How far apart do iOS and Android CPE payouts sit in Japan? November 2026, week 2

Do game CPE campaigns on Japanese reward media pay the same on iOS and Android? Not always, and this week the gap inside a single campaign reached about 105 times. The biggest mover, ロードモバイル (Lords Mobile), raised its Android top payout to ¥302,507 (about $1,894) while leaving iOS at ¥2,871 (about $18). Rocket Ads collected 45 game and app CPE campaigns from Japanese reward media on 12 November 2026.

That one campaign is the point of this week’s report. The market median moved 7.1%, while a single campaign rose roughly 38 times on one store only. An average across both stores would show neither number.

How much did the 44 continuing campaigns move this week?

This is what was observed. Of the 44 campaigns that appear in both the 4 November and the 12 November collection, 10 raised their top payout, 5 lowered it and 29 left it unchanged. Fifteen moved, or 34% of the total. In the previous collection the figure was 53%.

This part is interpretation. Two weeks give one reading where half the market changes and one where a third does. Two observations are not enough to decide which is the normal state. What can be said is narrower: in a week like this one, a benchmark taken seven days earlier is wrong for a third of the campaigns in it.

Where did payouts move this week?

Nine campaigns changed their top payout by 20% or more. Seven went up and two went down.

Observation 1. Three of the four live-streaming apps moved more than 20%. IRIAM (+25.0%) and Pococha (+20.2%) rose and ColorSing (-33.3%) fell. The genre median stayed at about $13, unchanged from the previous collection.

Observation 2. The Lords Mobile increase happened on Android alone. Over the same eight days its iOS top payout fell from ¥7,392 to ¥2,871. One campaign moved in opposite directions on the two stores in the same week.

Interpretation. Live-streaming apps carry the shortest completion windows in the set, at two to three days. A short condition returns results quickly, so a payout change can be read and adjusted sooner, and the amounts are low enough that one adjustment is affordable. This is reasoning from the structure rather than a measured finding. Rocket Ads has not tested the relationship between adjustment frequency and completion time.

How far apart are iOS and Android payouts?

Eight of the 45 campaigns, or 18%, either price the two stores more than 25% apart or run on one store only.

The gap does not point one way. Three pay more on Android, three pay more on iOS and two run on a single store. There is no one-line rule here such as “iOS pays more in Japan”.

For an advertiser the implication is concrete. Averaging the two stores when reading competing payouts turns a week like this one into either a market-wide rise or no change at all, depending on which campaigns land in the sample. The same campaign carries two prices, one per store, and they are worth comparing separately.

What does each genre pay?

Payout and completion time move together. The four genres above a $100 median take 11 to 22 days to complete, and the three below $40 take two to nine days. RPG is the exception, and the split sits inside the genre rather than between genres. Five of its eight campaigns are simple missions such as logging in or claiming a reward, at about $2 to $6, while 天地英雄伝 (Tenchi Eiyuden, about $2,382) stacks its reward into a long upper tier. The $4 median says that simple missions are the majority, not that the genre is cheap.

The 4X strategy median rose from about $136 to about $160 for a similar reason. The genre did not move as a whole. Lords Mobile climbed from the lower half of the list to second place, which shifted the median position onto キングショット (Kingshot, ¥25,562).

Board game went from one campaign to two when Piggy Go joined this week. Its completion conditions include a paid item. The media listing states that the points for the remaining steps are still awarded when the paid step is skipped.

What can an advertiser change from this week’s data?

What follows is Rocket Ads’ reading rather than something the data proves on its own. It is where we look when these numbers become campaign conditions.

1. Set the payout per store, not per campaign. Eight of 45 campaigns are already priced more than 25% apart across the two stores. The same applies when reading a competitor’s payout and when setting your own. If volume is needed on one store only, raising that store alone is a structure the market already uses.

2. Put the first tier inside four days. Fourteen of 45 campaigns, or 31%, complete within four days, and four of those are tiered. A short first tier with later tiers attached repeats among the higher payouts. Across the whole set, 67% of campaigns are tiered.

3. Do not lift a genre median as it stands. The $4 for RPG and the $160 for 4X strategy are not the same kind of number. The first is low because simple missions outnumber the rest; the second is the sum of a long set of conditions. Match the completion window first, then compare the money.

4. Check payouts more often in short-condition genres. Live-streaming apps complete in two to three days, and three of the four moved more than 20% in a single week. A monthly benchmark arrives too late to compete in that part of the market.

5. Write the collection date next to any benchmark. This week 34% of payouts moved and in the previous collection 53% did. A figure answering “what does CPE cost in Japan” is hard to use without the date it was taken.

Which campaigns paid the most this week?

First and second place sit about 4.3 and 3.4 times above third. Four of the top five are 4X strategy and all five are tiered. In sixth place, ヒーローウォーズ アライアンス (Hero Wars: Alliance, about $255) rose 39.0% this week, closing to about $11 behind fifth.

Campaigns that complete within four days. These are the entries where a user can reach the stated goal quickly, which matters when the campaign window is short.

Which media show the highest payouts?

Media B and Media A together hold 71% of all first places. Nine media took first place at least once.

The displayed amount changes with the medium and the store even within one campaign. パズル＆カオス (Puzzles & Chaos) changed its leading medium this week, and トップウォー (Top War) and フェイトウォー (Fate War) have different leading media on iOS and Android. One medium’s figures are not enough to judge the market price.

This week’s report leaves out the week-over-week comparison of first places by medium. Last week’s total does not reproduce under the same formula, so the comparison returns once the counting method is settled.

What tracking conditions do Japanese reward media ask for?

Five conditions appear across media. Entering through the default browser, Safari or Chrome. A stated new-install requirement. Allowing “Allow Apps to Request to Track” on iOS. Opening the app immediately after install. Avoiding installs on public free Wi-Fi. Writing these into the campaign description reduces both tracking loss and user enquiries.

What should you take from this week?

Observed. Fifteen of 45 campaigns, or 34%, changed their top payout. Of the nine that moved 20% or more, seven rose and two fell. The median landed at about $69 (¥10,988), up 7.1% in yen. The biggest mover, Lords Mobile, put its reward on Android alone, which opened a gap of about 105 times inside one campaign. 天地英雄伝 (Tenchi Eiyuden, about $2,382) held first place for a fourth week.

Interpretation. The market was quiet and the individual campaigns were not. Read through the median alone, this week looks like a week where almost nothing happened, while one campaign rose roughly 38 times on a single store. That is the reason to read a payout together with its store and its collection date.

Rocket Ads by aix Inc. collects Japanese local reward media data and publishes this report every Thursday.

How this report was compiled

The collection was carried out by Rocket Ads by aix Inc. The reference date is 12 November 2026 and the comparison is against the collection of 4 November 2026. The set covers 45 game and app CPE campaigns listed on major Japanese reward media.

Amounts are the highest payout displayed per medium, and tiered campaigns are counted as the sum of every tier. Conversion uses $1 = ¥159.73. The 4 November collection used ¥158.2. The exchange rate source changed this week to the Xe mid-market rate taken at 03:54 UTC on 12 November 2026, because the previous source had not yet published its November figures.

Amounts available only through a specific affiliate link are excluded, and media names are shown as Media A, Media B and so on. Completion time, difficulty and daily play time follow the information the media publish.

This report is Rocket Ads’ re-collection of campaign information published openly on major Japanese reward media. Displayed payouts change at the discretion of each medium.