Lion Studios

A leading hyper-casual and casual mobile game publisher backed by AppLovin's ad tech infrastructure

Lion Studios is the mobile game publishing division of AppLovin Corporation, launched in 2018 to help independent mobile game developers bring their titles to market. Operating under AppLovin's umbrella, Lion Studios provides developers with funding, marketing expertise, user acquisition capabilities, and monetization support — essentially acting as a full-service publisher for the hyper-casual and casual mobile gaming space. The studio became known for publishing viral hits and rapidly scaling games to millions of downloads by leveraging AppLovin's powerful advertising and analytics infrastructure. Lion Studios positions itself as a partner-first publisher, offering developers a revenue share model rather than acquiring full ownership of their intellectual property. This approach attracted a large number of indie developers looking to benefit from AppLovin's massive ad network and data-driven user acquisition capabilities without giving up creative control. The studio has published hundreds of games across genres including puzzle, simulation, arcade, and idle games, accumulating billions of downloads globally. As a subsidiary of AppLovin — a publicly traded mobile marketing and technology company — Lion Studios benefits from deep integration with AppLovin's MAX mediation platform, MoPub (formerly), and its broader suite of growth tools. While the mobile gaming publishing landscape is highly competitive, Lion Studios' direct access to AppLovin's ad tech stack gives it a structural advantage in efficiently acquiring users and optimizing monetization, making it a significant player in the hyper-casual game publishing ecosystem.