About World Hockey Manager mobile game
A Swedish game studio called Gold Town Games published their World Hockey Manager game for true hockey fans.
As a coach, you manage players, match strategy, and training facilities to become the best team in the world.
PÄR HULTGREN CEO of Gold Town GamesAppAgent provided us with top-notch knowledge and insights during the development phase of World Hockey Manager. They are always well-prepared and structured. They challenge us and drive us forward.
The Brief
To support Gold Town Games with the release of their first game including go-to-market strategy, product advisory and user acquisition after the launch.
The Solution
AppAgent developed a soft-launch strategy after two-day on-site workshop with management team. Our team, including an ex-EA Mobile producer of Madden NFL helped them improve the game.
AppAgent has built predictive ROI reporting with financial forecasting to further support the client, providing information to grow the game and their business in the App Store and Play Store.
AppAgent’s Conclusion
“The game was released in fall 2017, after being soft launched for a couple of months in countries where hockey is popular. To scale the acquisition, we had to find the right creatives and develop an initial audience. Only then were we able to fine-tune targeting and improve performance.”
Frequently Asked Questions
What exactly did AppAgent do for World Hockey Manager during launch?
AppAgent supported Gold Town Games with a full go-to-market package: a soft-launch strategy, on-site product advisory with an ex-EA Mobile producer, and a post-launch user acquisition strategy.
We also built predictive ROI and financial forecasting models to help the team understand where to invest, when to scale, and how aggressively they could invest in growth.
How did the soft-launch strategy help acquire 100,000 new players profitably every month?
We first soft launched World Hockey Manager in hockey-strong markets to validate the core assumptions: product-market fit, creative performance, and audience targeting. This phased approach allowed us to identify what was working before scaling. Once validated, we ramped up investment, leading to 100,000+ new players monthly at a positive ROI instead of burning budget on unproven setups.
What role did predictive ROI reporting and financial forecasting play in this project?
Predictive ROI reporting connected UA spend, in-game monetization, and payback time into a single financial model. This allowed Gold Town Games to estimate which campaigns and channels were likely to be profitable, understand expected payback periods, and scale budgets without compromising margins.
When was World Hockey Manager ready to scale user acquisition?
The game was ready to scale once key assumptions were validated during the soft launch, specifically product-market fit in hockey-focused markets, creative performance, and audience targeting. This gave the team enough confidence to increase investment and scale efficiently rather than relying on early assumptions.
Which user acquisition channels were used to grow World Hockey Manager?
After proving the concept, we expanded UA beyond Facebook into Google Ads, Twitter, Vkontakte, Apple Search Ads, Snapchat, and Reddit. This multi-channel helped diversify acquisition, reduced dependency on a single platform, and unlocked additional pockets of profitable traffic, contributing to a 400% increase in install volume while keeping ROI positive.
How did AppAgent balance product advisory with marketing strategy for this first title?
Since World Hockey Manager was Gold Town Games’ first game, we combined product feedback with growth strategy. Through a two-day on-site workshop with the management team and an ex-EA producer with deep product expertise, we aligned game experience, monetization potential, and UA strategy. This ensured that marketing efforts were supporting a product that was ready to scale.
What was the risk of scaling UA too early for the World Hockey Manager?
For a first title, the main risk was investing in user acquisition before validating core assumptions such as audience fit and monetization potential. This could have led to acquiring users at scale without a clear path to profitability. The soft launch phase helped avoid this by ensuring that growth was based on proven performance and real data from several countries and both iOS and Android platforms.
What can other sports or manager-game studios learn from this case?
The key lesson is to validate before you scale: use a soft launch in core markets, test creatives and audiences early, and base decisions on predictive ROI rather than assumptions. For sports and manager games especially, identifying the right “true fan” audience and creative angle matters more than chasing the World Hockey Manager’s path—a phased soft launch, predictive ROI modeling, and a 400% increase in installs with positive ROI—is a highly replicable framework.
When should a mobile game studio hire a UA agency rather than build in-house?
Studios like Gold Town Games with strong product teams but limited growth resources often reach a point where scaling becomes complex.
In these cases, working with a specialist partner can accelerate learning, reduce costly mistakes, and provide immediate access to expertise in UA, forecasting, and creative strategy – especially for a first early-stage title.