How to Publish a Game on RuStore and How Much It Can Earn

I had to figure out how to publish a game on RuStore with our own games, even though at first I didn't believe in this store. In summer 2025 I wrote exactly that: "Honestly, I didn't really believe in RuStore or in a Russian store being viable." In July 2025 we had 34 games there, and together they made about $1,880. Two games did almost all of it, and the other 32 brought practically nothing.

Ruble amounts in this article are converted to dollars at the Bank of Russia rate for October 22, 2026, about 82 rubles per dollar.

Rules, timelines and the fee below come from RuStore's documentation and agreements as of October 11, 2026. Revenue numbers come from my posts and streams, including an interview with a RuStore manager.

I share how our games do on different platforms, RuStore included, on X.

RuStore for developers: who can publish a game and what it costs

RuStore is a Russian app store for Android. Publishing a game there costs nothing: signing up in the developer console, in RuStore's own words, is "free for everyone", and you don't pay for publishing, whether the game is free or paid. Forums still say you have to pay about $24 to publish, but RuStore's rules have no such fee. The store makes money from a fee on purchases, more on that below.

You can open a developer account as an individual, a sole proprietor or a company. Foreigners can too: as an individual or as a foreign company. Ads in the game are available on any account type, but not everyone can get money for purchases through RuStore:

The self-employed story is recent. Self-employed is a Russian tax status for freelancers. RuStore stopped accepting their monetization requests on December 12, 2025, and from February 1, 2026, purchases, subscriptions and paid apps were switched off for individuals and self-employed people. Ads and third-party payment methods stayed, and RuStore takes no fee on third-party payments. Individuals no longer go through an identity check at sign-up; it is needed only if they get to monetization.

RuStore describes itself like this: in July 2026, according to Mediascope, 68.4M people a month used it. In the first half of 2026 there were 30,000 developers with published apps, and more than 110,000 apps and games in the catalog. RuStore also says it is preinstalled on all new Android phones in Russia.

For a beginner from Russia, it is the second easy platform to start with after Yandex Games. In summer 2025, in the interview with a RuStore manager, I said exactly that: going straight to Google Play and the App Store is tough for a beginner, so many take Yandex Games or RuStore as their first platform, gather stats there and then move on. I covered the browser route in how to publish a game on Yandex Games.

How to publish a game on RuStore: steps from console to release

In RuStore Console, publishing a game takes six steps.

1. Sign-up. Open the RuStore developer console, click "Log in with VK ID" and choose the account type. A VK ID can be created with an email, a phone number, through Yandex or through Gosuslugi, Russia's government services portal. Individuals are registered right away, sole proprietors and companies wait for a check.
2. Build. RuStore accepts APK and AAB up to 5 GB. The file must be signed, and the package name must be unique. If you upload an AAB, add the signing keys to the console in advance. An uploaded file is kept for 14 days: if you don't send it to moderation, it is deleted.
3. SDK. Purchases need RuStore's Pay SDK, which exists for Unity, Godot, Unreal Engine, Defold, Construct and other engines. The old billingClient is marked as deprecated. There are also review and update SDKs, and RuStore takes them into account when it picks games for collections. All payment solutions and ad SDKs, including mediation, must be listed in the console.
4. Store card. Fill in the title, descriptions, icon, screenshots, category, age rating and contacts, the requirements are in the table below.
5. Data and age rating. Fill in the block about what data the game collects. If it collects personal data, you need a privacy policy in Russian: a link in the card and inside the game. You set the age rating yourself under Russia's law on protecting children from harmful information (436-FZ).
6. Moderation. Send the version for review. RuStore reviews games within 72 hours, and after approval the game appears in the store. Every update goes through moderation again, and it must have the same signature, the same package and a higher version number than before.

What you need to publish a game: the store card

RuStore requires this for the card:

Porting a game from Google Play to RuStore

You can upload the same build as on Google Play. We did that with many games: took the APK from Google Play, the same descriptions and images, with no RuStore SDK at all. As I said in a video in March 2025, we uploaded about 30 games this way, and about 20 passed moderation. In a post I later described it like this: "We just moved the same APKs over. Zero effort."

RuStore manager Ekaterina Kolmykova, in an interview on my channel, called such a port "step zero": the store welcomes it, but the next step is adding the payment SDK and the review SDK.

