Tier 1, tier 2 and tier 3 are shorthand for groups of countries sorted by how much advertising in them costs and how much users there tend to spend. Everyone in mobile marketing uses the words, so it is natural to look for the official list. There is not one. Each ad network, agency and publisher draws its own lines, and the same country can sit in different tiers in two different reports.
That does not make the tiers useless. They are a good starting map for budgets and launch plans. They are just a poor substitute for looking at your own numbers, country by country. Here are the groupings people commonly use, what actually differs between them, and how to decide where to buy.
The common groupings
These lists reflect how the terms are commonly used, not any standard. Expect to see them vary.
Tier 1
High-income markets with mature ad auctions: the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, Australia, Germany, France, Japan and South Korea appear on nearly every list. Meta's games documentation, for example, names those same eight as tier 1 markets alongside other high-GDP countries. Many marketers add New Zealand, the Nordic countries, the Netherlands, Switzerland and sometimes other parts of Western Europe.
Tier 2
Often the rest of Western and Southern Europe, such as Spain and Italy, plus markets with strong middle-income spending such as parts of Eastern Europe, the Gulf states, Brazil, Mexico, Turkey and parts of Southeast Asia. This tier has the least agreement. Some teams treat Taiwan, Hong Kong and Singapore as tier 1 because of their spending, while others count them as tier 2.
Tier 3
Large or growing markets with low ad prices and lower spending per user: much of South and Southeast Asia, Africa and parts of Latin America. India, Indonesia, the Philippines, Pakistan, Nigeria and Egypt commonly appear here. Some reports merge tiers 2 and 3 into one bucket. Meta's documentation names Southeast Asia, Latin America, Eastern Europe, the Middle East and Africa together as tier 2 and 3.
China is its own case
China rarely appears in these lists at all, because its app stores, ad platforms and publishing rules are separate. Treat it as a project of its own rather than as a tier.
What actually differs between tiers
- Cost. Tier 1 auctions are crowded, so impressions and installs cost much more. Tier 3 can be a small fraction of the price.
- Purchase behaviour. Users in tier 1 are more likely to pay for in-app purchases and subscriptions, and pay more when they do. This is the main reason advertisers accept the higher cost.
- Ad revenue. Advertisers pay more to reach tier 1 users, so a player there earns more per ad shown. A game living on ad revenue feels this directly.
- Devices and networks. Tier 3 traffic includes more low-end Android phones and slower connections. File size, load time and frame rate matter more, so an ad or app that feels instant in London may crawl in Lagos.
- Retention. It does not always fall with income. Meta notes that some developers report retention in tier 2 and 3 markets close to tier 1. So do not assume it either way. Measure it.
Why the label is not the decision
A tier tells you what a country's average looks like, not whether it works for your app. What decides that is one comparison: what a user is worth there against what a user costs there.
As an illustration with invented numbers, suppose a game gets users in a tier 1 country at a CPI of 3.00 and they earn 3.60 in their first 30 days, a return of 120%. In a tier 3 country the CPI is 0.30 and the same players earn 0.27, a return of 90%. The tier 1 country pays back sooner here. Change the game from one that relies on purchases to one that relies on ads, and the result can flip. Meta's guidance makes the same point: ad-supported games can often reach a positive return in tier 2 and 3 markets because low acquisition costs offset lower revenue per player, while games built on strong in-app purchases tend to need the higher-value players of tier 1.
Keep the absolute numbers in view as well. A very good percentage on a very small base may not pay for the team's time, and countries differ a lot in how much volume they can supply.
Choosing where to buy
Soft launch: pick for what you need to learn
A soft launch tests a game before global release, and the country choice depends on the question. Cheap markets answer retention and stability cheaply. To test monetization, you need a market that behaves like your eventual target, which is why Canada, Australia and New Zealand have long been popular: English-speaking, smaller and closer to US behaviour. The Philippines has been a common low-cost choice for early tests. Soft launching with playable ads covers the process.
Scale: start from your best payback and widen out
- Run a small test across a broad set of countries and sort them by the value of users against their cost, not by tier.
- Give budget to the countries that pay back, in order, until each one stops improving as you spend more.
- Add the next country on the list. Most apps end up with a handful that carry the bulk of the spend and a long tail worth a small automated budget.
- Check again each quarter. CPMs and competition shift, and a market that was too expensive last year may be fine now.
Split campaigns, usually
Avoid putting the United States and India in one campaign with one bid. The cheaper country absorbs the delivery because installs there are easy to win, and your report shows a low average CPI hiding users you did not want. Group countries by similar value and bid, even when a network offers automation. Some platforms now do this well with value-based bidding, but only when they get reliable revenue signals. How playable ads learn and bid explains what those signals do.
What changes in your ads
- Localise. Translating the text in an ad is often the cheapest improvement available in a non-English market, and it can matter far more than a change of art style. See localizing playable ads.
- Mind the weight. Lean assets help everywhere, and especially on the slow networks and older phones common in tier 3. Load time and performance has the details.
- Adjust the offer. Prices and purchase methods differ, so an ad promising a specific price or a payment method may need changing per market.
- Check rules. Age limits, gambling-style mechanics and data consent vary by country. Loot-box style reveals and casino themes are treated very differently in different places, so check before you ship.
Common mistakes
- Treating a tier list as fact and never testing a country because of the group it was placed in.
- Comparing countries on CPI alone. Cheap installs are only a good deal if those users earn more than they cost.
- Using tier 3 retention to predict tier 1 revenue. Retention can travel across markets better than monetization does.
- Running one worldwide campaign and reading only the blended average.
- Sending a heavy, English-only ad to a market with slow networks and little English.
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