Every year we look for a way to thank the partners we work with, and every year the hard part is doing it without a plaque or a slide deck. This year, we kept landing on the same word: rockstars.
A rockstar owns the whole performance: the setlist, the merch, the door. That ownership is why the same room fills up night after night. Our best partners are already doing the same thing with their players, running a storefront that's theirs, not one rented from a platform.
Studios we work with keep ~95% of revenue from web store purchases, against ~70% through traditional app stores. That gap is the difference between playing a gig and owning the venue.
Turning that idea into a physical booth was a process. Planning took 3 months, and construction of the booth itself took just 4 days on-site, handled by an 11-person team of specialist builders.
New conference, new concept
This was the third conference booth James Hunt and his team at Noisy & Co have built for Appcharge, and the concept changes every time. Gamescom 2025 was a nightclub: a grid LED floor, neon, and a DJ booth as the centerpiece; January 2026 saw our Stop Shredding Your Profits campaign at PGC London, which included a giant, sculpted mountain of shredded cash, representing the money publishers lose on traditional IAPs.
Gamescom 2026 moved somewhere else entirely: washed walnut walls, low warm lighting, and a rock heritage wall closer to a members' club than a trade show stand.
"It's like Appcharge is maturing every year it comes back to the show floor," Hunt said. "The first year was young and energetic. This year was like walking into a high-end private members' club."
The vision called for electric guitars mounted on the wall, 20 framed and personalized shirts each representing a rockstar partner, a run of vinyl sleeves from Iron Maiden to the Beatles, and a DJ deck and bar at the center of it all.
"The level of quality in the furniture has to be really high-end, because traditionally, most companies at these shows just use a stockpile of furniture," Hunt said. "Appcharge's is all custom made and custom designed."
The hospitality was curated the same way: cocktails, wine, and daily sushi from Zen, the city's best, reserved for guests.
"You could not miss that booth," Hunt said. "It wasn't the biggest space on the floor, and it didn't have flashing lights everywhere. It stood out because it was different from everything around it."
The floor matched the concept. The DJ ran through most of the show, the room stayed full and buzzing throughout, while people flicked through our magazine, a lineup of growth stories already headlining their own shows: Huuuge Games at 35% DTC share, up from 10%, and Ubisoft at a 65% repeat purchase rate in its first month live, and several more.
Star of the show
"During the build process, while I was creating it with the team, you wouldn't believe how many competitor builders came over to me saying, 'guys, you killed it this time,'" Hunt said.
The same week, the recognition went beyond word of mouth: Appcharge picked up its third consecutive Pocket Gamer Mobile Games Award for Best Payment Service Provider.
"Too many people play it safe. The risk takers are the ones that see the rewards," Hunt said. "The beauty of this is we've done it so well, it's something to be proud of. I think the fun part is getting better and better, because we're pushing what's possible."
Pushing what's possible is a theme we're doubling down on, in our own business and our partners', through 2026 and beyond
