growth was largely driven by the US market. Secondly, downloads didn’t see a significant boost. This suggests that developers focused on maximizing revenue from their highest-paying audience through strategic LiveOps and monetization improvements throughout 2024.

In this article, we’ll analyze Merge Mansion’s LiveOps schedule to answer the following questions:

• What are the LiveOps standards and trends in Merge-2 with Meta?

• How does the increase in event frequency and diversity correlate with Merge Mansion’s revenue growth?

• What new events did Merge Mansion introduce, and what makes them stand out?

• What lessons can we take from Merge Mansion’s effort to reclaim its former position?

To answer these questions, we teamed up with Alexandra Doroshenko from AppMagic. Her findings and insights provided valuable context around LiveOps in Merge Mansion and the Merge-2 genre.

Merge Mansion Competitors: Doubling Down on LiveOps

First, let’s take a closer look at the three titles that pushed Merge Mansion down to fourth place. Travel Town by Moon Active now leads the genre, while Gossip Harbor and Seaside Escape, both developed by Microfun, follow in second and third place, respectively.

Merge-2 with Leaders Revenue Dashboard

Using AppMagic’s LiveOps & Updates Calendar, we analyzed the event schedules of all four games in question. What we found is that Merge Mansion lags behind its competitors in several key areas:

• Total number of events: While competitors like Gossip Harbor and Travel Town implemented 500+ events annually, Merge Mansion hosted fewer than 200 events.

• Limited Unique Event Types: Most events in the schedule were reskinned versions of the previous ones, with only a few unique event types introduced—especially when compared to competitors.

• Limited Experimentation: Merge Mansion offered significantly fewer one-time experimental events compared to competitors. This restricted opportunities to test new engagement mechanics and monetization strategies that could drive innovation.

• Gameplay Fatigue: The repetitive nature of Merge Mansion’s events and the lack of fresh content may have contributed to faster player churn, ultimately impacting both retention and monetization potential.

• Missed Motivations: Merge Mansion overlooked different player motivations like PvP, leaderboards, and collectible album events. This limited the game’s ability to attract diverse player types and diversify the experience.

Source: LiveOps & Updates Calendar by AppMagic

While the gap in the number of events is significant, it gradually narrowed over time. Throughout 2024, Merge Mansion introduced new events, consistently experimenting with formats and schedules to find the ideal combination for retaining and monetizing its audience.

Four Times More Events: Evolution of Liveops in Merge Mansion

The frequency of LiveOps events in Merge Mansion shows a clear upward trend throughout 2024, starting with just 8 in January and steadily increasing to over 20 by January 2025. Notably, the dip in metrics observed in February 2024 aligns with the game’s lowest number of monthly events, suggesting a possible correlation between event frequency and performance. While this could be coincidental, it’s a likely factor worth considering.

Irregular events (blue in the graph below) form the backbone of Merge Mansion’s evolving LiveOps strategy, steadily increasing from 6 to 17 events per month. This shift likely aimed to fill players’ daily sessions with more varied activities and goals, helping to mitigate the game’s earlier issues with repetitive gameplay. By encouraging more consistent engagement, these events may have also driven higher resource depletion, ultimately enhancing the monetization potential.

Interestingly, part of this increase can be attributed to multiple reskinned versions of the Lucky Catch event introduced throughout 2024. This suggests that the rise in irregular event numbers wasn’t solely about adding fresh content but also about optimizing familiar mechanics to sustain player engagement and spending.

Source: LiveOps & Updates Calendar by AppMagic

While the chart focuses on the chronological classification, to understand how Merge Mansion is revamping its LiveOps, we will also apply other optics and review the 4 liveops event types based on their role in the player experience.

Core Loop Events reinforce primary gameplay mechanics through special merge boards and timed challenges. They reward players for engaging with the core gameplay they already enjoy, driving engagement metrics and session length.

Meta Events expand supplementary systems via new renovation branches and story extensions. These create variety and deeper narrative immersion, extending gameplay beyond the core mechanics.

Support Events complement existing systems through collection albums and similar features. They provide additional rewards and engagement levers that help maintain player interest in between major updates.

Feature-as-Events test and introduce new features for a limited time. These events offer novel experiences and temporary perks while allowing developers to gather valuable feedback before potential permanent implementation.

