Reward Games Glossary: Key Terms Explained (2026)

This glossary defines the reward-game terms you’ll meet on a withdraw screen, a Play listing or in one of our guides — from rewarded video and eCPM to minimum cash-out, KYC and TRC20. Each entry stands on its own, so skim to the one you need. For the practical side, see the payout methods we track.

Key takeaways:

• Coins and a withdrawable cash balance are two different currencies — one is spent in-game, one is what you cash out.
• Rewarded video is the only ad format that credits your balance directly.
• Minimums, region eligibility and payout methods are set by each game, not by us.

Gameplay and reward terms

Reward game — a free casual game that converts in-game activity into a balance you can request as real money. It is funded by advertising, not by player deposits, and it involves no stake or wager.

Soft currency — the everyday coins you earn and spend inside the game on lives, boosters and continues. Soft currency never leaves the app. Its counterpart, hard currency, is the premium currency of a typical free-to-play game, normally bought with money; reward games often de-emphasise it.

Cash balance — the separate, withdrawable balance a reward game tracks alongside your coins. This is the only number that can leave the app, and it is usually displayed in your local currency.

Minimum cash-out — the balance you must reach before the game will accept a withdrawal request. Every game sets its own and shows it on the withdraw screen. Requests below it are rejected outright.

Streak bonus — an escalating reward for playing on consecutive days. Missing a day usually resets the streak to the start.

Reward curve — how a game paces rewards as you progress. Most front-load: early progress feels generous, then pacing slows as you approach the minimum. That shape is deliberate.

Advertising terms

Impression — one display of one ad to one player. It is the unit advertisers actually pay for.

Rewarded video — an opt-in video ad you choose to watch in exchange for an in-game reward. In reward games it is the only format that adds to your balance directly.

Interstitial — a full-screen ad shown at a natural break, such as between levels. Not opt-in, and it does not pay you.

Banner — a small persistent ad strip along an edge of the screen. Passive, low-value, and it does not pay you either.

eCPM — effective cost per mille: the revenue an app earns per 1,000 ad impressions. It varies enormously by country, ad format and season, which is why two identical players in different countries are worth very different amounts.

Ad fill rate — the share of a game’s ad requests that get filled with an actual ad. When fill is low in your region at that moment, there is no rewarded video to watch — and therefore no reward.

Ad mediation — the layer that auctions each ad slot across several ad networks in real time and serves the highest bid. It is why the same slot shows ads from many different networks.

Advertising ID — a resettable identifier Android gives apps for advertising purposes. It is not your name or your account, and you can reset or delete it in your device settings. It is the main signal behind personalised ads, which are targeted using that ID plus coarse details like country and app category.

Cash-out and payment terms

Payout method — the rail your money travels on: an e-wallet, an instant bank transfer or a crypto transfer. The method, far more than the game, determines how fast the money lands.

E-wallet — an app-based account that holds money for you. PayPal is the worldwide default; local wallets include GCash, DANA, GoPay and OVO.

Stablecoin — a cryptocurrency designed to hold a steady value, normally pegged to the US dollar. USDT is the one you’ll see most often in game payouts.

TRC20 — the token standard on the Tron blockchain. USDT sent over TRC20 is the cheap, fast route, and the receiving wallet must support the same network — sending to a wallet on a different chain can lose the funds permanently.

Network fee — the fee a blockchain charges to process a transfer. Choosing the right network is how you keep it very low.

KYC — “know your customer”: identity verification a payment provider or exchange may require before it releases funds. It is a legal obligation on their side, not a trick, and it is a common reason a first payout sits waiting.

Region eligibility — whether cash rewards, and which methods, are offered where you live. Set by each game, and the reason two players see completely different withdraw screens.

Pending / processing — the status between requesting a payout and receiving it. First withdrawals are commonly reviewed, so they sit here longer than later ones.

Business terms you’ll meet in explainers

User acquisition (UA) — buying new players by running ads for the game. Most reward-game installs are paid for this way rather than found organically.

CPI — cost per install: what a developer pays to acquire one new player.

LTV — lifetime value: the total revenue a player generates across their time in the game. A game is only viable if LTV exceeds CPI, which is why retention — the share of players who come back after 1, 7 or 30 days — drives so much of the design. An uncashed reward balance is, bluntly, a retention mechanic.

FAQ

Why do reward games use coins instead of showing money directly? Coins are the in-game economy for lives and boosters, and they let a game tune its own pacing. The withdrawable cash balance is tracked separately — that’s the number that matters when you cash out.

Which of these terms matter most before my first withdrawal? Minimum cash-out, payout method, region eligibility and, if you’re using crypto, TRC20. Those four decide whether a request is even accepted. Our withdrawal walkthrough puts them in order.

Do I need to understand eCPM and ad fill to play? No — but they explain why your rewards differ from someone else’s in another country, and why a rewarded video is sometimes simply unavailable. The player’s-eye view is in how reward game ads work.

Now put the vocabulary to work: browse the games we track and read a withdraw screen with the terms above in mind.

Definitions are general to the reward-game model. Actual minimums, methods and eligibility are set by each game, differ by region, and are never guaranteed. Reward games are for players 18+.