The Mistplay Audience Network: Smartest UA Expansion of 2026! 3X reach, same quality

Rewarded UA used to be a test bed. In 2026, it's a third of your UA spend. Mistplay just made it easier to scale.

We sit down with the full Mistplay leadership team — Tricia (CEO), Aaron (CCO), and Mark "Bear" Bearman (GM, B2B) — to unpack the launch of the

Mistplay Audience Network. The conversation covers the state of rewarded UA in 2026, validating rewarded as a core channel, why the category is consolidating, what the MyAppFree acquisition actually unlocks for advertisers, and how the audience network expands Mistplay reach to MyAppFree and Connected Rewards inventory with a single check-box.

If you've been treating rewarded UA as a tactical add-on rather than a core part of your stack, this episode is the wake-up call.

⏱️ TIMESTAMPS

00:00 Cold open — what the audience network means for UA

01:33 Welcome + guest intros (Tricia, Aaron, Bear)

02:55 The state of rewarded UA in 2026

06:23 Survey data: rewarded UA at 20-30% of budgets

07:29 The scale-vs-performance tension and the "patient path"

13:17 What the audience network actually is, in plain English

17:51 Brand budgets and the value-exchange opportunity

23:00 The "tick a box" advertiser experience explained

30:31 Where rewarded UA goes next — discovery + retention

📌 KEY TAKEAWAYS

— AppsFlyer's 2025 Performance Index validates what UA

managers already see in their dashboards: roughly one

third of the top UA sources are now rewarded. Three to

four years ago, rewarded was 1-3% of spend; today it's

6-10% average and climbing.

— Matej's own UA survey: rewarded UA is now 20-30% of

budget for most respondents, and 80% are planning to

increase it further next year. That makes it core, not

tactical.

— The Mistplay Audience Network = one campaign, three

inventory sources. The same Mistplay buying engine now

extends to MyAppFree and Connected Rewards (Mobvista)

inventory with a literal check-box. Tricia's framing:

"same key, more doors."

— Why MyAppFree matters specifically: brand advertisers

finally want value-exchange placements (not just gamers),

which means a third inventory stream that wasn't

monetizable through gaming alone. This is genuinely new.

— The performance-quality bar isn't being lowered to add

scale. Mark Bearman: a high-quality DAU/MAU ratio and

engagement filter still applies; the audience network

expands reach without compromising the cohort signal.

— Rewarded UA consolidation is real and rapid. Three to

five years ago, every studio was launching a rewarded

platform; now the market is consolidating around the

platforms with sustainable foundations. Tricia's

intentional framing: "platforms our partners can count

on for trusted ROAS delivery."

— Future direction: Mistplay is shifting from a closed

loyalty platform to a UA layer that handles discovery,

acquisition, AND retention as a continuous loop. The

audience network is the first piece of that vision.

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🎙️ HOSTS

Matej Lančarič — User Acquisition consultant

Felix Braberg — Ad Monetization consultant

🎤 GUESTS

Tricia — CEO, Mistplay

https://www.linkedin.com/in/tricia-han-920649/

Aaron — Chief Commercial Officer, Mistplay

https://www.linkedin.com/in/aaronthandi/

Mark "Bear" Bearman — GM, B2B Solutions, Mistplay

https://www.linkedin.com/in/mwbearman13/

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#mobilegaming #useracquisition #rewarded #mistplay

#liveops #f2p

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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: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Felix Braberg, Matej Lancaric⁠