The heroes in Demon Slayer use Nichirin swords in opposition to their vampiric enemies, and the troopers of Assault on Titan use complicated vertical maneuvering tools to face their gargantuan foes. Patrick Liu, CFO of cell gaming platform CTW Cayman, wields a special kind of weapon: KPIs.
Japanese anime, as soon as an obscure artwork kind for US viewers, has exploded in reputation.
The anime trade in 2024 grew practically 115% YoY to three.8 trillion yen ($24.1 billion at 2024 year-end), the Affiliation of Japanese Animations reported in October. Most of this got here from outdoors Japan; worldwide markets grew 126% to just about 2.2 trillion yen. Anime accounted for greater than 4% of all Netflix viewing throughout world markets within the second half of 2025, whereas Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba Infinity Citadel became the highest-grossing worldwide movie in North American theaters final yr, as of mid-October.
CTW, which runs a web-based cell gaming platform primarily based on anime IP, has used the rising anime fandom as the premise for US enlargement. As a result of anime has turn into mainstream, “we imagine this [gives] us numerous tailwinds in addition to advertising alternatives to market the platform and the video games we provide on the platform on this [US] market,” Liu mentioned.
And whereas anime is catching on outdoors Japan, cell gaming is a longtime phenomenon. The worldwide cell video games market is predicted to generate about $134.2 billion in income this yr, and develop about 5.1% yearly via 2030, based on Statista analysis.
The Japan-based firm went public in August 2025, elevating $12 million. It deliberate to make use of 85% of its proceeds for world market enlargement, based on SEC filings. CTW listed on the Nasdaq inventory change to sign to buyers and stakeholders that it’s severe about its enlargement, Liu informed CFO Brew.
Liu lately shared with us the symptoms he makes use of to trace the returns on the corporate’s enlargement efforts.
Measuring success. Liu is tuned into an indicator known as return on commercial spending, or ROAS. CTW wrote in its registration statement with the SEC that “we actively monitor and optimize our ROAS to make sure environment friendly consumer acquisition and advertising effectiveness.”
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“We’re in a speedy rising section proper now as an organization,” Liu mentioned. “We’re increasing to the North American markets; we’re increasing outdoors [of Japan], typically talking.” To make sure success, “we need to at all times have a disciplined atmosphere of what the efficiency actually appears to be like like, in order that’s why we’re specializing in ROAS.”
CTW calculates ROAS in a different way than a few of its rivals, based on Liu.
It takes in-game buy quantities and divides them by advert spending in a particular reporting interval, whereas others usually have a look at lifetime worth of finish customers, Liu mentioned. CTW appears to be like at in-game purchases as a result of it’s increasing into new markets, the place it doesn’t have a historical past of consumer buying conduct, Liu defined. Its lifetime worth fashions could be primarily based on Japanese customers, which could not look the identical as avid gamers in North America.
The corporate recorded an ROAS of 116% for the fiscal yr ending on July 31, 2025, based on a March investor presentation. It recorded a buyer acquisition value of $1.50 in comparison with new consumer income of $1.75, on a per-new-user foundation.
Liu mentioned CTW displays efficiency by geographic area, however hasn’t shared any of that data publicly but as a result of its enlargement remains to be in early days and most of its income nonetheless comes from Japanese customers. Based on the investor presentation, 70% of in-game purchases had been made in Japan, 10% in South Korea, and seven% within the US.
Though an vital KPI, ROAS just isn’t the one metric CTW displays to know advertising efficiency. For example, it additionally tracks the time new customers spend in a sport earlier than making their first buy, Liu mentioned. It compares these metrics between US and Japanese customers for methods to enhance in sure markets.