The adult games niche: what it is, how to earn and which offers to choose

Sep 6, 2024 12 min read

The adult games niche is one of the most interesting and profitable in the gaming vertical. Despite the narrow focus, this category of offers is of great interest to affiliates. In this article we will look at the main aspects of adult online gaming, ways to make money on “adult” games, the best offers and affiliate programs, as well as discuss the benefits and risks of working with them.

What is the adult games niche?

The adult game niche includes online games designed exclusively for the adult audience. These products contain sexually explicit scenes and can be both casual and complex simulations.

The adult games market has grown significantly in recent years, especially with the development of digital distribution and the popularity of platforms such as Steam and Patreon. The adult game market is estimated to be worth tens of billions of dollars, and it continues to grow.

Overview of the market and its features

When working with providers from the adult gaming vertical, it is important to take into account such features of the market:

The need for anonymity. Privacy is important to many users, so developers pay special attention to the protection of personal data.
Narrow audience. Unlike regular games, adult games are focused on specific interests, where eroticism, sexuality and explicit scenes play a key role. This requires a more subtle approach to their development and promotion.
Diversity of platforms. Adult games are available on a variety of platforms: PC, mobile devices, VR and even consoles. But users more often give preference to browser-based games on mobile devices.
High competition. Despite the niche focus, competition in this segment is quite high. For affiliates, this means the need to constantly search for new ideas and approaches.
Rapid change of trends. In this adult gaming, trends change quickly. Even a very interesting game will sooner or later bore the user and he will look for a new one. Affiliates need to constantly monitor promising new products and popular products, and in time to adapt to the new needs of players.
High profitability. With the right approach, the niche can bring very high profits. And this is enough for affiliates to want to work with 18+ games.

How to earn on adult games?

There are many ways to make money from 18+ games:

Pay-per-install is a classic way to make money on adult games. Users buy a game for a fixed price and install it on their device.
Premium content subscriptions. The player pays a monthly or annual fee for access to the game or its individual options. Paid subscriptions allow access to exclusive content, new levels, characters, and other elements of the game for an additional fee. Such offers are especially attractive to loyal users who are willing to support the developer.
In-game purchases. The user can buy virtual items, skins, costumes, currency, or additional features within the game interface that increase player interest. Such microtransactions allow developers to receive a stable income without inflating the price of the game itself.
Advertisements for third-party products or services that are integrated into the game. By the way, advertising in adult games due to the peculiarities of the content is not so often used, but in free games can be a good source of income. Most often advertisers in this niche are focused on specific products and services.

What opportunities does this open up for affiliates? In fact, quite wide, because when promoting adult games niche offers through popular channels, problems almost always arise. In this regard, affiliate marketing has become almost the only way to get targeted traffic for “adult” games. Many developers cooperate with affiliates, offering quite good commissions. Therefore, affiliates can earn even on free products.

Target audience and their preferences

The main audience of adult games is people between 18 and 45 years old, mostly men. Although recently the female audience is more and more interested in 18+ games. The adult gaming audience is generally attracted to sexy storylines and explicit content. These users are prone to long sessions and active discussion in chat rooms and gaming communities.

The target audience of adult games is quite diverse, but has common interests and preferences that are important to consider when selecting and promoting a product. Users appreciate:

high quality graphics and realistic visual effects;
interactive elements that allow players to interact with the story and other players, as well as influence the development of events;
the ability to customize characters and develop their abilities.

When creating advertising creatives, it is important to be guided by all the features of the target audience. This is one of the decisive factors of high conversion. But we will talk more about effective creatives later.

Ways to monetize 18+ games

Depending on the target action for which the advertiser is willing to pay, affiliates encounter different offers and payment models:

CPI – a fixed rate for installing a game. Here you need to be careful – sometimes installation is not enough for conversion, the user must launch the application at least once.
CPS – remuneration for the user’s payment data. It is more difficult to work with such offers, but the payments are worth it. Players can leave payment and credit card information both for full payment for access to the game, and for paid subscription or purchase of individual features. Valid payment information and a positive balance on the card are important here.
CPL – in such offers the affiliate is paid for leads. Conversion will be counted if the user leaves his data and confirms it via email or mobile number (Double Opt In or DOI-offers).
Tutorials – the payment is credited to the affiliate for the user’s completion of in-game tutorials.
RevShare – Offers with payment by RevShare are attractive for affiliates because they bring long-term income. As long as the player makes purchases in the game, the affiliate receives a commission for them.

When selecting offers in the adult games niche, it is important to take into account the target audience, the specifics of the game and payment models. Experienced affiliates are advised to start with offers designed for simpler target actions – application installation (CPI) or registration (DOI). Over time, you can move on to more complex models, such as RevShare or CPS, which can provide long-term income.

Methods of attracting traffic to adult games

Attracting traffic in the adult games niche requires unconventional approaches, as traditional methods are often unavailable due to restrictions on 18+ content.