The following table shows these four types of events at a glance:

Merge Mansion’s New LiveOps Approach: Embracing All the Event Types

The increase in the number and density of Merge Mansion’s events is clearly visible in the chart below. Rather than diving into every event, we’ll highlight those that either drove noticeable revenue spikes or became a solid part of the event rotation—selected to ensure all four LiveOps types are covered: Core Loop, Meta, Support, and Feature.

Merge Mansion LiveOps & Updates Calendar

1. Teatime Delight | Core Loop Event

Merge Mansion introduced a new event: Teatime Delight. This core loop event directly integrates with the main gameplay loop to enhance player engagement.

Players earn event points by performing standard activities, such as producing items, breaking bubbles, completing tasks, and making purchases from Flash Sales. All actions contribute to filling the event progress bar with a counter from 0 to 5. This counter tracks player advancement, with valuable rewards unlocked at specific milestones throughout the event's duration.

This event serves as an additional engagement lever that motivates players to participate in core gameplay activities. This helps increase session length by adding extra progression and rewards for core gameplay activities.

It also encourages hard currency spending to overcome progression bottlenecks, potentially increasing paying conversion.

2. Merge it Up! | Core Loop Event

Merge it Up! is a core loop event introduced by Merge Mansion that brings innovation to the Merge-2 category. This Weekly Pass event operates independently from the main Season Pass system.

The event follows a classic pass structure with tiered progression and dual reward tracks (free and paid). Players earn points by merging any items on the main board or in other active events, with each merge contributing to unlocking the next tier of rewards.

What makes this event particularly innovative is its accessibility. Priced at $4.99 (half the cost of the Season Pass) and with a shorter duration (one-fourth of the Season Pass timeframe), it makes premium content more affordable—while encouraging higher engagement within the limited timeframe.

However, Merge it Up! has only appeared twice so far, suggesting it may still be an experimental feature. One possible reason for its limited presence is concerns about cannibalizing revenue from other monetization features. Tracking its future appearances will be key to determining whether or not this format proves successful: if it returns on a regular basis, it is likely here to stay.

3. Lucky Catch | Meta Event

Lucky Catch is a meta event in Merge Mansion, offering players a familiar yet fresh Merge-2 experience through a variant of the core loop.

The event features a separate board with new fishing-themed merge chains without affecting primary progress. A standalone narrative follows Maddie and Grandma on a fishing trip, providing story engagement outside the main plot while enriching character development.

Players earn event points to fill the progress bar, unlocking valuable rewards at specific milestones throughout the event duration. The distinctive fishing mechanic requires players to create fishing rods through merging, with the Fish Log recording catches and awarding hard currency for fish above a certain weight.

The event has its own event energy and currency, which can be earned by playing on the main board. This encourages players to engage in the core gameplay, creating a strategic bridge between event participation and core gameplay engagement.

This is one of the most successful events, evident not only from its associated revenue spikes but also from the number of reskinned versions, including Lucky Snap (a birdwatching theme) and Lost Gemstones (a precious stones theme).

4. The Great Bake Off | Meta Event

The Great Bake Off is another meta event that combines competitive mechanics with narrative elements. It enhances the standard Merge-2 gameplay with leaderboard competition, driving player engagement through social comparison.

The separate board features dedicated generators and limited energy (50), creating a contained experience while maintaining connections to the core gameplay. Players can earn additional event energy by merging special items on both boards, encouraging engagement across the entire game.

The brilliance of the event's monetization lies in its nested generator system: players must create two sequential generators that produce limited special items before disappearing. This scarcity creates natural spending pressure as competitive players seek leaderboard advantages.

By balancing familiar merge mechanics with competition and cross-board energy earning, The Great Bake Off exemplifies how effective meta events can diversify gameplay while strengthening core engagement.

5. Hidden in Plain Sight | Support Album Event

Album events play a significant role in Merge Mansion’s LiveOps strategy, targeting long-term engagement. These events are common among the top-grossing Merge-2 and casual games, proving their effectiveness in sustaining player interest. Notably, Merge Mansion was the last game in the Top 4 Merge-2 titles to adopt Album events, further highlighting their value in the genre.

