How Metacore Scaled Merge Mansion With a Stellar Live Event Strategy

Live events are becoming an essential part of the growth strategy for mobile games. However, it can be difficult to determine the best approach to LiveOps in order to maximize revenue. While driving engagement is key, the ultimate goal is to translate engagement into tangible return on investment (ROI). Recently, we’ve seen an exemplary success case for doing just that in Metacore’s Merge Mansion.

Merge Mansion is an incredibly popular merge-2 game where players combine items on a merge grid to complete tasks and restore an old family mansion. Since July 2024, Metacore has steadily increased Merge Mansion‘s ROI. Looking at the data on iOS for the US market, it’s clear that Metacore is doing something right. The game saw consistent growth in 2024.

So, how did Metacore do it? The short answer is that they experimented with more events and innovative event types. They also took advantage of spikes in engagement with smart monetization strategies.

“GameRefinery’s Live Events Tracker has been an indispensable tool for us. We use the Live Events Tracker to identify the trends making a difference for casual games—for example, we explore event design, the ins and outs of user flow, and reward progressions to assess their impact. Access to these insights has helped inform our product strategy. We can isolate must-have elements that our game may be missing, contextualize our events design, and reduce overall R&D costs.
We really appreciate GameRefinery data and the support provided by their team.  We would recommend the tool to any mobile game company working in the casual space.”

Tapio Tuomola, Chief Business Officer, Metacore

Spiking Engagement With More Events and New Event Types

One of the biggest factors underpinning Merge Mansion’s success has been the increase in the average number of Live Events for the game. Comparing the number of live events, you can see that on their calendar between March 2025 and April 2024, the number has nearly doubled. 

Not only has the number of events increased, but the number of new events has also increased, according to GameRefinery’s Live Events Tracker. Looking at new event types in the six months before and after the end of July 2024, we see an obvious increase in the number of new live event types introduced.

Taking a granular look at the new events introduced, we also see a variety of event types.

To offer a clearer picture of their event strategy, we’ll break down some of the striking additions and what makes them successful.

Evolving the Battle Pass Plan With New Additions

Let’s begin by looking at Merge Mansion’s battle pass plan and one of the new additions to its event strategy.

In February, Merge Mansion introduced Merge It Up!, a new mini battle pass added to the game’s main Battle Pass. It comprises a simplified version of a battle pass of shorter duration that still includes both Free and Paid lanes.

The gist of the event is that players can accumulate additional rewards through their gameplay by simply merging items. As an added attraction, merging items in separate event boards counts toward the progression of this Battle Pass.

Merge Mansion saw a revenue spike (of +138% their typical daily revenue) on the last active day of the first instance of the brand-new “Merge it Up!” Mini Battle Pass. The temporary increase is likely attributable to the model for the event. Players can progress to the pass by merging throughout the event. They can also purchase the premium track to collect all the rewards they have accumulated thus far, even on the last day. 

“Merge It Up!” is not the only battle pass event to impact returns. In fact, battle pass is one of the most important drivers behind Merge Mansion’s revenue increases.

Looking at revenue growth from November 2024 to March 2025, the impact of battle pass events is easy to see. These crests occur either at the end of the Battle Pass run or at the beginning of the next Battle Pass. It’s also worth noting that during these spikes, there are usually a few different IAPs available to purchase.

Successful New Event Types in Merge Mansion: A Deep Dive

Secret Supply

Minigames are a staple for casual games, but it’s worth looking at one in particular, Secret Supply. It was introduced to the game in May 2024. Metacore also reworked the event in November by adding various cosmetic changes to the UI and more substantive changes to the event tasks.
Secret Supply is Merge Mansion‘s first-ever minigame event instance that combines casino and merge elements. In the minigame, players use an old arcade machine to play and collect as many event points as possible to earn rewards.

When players press the arcade machine button, several items drop. When two or more matching items align, they merge and reward the player with points. Some items are worth more than others, and players hope for valuable matches.

Everyone is limited as to how much they can use the arcade machine. After so much use, the machine “overheats” and requires a Mystery Token to be reactivated. These tokens regenerate automatically after a certain period, although players can speed up the process through in-app purchases (IAP). This event was the first of its kind in the Merge genre, and similar events have since been seen in Seaside Escape and Gossip Harbor.
Secret Supply events encourage players to drain premium currency. They usually appear a little before big revenue spikes, potentially because they encourage players to purchase the premium Battle Pass plan after spending their previous reserves.

Circus Caper Decoration Event

Circus Caper is a limited-time decoration event that features an exclusive (separate) merge area and offers narrative scenes and cosmetic rewards linked to the game’s traveling circus theme.