Check two things before porting. The game will be unpublished if it has protection like Google Play Integrity that stops it from working when installed from RuStore. And the RuStore version must not lag behind the one in other stores: games get unpublished for that too.

RuStore moderation: how long it takes and why games get rejected

By the rules, RuStore reviews a game within 72 hours of submission. First an automatic scan checks the build for viruses and vulnerabilities, then a moderator looks at it, and specialists if needed. On first release, moderation may ask for extra information. We went through it in bulk: of about 30 ported games, about 20 passed.

In its moderation rules, RuStore lists the rejection reasons:

• breaking Russian law or prohibited content;
• false information about the game in the card;
• infringing someone else's intellectual property;
• problems with handling personal data;
• violations in ads, monetization and kids' apps;
• low quality or a game that doesn't work;
• missing required information, documents or labels.

They can also reject without giving a reason. You can appeal once, through support@rustore.ru, and wait up to 30 days for an answer. A rejected game can't be re-uploaded from another account without fixing the violations, and you can't publish several nearly identical games.

After release you will have to update the game: RuStore can remove a game that hasn't been updated for more than 12 months and no longer meets the store's current requirements.

How to make money on RuStore: purchases, ads and the 15% fee

You can make money on RuStore from in-game purchases and from ads.

Purchases and subscriptions through RuStore are connected with the Pay SDK and only for sole proprietors and companies. The player pays by card, through SBP (Russia's fast payment system) and other methods, and RuStore keeps 15% of your revenue for the month. By the agreement, that 15% already includes RuStore's taxes and payment system costs. Payouts come once a month in Russian currency to a business bank account, within 15 business days after the month closes. You pay taxes on your part yourself.

Our July 2025 shows what that looks like in money. All our games brought about $1,880. In the post I counted the fee as 17.65%, though by the agreement RuStore takes 15%, and it came out that about $1,550 reached us. After a 7% tax, about $1,440 was left.

But we spent about $610 a month on publishing games continuously, so the net from purchases was about $830, plus whatever ads brought in. Tax regimes and rates differ for everyone, so do the math for your own case.

Ads are available to individuals and self-employed people too. For ad revenue, RuStore offers VK Ads in its tools section, and connecting it from the console is free. Ad SDKs and mediators, as in step 3, must be listed in the console. Why there is nothing to do in mobile without mediation, I wrote in the article how much mobile games make.

Stats in the console are awkward: revenue is shown for a day, 7 days, 30 days and all time, and you can't pick your own period. In summer 2025 I wrote that "RuStore has no data for specific periods", and that makes it hard to match a payout with what we earned. Ekaterina Kolmykova explained it like this: the console shows what the player paid, while the final report has the final numbers with the fee and refunds, so the sums differ. Check payouts against the report.

Kids' games

If a game is for kids, RuStore's rules ask for more. Kids' games can't have purchases without parental control, and games rated 0+ and 6+ can't show behavioral ads. Gambling with cash-out is banned at any age without a Russian license; social casinos without cash-out are allowed.

I show revenue and costs for each platform on X, from our real spreadsheets.

How to get into RuStore collections and get a monofeature

Short answer: you can't buy a spot on the storefront, the editorial team gives it, and your chances grow if the game has the Pay SDK, fresh updates and a good rating. A feature is when the store puts a game on the storefront: in a collection or as a separate banner.

Featuring on RuStore is free. The formats are: monofeature (a separate banner for one game), collections, events, editorial badges, coupon promos, sales and special projects.

The editors look at installs and player activity, rating and replies to reviews, fresh updates, the quality of the card, video ("especially for games") and whether RuStore SDKs are integrated, the Pay SDK first of all. A game that hasn't been updated for half a year, according to RuStore, won't be picked. The RuStore version also must not be lower than the one on Google Play.

You can apply for an event yourself: in the console, it is the "Promotion" section, "Event requests". An event is a season, a tournament, a sale or a big update lasting from a day to 60 days. A request is reviewed for up to 14 days, and if there is no answer by then, it wasn't approved.