Hidden in Plain Sight is the first album event where players receive rewards for completing individual collections as well as the entire album. Players earn cards of varying rarity through normal gameplay. The randomized gacha nature of obtaining collectibles from packs drives engagement through the motivation of excitement.

Additionally, the system effectively slows down content consumption through duplicates. Rare cards are intentionally difficult to obtain, adding a layer of long-term progression. This creates an additional monetization touchpoint by encouraging players to purchase rare cards directly. It also enhances goal-setting in the LiveOps overall, as rare card packs are often included as valuable rewards in other events.

While Hidden in Plain Sight sometimes runs during holiday seasons with themed elements, fully holiday-stylized versions could likely enhance engagement even further.

6. Supercharge | Feature-as-Event

Supercharge event in Merge Mansion stands out for its clever use of familiar mechanics in a limited-time format. While Supercharge is typically a permanent feature in other Merge-2 games, Metacore transformed it into an event, factoring in urgency and engagement.

In this event, players can generate higher-level items by using double the amount of energy. This mechanic resembles what’s seen in social casino games like Monopoly GO! or Coin Master, where players can multiply their actions (spins or rolls) 2, 5, or 10 times while consuming proportionally more resources.

Merge Mansion’s limited-time approach serves two key goals: testing player response before a potential permanent implementation and creating urgency to boost engagement. This calculated strategy accelerates progression while increasing energy depletion, which enhances monetization opportunities. For non-payers and low-spenders, it may have also encouraged more frequent logins.

Introducing Supercharge as a temporary event may have been a strategic move to avoid potential risks tied to permanent implementation—such as faster content consumption and shorter play sessions, which could hurt long-term retention. This approach allowed Metacore to gain the feature’s benefits without disrupting gameplay balance while adding variety to the overall experience.

7. Green Acres Quest | Meta Event

Green Acres Quest is a meta event in Merge Mansion that introduces a unique character-focused progression system on a separate board. Players use event generators to create special items, which are placed with characters occupying cells on the board, filling their individual progress bars.

Once a character’s bar fills, they transform into temporary generators that produce mergeable event points, board items, and additional generators. This mechanic mirrors the core gameplay found in Merge-2 with Orders games, adding a familiar yet engaging layer to the experience.

The event’s reward structure revolves around a unique cosmetic item with multiple upgrade levels. Players who reach specific milestones earn permanent ownership of these cosmetics, which provides strong motivation to stay engaged.

This clever design achieves multiple goals: it adds gameplay variety to improve retention, increases energy depletion by driving investment in the separate board, and slows main content consumption while giving players clear progression goals through the cosmetic reward system.

Key Takeaways

Merge Mansion’s journey highlights how LiveOps can be the defining factor in a game’s long-term success. While limited event rotation initially allowed competitors to surpass the title and end its 42-month reign at the top, Metacore’s strategic focus on LiveOps enabled a remarkable turnaround—ultimately driving the game to reach new all-time revenue highs.

Using the LiveOps & Updates Calendar, we saw that this recovery wasn’t accidental. Metacore’s approach combined several key elements:

• Increased event frequency and diversity throughout 2024, steadily closing the gap with competitors.

• Innovative event formats inspired by best LiveOps practices from other Merge-2 games. Events like Teatime Delight, Lucky Catch, and Supercharge introduced fresh mechanics that engaged players in new ways.

• Broader focus on player motivations, adding PvP and collection events to appeal to a wider audience.

• New monetization strategies, including the Merge it Up! weekly pass, expanded revenue streams and provided affordable spending opportunities.

These contributed to Merge Mansion achieving its highest-ever monthly revenue of $11.97M in December 2024, a nearly 50% increase from its February low point!

Metacore’s success demonstrates that even in highly competitive markets, a well-executed LiveOps strategy—one that combines creativity, experimentation, and a deep understanding of player behavior—can not only stabilize a struggling game but also propel it to new heights.

That said, there’s still room for improvement. Exploring PvP events with a stronger competitive edge, partner events to tap into cooperative motivation, or Casual Casino mechanics like Monopoly GO!’s multiplier system could unlock even greater growth.

Considering Metacore’s ambitious approach in 2024, we wouldn’t be surprised to see all this, and much more, in 2025!