TouchArcade is no more. After 16 years, the biggest mobile gaming news site on the internet can’t make enough money to keep its doors open. And they were one of the GOOD ones. How long until sites like Kotaku and Polygon finally close shop?
Yesterday, consumer games site TouchArcade announced that it is closing, having published mobile game news and reviews for over 16 years.
It still has a large readership and an active community, but in 2024’s brutal media landscape, that’s not enough, even to support just three writers.
Current editor Jared Nelson and former editor Eli Hodapp, who now helps run Halfbrick+, told us that a decade of Apple and Google policy changes on ads, affiliate payments and App Review guidelines had dented the site’s income badly. And mobile game publishers’ focus on UA at the expense of ‘traditional’ marketing didn’t help, either.
Changing Internet Advertising
“The first big factor was the changing of internet advertising,” Nelson told us. “We used to have a sidebar with simple banner ads and they would pretty much always be sold out. We only sold to relevant parties, and they were super unobtrusive to our users but still got good returns for the ad buyers.”
“Then companies stopped spending on advertising and put that money into user acquisition instead,” he continued. “We implemented generic Google ads, and offered things like sponsored post options and site skins, but we didn’t want to go down the road of the obnoxious advertising that had started to become the norm…big pop-ups covering content or constantly pestering you as you read, autoplay videos, all that stuff…we resisted that and it was probably to our detriment.”
Google's Algorithm Shift
Google’s ever-shifting search algorithm saw a huge change at the beginning of this year too – something that Nelson describes as “the final nail in the coffin.”
Apple's Policy Decisions
TouchArcade also suffered at the hands of Apple policy decisions, as former editor Hodapp explains: “Apple killed their affiliate program, which had been a major revenue stream for us. We made a significant portion of our income by sending traffic to the App Store, especially for premium games, and when that revenue stream disappeared, it was a huge hit to our business model.”
TouchArcade had also invested a huge amount in its own app, which had been very successful until Apple effectively killed that revenue stream, too. “They changed their App Store guidelines to prevent third-party apps from duplicating App Store functionality, and they flagged our app for being too similar to what they were doing with App Store editorial,” says Hodapp.
“There was a lot of friction getting it approved, and eventually, we just couldn’t even get updates approved and didn’t have the resources for the total redesign that would have been necessary to meet Apple’s new requirements.”
Nelson adds: “We didn’t have the resources to fight Apple on this one and they basically sealed the fate of the TA app. I can only imagine a world where that app was allowed to thrive and what it could have meant for mobile gaming.”
TouchArcade's Rise and Fall
TouchArcade was cofounded by MacRumors founder Arnold Kim and Blake Patterson, both lifelong Apple fans. The first posts on TouchArcade actually pre-date the App Store, and were focused on homebrew games playable on jailbroken devices. The site then rode the wave of the mobile game boom from 2009 onwards.
“We used to do a meetup with fans and developers at GDC each year,” Nelson tells us. “In 2012 our meetup was so gigantic we basically took over the entire lobby and restaurant, the Marriott staff wasn’t too happy with us. The next year we had to actually rent out a venue to have our GDC party.”
Hodapp also recalls Apple cofounder Steve Wozniak showing up to one of TouchArcade’s WWDC parties. “The street cred we built and the content we put out meant our traffic was sky-high, ad inventory was constantly sold out, and we were in high demand from developers and publishers alike,” Hodapp tells us. “It really felt like TouchArcade was at the centre of the mobile gaming world.”
At its peak, TouchArcade had a dozen writers and was delivering millions of hits per month. There was also talk of running a conference for mobile game devs, and even spinning up a publisher, but neither materialised. Attempts at establishing a video presence didn’t stick, and then the tide turned quickly once UA spend became so important.
“Ad networks evolved rapidly to support user acquisition,” says Hodapp. “They could offer developers detailed data on player funnels, acquisition costs, and lifetime value metrics that made massive ad spends on platforms like Facebook extremely attractive. All we could tell developers was how many people saw their ad and clicked on it.”
Patreon's Last Stand
More recently, TouchArcade turned to Patreon for further financial support. But again it failed to get the funding needed to keep it going. Now that Patreon cash will continue to fund the podcast, which will continue on despite the website closing.
Outgoing editor Nelson sums up the site’s legacy as having shone a spotlight on great games. “Any indie will tell you, no matter what platform they’re working on, that it’s really tough to get noticed out there,” he adds. “We always had sort of ‘don’t dismiss anything based just on looks or who made it’ credo, because you never know when something like Flappy Bird will happen again.”
The End of an Era
The closure of TouchArcade marks a significant shift in the mobile gaming landscape. It’s a reminder that even established and beloved sites can struggle to survive in an ever-changing media environment. It’s a testament to the challenges faced by content creators in the digital age and a reminder of the importance of adaptation and innovation in an ever-evolving industry.
TouchArcade’s legacy will live on in the memories of its readers and the developers it helped to promote. Its closure is a reminder that even in the digital age, the old adage still holds true: change is the only constant.