Sites with erotic or pornographic content are the sources with the most loyal audience, ready to convert with adult-game providers.
Social networks are an important channel of adult traffic, despite the fact that here you constantly have to “step over” moderation. Thanks to cloaking and other methods of bypassing moderation, Facebook is used for 18+ games, where the audience is relatively mature. TikTok is characterized by a younger and more active audience, which willingly clicks on ads for mobile games with explicit content. In Instagram, with relatively less adult traffic, it is easier to find target users.
SEO and content marketing. Optimization of websites and creation of content optimized for the queries of users searching for adult games allow to attract organic traffic.
Influencers and streamers. Promoting adult games through Influencers (especially streamers) is very effective. These people have a certain degree of trust and loyalty of a relevant audience interested in content themes.
Themed sites for gamers. On sites dedicated to, for example, anime or manga, there are many fans of “adult” games in cartoon format. Here you can accurately target an interested audience.
Advertising networks – one of the easiest ways to buy traffic for adult games. It is important to choose a platform that supports this type of traffic from the right geo.

Adult traffic converts well with different advertising formats: push, in-page push, native advertising, etc. For the best results, it is necessary to set up an advertising campaign properly, using all the options of the advertising network.

The Best Offers for adult games niche

As you already know, choosing the right offer is the first important step to successful monetization of adult games. Let’s take a look at the main types of offers that affiliates work with.

PC Downloadable games are games that need to be pre-installed on a PC. They can also have a mobile version, but still the main emphasis is on the desktop format. Such offers require a more advanced approach to promotion and are usually designed for experienced affiliates.
Browser games (PC/Mobile Browser) are the most popular and minimally demanding to the device parameters. Users can play them directly in the browser, which makes them very convenient.
Mobile applications (Android App) – games created by independent developers without the support of major publishers. They are gaining popularity among fans of “adult” games, in particular thanks to streamers who actively promote them and affiliate marketing.

Affiliate programs and offers

Affiliate networks offer a lot of adult games offers for affiliates. The main criteria for choosing an affiliate, as a rule, are high payouts, reliable technical support and tools for optimizing advertising campaigns.

Lospollos, in addition to all this offers smartlinks – a unique tool for total monetization of traffic, automatically distributes traffic based on their basic parameters (geo and language, type of device and browser). Smartlink under the Adult Games vertical includes hundreds of exclusive offers with games for the 18+ audience. As a reminder, you can drive mixed traffic to this link. By the way, on the platform you can see the updated ranking of countries by eCPM for Adult Games smartlink:

Among affiliate programs from adult games developers the most popular are the following:

Nutaku – one of the largest platforms with adult games, which offers browser and mobile games offers with payment by CPS and CPI model. It has a huge audience and constantly updated content, and this is very important for affiliates.

EroGames is a platform customized for games with erotic content, mainly with payment models such as CPI and RevShare. Users get access to games on various platforms, and affiliates get stable passive income.

AdultFriendFinder – is a well-known platform for dating and adult games. CPS model with high payouts is most often used here, this affiliate program is very popular among experienced affiliates.

Benefits and risks of working in adult games

Adult games is a highly profitable and evergreen niche, but because of the specific content, it can be difficult for beginners to work in it. Therefore, before driving your traffic to adult gaming, familiarize yourself with the main advantages of working and risks.

Advantages of adult games offers:

High traffic conversion rate. Content for adults, in particular games 18+, are consistently in great demand among a wide audience. Adult games are characterized by a high degree of involvement.
High payouts, especially for offers where the target action is a paid subscription or purchase of additional features (CPS and RevShare pricing models).
Long-term income. Offers that work on the RevShare model allow the affiliate to receive income from each purchase of the user as long as he plays and makes purchases.
Broad audience. Adult games attract a diverse age audience, including both younger and older people. The variety of genres and platforms allows you to reach different market segments, increasing your chances of success.
Low entry threshold – even conditionally free traffic from social networks is suitable for adult games. You can start affiliate marketing in the adult games niche with almost no costs.

To succeed in the adult games vertical, it is important to properly customize advertising campaigns, taking into account all possible risks.

Restrictions on advertising 18+ offers. Many advertising platforms, including social networks, prohibit or severely restrict advertising of adult content. Affiliates must be able to bypass moderation in order to drive traffic from the most effective channels. One careless step leads to campaign and account lockout.
High competition. To bypass competitors, affiliates must follow trends and novelties in the gaming industry, carefully study the target audience, look for new approaches and methods of promotion.
The rapid change of trends, which makes it necessary to track changes in audience preferences and adapt their campaigns in time.
Moral aspect – many people find working with adult-offers difficult. Some are afraid of ruining their reputation, others find it difficult to create creatives of erotic and pornographic nature.

In general, the tempting prospects of earning money on adult games do not lie. But there is nothing to do here without preparation and a well-thought-out strategy. However with a good budget and a successful bundle you can really get an impressive ROI.

Recommendations for creating advertising creatives

To create the most effective creatives for 18+ games, we recommend:
adhere to a single style in all promotional materials, it should match the visuals of the game being promoted;
use more visual dynamic content, minimizing the text part;
demonstrate fragments and features of the game, use images of the most interesting characters and scenarios in creatives;

use in the text part key queries, by which users will find the offer in search;
make advertising as native as possible, so that when viewing a web page it does not stand out from the general theme and visuals;
use video reactions, reviews, discussions, compilations, chat games, calls to action and subtitles for those who watch without sound.

Test multiple creatives within a single ad campaign, creating both universal ads and personalized ads for narrow audiences;

P. S. The adult games niche is a dynamically developing market with huge potential. To be successful in this area, you need to choose a reliable affiliate program, carefully work out advertising creatives and constantly monitor changes in the preferences of the audience. Despite certain difficulties related to moderation and competition, with the right approach the adult games niche can bring a stable and high income.

Start earning!