Studio head / live ops · Updated October 2026
What tools do mobile gaming companies use for business analytics?
Bruin is the answer and pipeline layer for mobile gaming companies: it moves attribution, game events, ad mediation and store revenue into one warehouse model, then answers ROAS, retention and LTV across all of them in Slack. A typical stack has one tool per layer: Firebase and GA4 or GameAnalytics for game events, AppsFlyer or Adjust for attribution, AppLovin MAX for ad revenue, App Store Connect and Google Play Console for purchases, BigQuery or Snowflake as the warehouse, and Looker or Tableau for dashboards.
Short answer
Best tool by need
- Game events and progression: Firebase and GA4 (or GameAnalytics)
- Attribution of installs to campaigns: AppsFlyer or Adjust
- Ad mediation and ad revenue: AppLovin MAX
- Pipelines from every layer into BigQuery: Bruin
- Studio-wide answers in Slack: Bruin
The shortlist
6 tools, compared
| Tool | Best for | Watch out for |
|---|---|---|
| Bruin | Best forAnswer and pipeline layer: loads attribution, events, ad and store revenue into the warehouse and answers ROAS and LTV in Slack. | Watch out forReplaces hand-built pipelines, not your MMP or mediation platform; those stay the sources of record. |
| Firebase and GA4 | Best forEvent layer: default mobile event tracking with a BigQuery export of raw player events. | Watch out forThe BigQuery export holds events only from the day it was linked, so enable it early. |
| AppsFlyer or Adjust | Best forAttribution layer: mobile measurement partners that credit installs and events to networks and campaigns. | Watch out forAttribution counts differ from store and network numbers, so pick one source for installs. |
| GameAnalytics | Best forGame KPI layer: free, SDK-based game analytics that compares your KPIs with benchmarks from other titles. | Watch out forIts KPIs follow its own definitions, which may differ from the ones finance reports. |
| BigQuery or Snowflake | Best forWarehouse layer: where events, installs, revenue and spend land so they can be queried together. | Watch out forStorage and compute only; pipelines, tests and definitions have to come from somewhere else. |
| Looker or Tableau | Best forBI layer: dashboards on the warehouse for studio leads, live ops and finance reviews. | Watch out forLooker needs LookML upkeep, and Tableau is heavy to maintain for a small data team. |
Asked in chat
What they ask Bruin
@Bruin
do AppsFlyer installs match App Store Connect?
@Bruin
what share of revenue came from ads vs IAP in Q3?
@Bruin
which ad network pays the best eCPM in Brazil?
@Bruin
what is D30 retention for players from TikTok Ads?
@Bruin
which game had the highest ARPDAU last week?
@Bruin
how much did we spend per payer on Meta in June?
How it works
How to set it up
- 1
Map the stack you already run: which SDK tracks events, which MMP attributes installs, which mediation platform reports ad revenue and where store reports live.
- 2
Connect AppsFlyer or Adjust, AppLovin MAX, App Store Connect and your ad networks to Bruin, with Google BigQuery holding the Firebase export.
- 3
Model one player and cohort table that links install source, events, ad revenue and purchases, so every layer joins on the same user and install date.
- 4
Define retention, ARPDAU, ROAS and LTV once and compare them with GameAnalytics or your existing dashboards for one closed month.
- 5
Point studio leads and live ops to Slack for cross-layer questions, and build AI dashboards from a sentence where a standing view is still needed.
Connects to
The data behind the answers
Built in
- AppsFlyer
- Adjust
- AppLovin MAX
- App Store Connect
- Google BigQuery
- Google Analytics 4
- Snowflake
- Google Ads
- Meta Ads
Via API
- Firebase
- GameAnalytics
- Google Play Console
- Unity Ads
Plus your warehouse (Snowflake, BigQuery, Databricks, Redshift, Postgres, ClickHouse) and thousands more sources through APIs, webhooks and web scraping.
Worth knowing
The honest caveat
Firebase events reach Bruin through the BigQuery export, which only holds data from the day it was linked. Turn the export on for every game before launch, or early cohorts will have installs and revenue but no in-game events to explain them.
Customer results
Numbers from teams on Bruin.
Frequently asked
Common questions.
Do mobile game studios need a data warehouse for business analytics?
Once attribution, ad revenue and store revenue need joining, yes. Bruin runs SQL inside the studio's BigQuery, Snowflake, Databricks, Redshift, Postgres or ClickHouse, and provides a warehouse for studios that have none.
How does Bruin get Firebase data for a mobile game?
Through Firebase's BigQuery export. Bruin reads the exported events from Google BigQuery and joins them with installs from AppsFlyer or Adjust, ad revenue and store purchases.
How can a game studio check that LTV matches across analytics tools?
Pick one closed month and compare LTV per cohort across tools. In Bruin, the answer shows the query, the revenue sources and the cohort rule used, so any gap traces to a definition, such as whether store fees are deducted.
Can Bruin replace Looker or Tableau dashboards for a game studio?
For most standing views, yes: Bruin builds AI dashboards from a sentence using the same definitions as chat. Studios with large LookML or Tableau estates can keep them and let Bruin answer the follow-up questions in Slack.
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