A single-channel cut of the Дурак revenue research (16 Aug 2026): rewarded/interstitial ad revenue only — no in-app purchases, no store commissions, no cosmetics upside.
Scope: advertising is already the realistic primary channel early on — a Yandex case study for a comparable Russian casual title found 98% of revenue came from ads and 2% from purchases. Everything below is that 98% slice, isolated.
98%
of comparable revenue from advertising, 2% from IAP (Yandex × HeroCraft case)
$7
CPM floor set for Russian traffic
$15
top-of-waterfall eCPM threshold
70%
of a game's audience reachable by rewarded video — the only format still growing YoY
Ad-only revenue by scale
ARPDAU 1.2 ₽ — the research's "ad-only, weak fill" scenario, deliberately the low band since it excludes any purchase revenue.
2.2 млн ₽
11.0 млн ₽
21.9 млн ₽
43.8 млн ₽
109.5 млн ₽
5,000 DAU
25,000 DAU
50,000 DAU
100,000 DAU
250,000 DAU
Every 10,000 DAU ≈ 4.4 млн ₽/year in ad-only revenue at this ARPDAU.
DAU
Ad-only annual revenue
5,000
2.2 млн ₽
25,000
11.0 млн ₽
50,000
21.9 млн ₽
100,000
43.8 млн ₽
250,000
109.5 млн ₽
Where the ad money is paid out
Only the two channels that pay on advertising, not on purchases — RuStore/Google Play/App Store commissions are out of scope here.
Channel
Ad payout mechanism
What it's worth in practice
Yandex Games
Ad revenue via РСЯ (Yandex Advertising Network), 3,000 ₽ payout threshold
Top web devs ≈ 1.5 млн ₽/month · $60M+ paid out to developers over 4 years
VK Mini Apps
Ad revenue share
≈44 млн MAU platform · developer ad payouts +520% YoY (Q1 2024)
Format benchmarks
2–5%
free-to-paid conversion in Russian apps — the reason ads, not purchases, carry the model early
28%
of Russian gamers ever make an in-game purchase — ads reach the other 72% too
67%
of gamers spend under 3,000 ₽/year even when they do pay — ad revenue isn't capped by that ceiling
!
Concentration risk. With ~98% of comparable revenue coming from advertising, a downturn in Russian ad rates (CPM/eCPM compression) hits this model almost one-for-one — there is no purchase revenue to fall back on in this cut. The full research treats cosmetics as the hedge against exactly this; it is excluded here by design.