Players can access a special circus-themed merge grid in the Circus Caper decoration event. To open the grid, players need to set up a portal (an item granted to the player upon the beginning of the event) on their main progress merge grid.

In the event area, players can work on various merge chains originating from different item generators. As they progress, they eventually generate pieces of the main point chains, the chain of mergeable items that can be either collected for points by double tapping or further merged to get even more points from these items.

The points collected from collected items help progress the event’s main reward threshold. At the end of each decoration event instance, players are offered a chance to extend the duration of the event by +2 days. They can do so by paying a set, real money price. When they extend, the players will also receive bonus rewards as a further incentive. 

Unlike in other decoration events, this reward track doesn’t feature multiple separate decoration items, but just one that you upgrade through progression. Players don’t own the item before they hit level 30 of the progression path, giving them an incentive to keep playing until (and beyond) level 30. Without the item, their upgrade progression doesn’t count. 

Circus Caper is an example of an event with unique mechanics that makes the gameplay experience deeper and more integrated.

PvE Limited-Time Modes

Metacore added some new limited-time PvE Modes to the game. Previously, Merge Mansion had different instances of these modes active, maybe two to four times a month, and they never overlapped. That said, if you look at the calendars for December and January, there are noticeably more rotations, overlapping events, and higher overall volumes.

Compared to other merge games, Merge Mansion’s Limited-Time PvE Modes are also richer in content and armed with unique mechanics. Other merge games have tended to focus more on linear progression where you need to find new merge item levels. Essentially, you merge until you reach the top level and get rewards through that progression (see Travel Town or Gossip Harbor).

However, Merge Mansion has several overlapping goals, including filling progression bars, side quests, and narration sequences, and collecting special items for separate collections (e.g., rare gems, fish, artifacts, etc.—each filling the separate collection albums).

Supercharge

Another successful event, first appearing in August 2024, is Supercharge, a boost event where players can supercharge their producers to create items faster and with higher levels. The event is designed to help players progress more quickly through the game by boosting the output of their regular item-producing mechanisms. 

Players can turn the supercharge feature on or off at any time, but when enabled, it doubles the production speed and allows producers to create higher-level items. The supercharge status is indicated with a distinctive lightning bolt icon on supercharged items.

This event does not have specific rewards, but activating the supercharge accelerates progression in the game. Players who use supercharge will run out of energy faster, which drives the sale of energy and thus overall monetization.

Supercharge first started with durations of a few days (generally two), but recently, we’ve seen a massive increase in the duration of the event. Shortly after this change, Supercharge was officially made into a permanent feature in the game—it was no longer tied to limited-time availability, and instead something players can toggle on or off by choice.

The Hopewell Bay Challengers

The Hopewell Bay Challengers is a new competitive solo leaderboard tournament. Merge Mansion previously featured three events in this category, all following the same archetype. This new event is the first one differentiated from the bunch.

Briefly, the tournament introduces progression through stages where players compete in one-hour merging rounds on a separate merge board, with leaderboard placement after each round contributing to their overall event progress.

The event also has some additional things worth mentioning. It features an additional “rewards” window, where players can track their overall event point progress to see which reward they will receive based on their current point count at the end of the event. 

It uses a special blue energy, which refills at the start of each round and drops from the main board only during an active round. The event energy can be earned when merging two items, from which one will indicate the blue energy symbol. The event also features a special shop with bundle offers of additional blue energy, gems, and event items.

Lessons and Takeaways from Merge Mansion 

Overall, Merge Mansion saw a consistent positive impact by doubling down on their live event strategy. They’ve increased the number of offered events, as well as innovated on the types of events. Here are the major takeaways from their standout events: 

1. Battle Pass is a major revenue driver: Revenue spikes consistently correlate with the beginning or end of Battle Pass periods, often accompanied by various in-app purchase (IAP) offers.
   
2. Events should always support monetization: Focus on events that encourage premium currency usage & faster energy depletion.
   
3. Unique mechanics can encourage battle pass engagement: “Circus Caper” introduces a separate merge area and upgradeable item tied to the battle pass. This is an example of how new events can deepen gameplay and create incentives for battle pass participation.
   
4. There are benefits to increasing rotation and overlapping of PVE Limited-Time Modes: Merge Mansion now features more frequent and overlapping PVE modes with richer content and unique mechanics than competitors focusing on linear progression.
   
5. A Differentiated Competitive Tournament: This new competitive solo leaderboard event introduces progression through timed merging rounds on a separate board with unique mechanics like blue energy and a reward track, diversifying their competitive offerings.

If you’d like to learn more about the LiveOps strategy of top games, check out GameRefinery’s Live Events Tracker or you can book a demo with a member of the GameRefinery team.