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Mobile Apps Unlocked (“MAU”) is one of the biggest events of the year for app publishers across industries spanning industries from gaming to finance, and everything in between. This year, the event brought together over 2,000 innovators from six continents to live and breathe mobile apps from May 19-21 in Las Vegas.
MAU 2026 was a milestone event for Mistplay, where we officially unveiled (and celebrated) the Mistplay Audience Network and connected with leaders in the space to discuss the power of rewarded for both game advertisers and app publishers alike.
Here’s a recap of what we got up to during the unforgettable week.
This year, Mistplay setup two distinct stations for our audience – one for advertisers seeking new scale, and one for publishers and brands looking to unlock new loyalty and monetization.
Mistplay Advertiser Station at Skyloft was our dedicated space for client meetings, designed for advertisers looking to unlock new reach with Mistplay and the newly launched Mistplay Audience Network.
LoyaltyPlay Publisher Station served as our hub for conversations around the loyalty and monetization power of gaming for app publishers, retailers, and brands. The claw machine was a hit, pulling in a steady crowd of curious attendees and kicking off more than a few great conversations.
To celebrate the official launch of the Mistplay Audience Network, we co-hosted the Platform Party with the 2.5 Gamers podcast – and the response was overwhelming! Over 500 people requested to attend, and more than 100 dropped by to celebrate the future of rewarded with us with delicious drinks, good conversation, and a little bit of magic supplied by the amazing Chris Hanna.
Later in the week, we kept the party going by bringing 30 of our top clients to Encore Beach Club for a night of networking and good vibes – the perfect close to a big week.
The End of Transactional Loyalty: Designing for the Engagement Economy
Mistplay's own Tricia Han (CEO) and Jennifer Taylor-Glick (Director of Customer Success, LoyaltyPlay) joined Jeena Lee (Principal Product Manager of Loyalty & Mobile Apps) on stage to explore what it means to design loyalty programs that meet users where they actually are.
Jeena shared a sharp perspective on building for behavior: for apps like Chevron's fuel app – where usage isn't a daily habit – the real challenge is designing lifecycle marketing that shows up at the right moment, not just the obvious ones. The session drew 50 curious attendees who were looking to better understand what loyalty really means in the engagement economy.
2.5 Gamers podcast live recording
The thought leadership that happens in Vegas shouldn’t stay in Vegas, and we had the chance to record a special on-site episode of the 2.5 Gamers podcast to bring fresh insights to the industry at large. Stay tuned for the launch of the episode in the coming weeks!
The key message coming out of MAU 2026 across the mobile ecosystem is that growth teams that keep pouring budget into UA while deprioritizing retention are playing a losing game. Across the Scale & Growth Systems and Retention, Loyalty & Experience agenda tracks, speakers continuously emphasized that acquisition and retention need to be planned together, not in silos. As CAC inflation continues to squeeze margins, apps winning on growth are optimizing for well beyond the initial install to foster a perpetually engaged user flywheel.
The shift from transactional to engagement-based loyalty was one of the defining conversations of the week – and one Mistplay was proud to be part of. In MAU’s Executive Forum, speakers made the case that growth teams are stuck in an expensive acquisition loop, ignoring loyalty as the actual driver of sustainable growth. Across the retention track, the "one-and-done" problem in rewarded UA came up repeatedly, as earning a first reward redemption means nothing if users don't stick around.
Our own session brought this to life with Chevron’s Jeena Lee: for apps where usage isn't a daily habit, the goal isn't to manufacture engagement but to design loyalty programs that meet users in their natural behavior and give them a reason to keep coming back.
👀 Related reading: Put the world’s leading digital habit to work for your brand with LoyaltyPlay
Game installs may be down, but the influence of gaming on app growth has never been stronger. Across the Innovation in Action track at MAU, speakers highlighted that native in-game rewards driving LTV across the entire user base are becoming more valuable than ever, and that the apps crushing retention benchmarks right now aren't games. They're finance, wellness, and productivity tools borrowing directly from the gaming playbook, using streaks, progression systems, and variable rewards to keep users engaged long past their initial spike.
For Mistplay, this is the world we've been building for, and MAU 2026 made clear the rest of the industry is catching up.
MAU 2026 was the launchpad for Mistplay's next chapter, and we're just getting started. With the Mistplay Audience Network now live and LoyaltyPlay expanding across verticals, we're excited to keep the momentum going.
Didn't make it to Vegas this year? Contact us to learn more about how Mistplay can drive rewarded growth for your app, and follow us on LinkedIn to stay up to date on where we're headed next.