Subway Surfers City: Sybo built the Best Ad Placements in Mobile Gaming, then forgot to run UA
Subway Surfers City just hit 10 million downloads in 3 weeks — but is it actually a good business?
We tear apart Sybo's long-awaited follow-up to one of the most downloaded games in history. We break down the gameplay, the surprisingly advanced (and stingy) economy, Felix's obsession with the ad placements, and why the UA setup is basically a ghost town despite having MiniClip's full weight behind it.
After 5+ years of development in Denmark and a soft launch back in July 2024, Subway Surfers City finally went global — but the numbers are already declining. Is this a profitable sequel or a $20K/day money pit that'll never recoup its dev costs?
Topics covered:
Game breakdown: gacha system, hoverboards, shard economy, modes & daily trials
Ad monetization deep dive: 8 rewarded ads/day cap, ad boxes, interstitials done right
Why Felix wants to sell you a subscription to watch MORE ads
Revenue reality: ~$100K/day total, DAU at 730K and shrinking
UA analysis: 51 creatives, mostly Facebook, no AdROAS, no AppLovin — why?
The organic trap: can Subway Surfers City ever escape the shadow of the original?
Cross-promo mystery: 16M monthly downloads next door and zero funnel into City
Was this game worth building at all?
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This is no BS gaming podcast 2.5 gamers session. Sharing actionable insights, dropping knowledge from our day-to-day User Acquisition, Game Design, and Ad monetization jobs. We are definitely not discussing the latest industry news, but having so much fun! Let’s not forget this is a 4 a.m. conference discussion vibe, so let's not take it too seriously.
Panelists: Jakub Remiar, Felix Braberg, Matej Lancaric
Join our slack channel here: https://join.slack.com/t/two-and-half-gamers/shared_invite/zt-3bckldvr8-8PXvzciMWdheOzED9hq0SA
Chapters
00:00 intro
02:38 Game overview – What is Subway Surfers City?
04:13 Background – Sybo, MiniClip, and the original game
05:49 Monetization model – IAPs vs. the original's ad-only approach
06:26 Ad placements deep dive – Rewarded ads, revives, doubler
07:32 Economy breakdown – Shard gacha, currencies, and the 8-ad daily cap
21:13 Felix's wild idea – Pay to watch MORE ads
22:07 Interstitial placement & eCPM balance
23:37 Numbers – Downloads, DAU, revenue
26:14 Revenue reality – $20K/day IAP, ~$100K/day total
31:03 UA breakdown – 51 creatives, Facebook only, no AdROAS
33:05 Why is the UA so weak? MiniClip, earn-outs, LTV issues
36:06 Cross-promo – Why isn't Subway Surfers 1 pushing City?
39:10 Final verdict – Was this game worth making?
Matej Lancaric
User Acquisition & Creatives Consultant
https://lancaric.me
Felix Braberg
Ad monetization consultant
https://www.felixbraberg.com
Jakub Remiar
Game design consultant
https://www.linkedin.com/in/jakubremiar
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