Axlebolt Scales Hardcore Shooter to New Heights, Boosting DAU by 44% With Moloco

June 30, 2025

About Axlebolt

Founded in 2015 and headquartered in Limassol, Cyprus, Axlebolt is the mobile game studio behind the popular first-person shooter (FPS) game Standoff 2. With a global team of almost 300 around the world, Axlebolt has built a loyal player base through Standoff 2's tactical gameplay, real-time PvP combat, and continual seasonal updates. Standoff 2 has surpassed 300 million downloads, drawing in around 30 million monthly players worldwide.

Challenge: Scaling Standoff 2 User Acquisition Beyond Leading In-App Advertising Markets

When Axlebolt partnered with Moloco, they were searching for a way to scale mobile gaming user acquisition while hitting aggressive KPI targets. At first, mobile marketing campaigns focused on targeting leading in-app advertising geos, but performance lagged. Standoff 2’s intense tactical gameplay resonated more with hardcore gamers than casual audiences in premium markets. Despite spending across multiple ad platforms, Axlebolt saw only moderate user acquisition gains and struggled to pinpoint the right audience in the right markets for growth.

Solution: Redefining Strategy With Data-Backed Country Targeting and Creative Insights

Moloco dove deep into Standoff 2—literally. The team played the game firsthand to understand what was limiting campaign performance. The answer? A long install-to-purchase conversion rate. Standoff 2 players often took up to 60 days to make their first in-app purchase.

Driven by these findings, Moloco worked closely with Axlebolt to reframe campaign goals, shifting focus to goals with longer time horizons, particularly D180 and D365 revenue goals. From there, Moloco mapped out a geo-targeting strategy centered on countries in emerging markets, where a larger user base actively seeks out more challenging and hardcore shooting games like Standoff 2. Together, Moloco and Axlebolt honed in on Eastern Europe and CIS (Commonwealth of Independent States) markets, launching CPA campaigns designed to optimize for in-game actions and lifetime value (LTV).

Ad creative guidance became another high-impact value-add of the partnership. Moloco tested different ad formats, provided competitor ad benchmarks, and shared tactical creative insights across regions with the Axlebolt team. This collaborative testing led to creative parity with the top mobile gaming competitors to Standoff 2 and helped Axlebolt align its campaigns with the highest-performing creative standards in the mobile gaming market.

Moloco’s team also provided ongoing strategic support. In addition to creative testing, they facilitated quarterly and monthly business reviews that helped Axlebolt fine-tune campaign performance and stay ahead of the constantly evolving in-app advertising market. Moloco even offered feedback on gameplay and the user experience, proving itself not just as an AI-powered app advertising platform but as a collaborative partner invested in the game’s overall success.

Results: 44% Growth in Daily Users and 720% Increase in Cohort Revenue With Moloco

Moloco quickly became a top 3 ad partner for Axlebolt, both in terms of return on ad spend (ROAS) and cohort revenue. These results solidified Moloco’s place as an indispensable partner in Axlebolt’s mobile gaming growth strategy. Highlights include:

44% lift in average daily active users (DAU)
45% D1 retention rate from Moloco-driven users
150% performance against D365 revenue targets
720% year-over-year increase in cohort revenue in 2024

As of 2025, the partnership is expanding to tier 1 markets, with Axlebolt planning a 20-30% budget increase.

“We have a successful game with a loyal community and solid experience in acquiring quality users. But as our player base grew, finding new high-value audiences became increasingly challenging. Moloco helped us take our growth efforts to the next level. Their platform enabled us to sharpen our goals, focus on long-term value, and accelerate growth in markets where Standoff 2 truly resonates. The lift in DAU and D1 retention from Moloco-driven users made them one of our top three partners in spend.”