Our first monofeature happened in April 2024, with Open World, our MMO sandbox. Before it, the game sat in new releases and got 3,500 downloads in 3 weeks. I listed back then what it took: a good game, purchases connected through RuStore, a big update the feature was timed to (for us it was building a shopping mall in the game) and a working contact with a RuStore manager.

Officially the editors decide, and a manager isn't required. But in my list for the first monofeature, the contact with a manager was a separate item. In the interview, Ekaterina Kolmykova and I went through three levels: an event on the game's page, an event in the carousel on the games tab, and a monofeature. According to her, a monofeature can raise installs "four, five times" for the duration of the event, an event with a promo code "more like twice". She advised applying early: "three weeks ahead, better a month."

Ekaterina also said developers often get the storefront images wrong: you don't need to redo the creatives, but the size and format must match the requirements. So read the image requirements before applying.

In our interview I asked Ekaterina in detail how to apply for an event through the console, how far ahead to do it and how an event differs from a monofeature. The video is in Russian, and YouTube has an English dub track for it.

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How much a game makes on RuStore: our numbers

In short: from pennies for ported APKs to about $991 in 30 days for one game with purchases and features. Here is how it went for us.

It all started with someone else's case. In March 2024 I released an interview with Maxim Klochkov, whose game unexpectedly took off on RuStore specifically. In a post about it I wrote then: "both eCPM and playtime are much higher on RuStore compared to Google Play or the App Store." In the interview Maxim said that with roughly equal installs they made "almost four times more" from RuStore than from Google.

Then we tried two approaches:

1. Porting APKs without the SDK. About 20 games from Google Play passed moderation. When we were just starting with RuStore, all the payouts, as I said in a video, were "100 bucks for 2 months".
2. SDK and features for one game. We added the RuStore SDK with purchases to Open World and got a monofeature, and in a post I wrote: "And it took off! We started making [several hundred dollars]." In March 2025, RuStore brought us about $549 in 30 days.

In summer 2025, inside our studio Garden of Dreams, we started porting all our games to RuStore. One developer handled it, together with the head of the direction who talks to RuStore.

In July 2025 the console showed about $991 from purchases in 30 days for Open World and about $5,350 all time.

For the whole of July 2025, 34 games brought about $1,880. Open World brought 57.5% of the revenue, Pocket Survivor AI 35%, and the other 32 games, as I wrote, "bring practically nothing". All of that revenue came from organic traffic and features, with no paid user acquisition.

In February 2026 I wrote: "Growing slowly! Almost broke $3,000 in revenue. All organic."

By our numbers, the money on RuStore is made by individual games. Games ported without the SDK bring small change, while a game with purchases through RuStore, regular updates and features can feed the whole direction.

Is it worth publishing a game on RuStore?

If you already have an Android build, I think it is. Sign-up and publishing are free, moderation is short, and porting a ready APK costs almost nothing. Don't expect money from a port alone: for us it came from a game with the Pay SDK, regular updates and features.

If the game is built around purchases, keep in mind: by RuStore's rules, purchases through its payments are now connected only for sole proprietors and companies, while individuals and self-employed people are left with ads and third-party payment methods. How to choose between ads and purchases and how much mobile games make in general, I covered in how much mobile games make. And how to bring players to a game beyond features is in how to market an indie game.

Frequently asked questions

How much does it cost to publish a game on RuStore?

Nothing. Signing up in RuStore Console is, in RuStore's words, "free for everyone", and publishing costs nothing too, whether the game is free or paid. The fee of about $24 that forums mention is not in RuStore's rules. The store makes money from a fee: 15% of your revenue from purchases and subscriptions through RuStore.

Can a foreign developer publish a game on RuStore?

Yes. Foreigners can open a developer account as an individual or as a foreign company, and ads in the game are available on any account type. Purchases through RuStore are listed for sole proprietors and companies from Russia, with a 15% fee and monthly payouts in Russian currency to a business bank account. Individuals have had no RuStore purchases since February 1, 2026.

Can I publish on RuStore without a company or as self-employed?

You can publish: an individual only needs a VK ID to sign up. But since February 1, 2026, purchases, subscriptions and paid games through RuStore are connected only for sole proprietors and companies, and these tools were switched off for individuals and self-employed people. Without a company you are left with in-game ads and third-party payment methods, on which RuStore takes no fee.

What is RuStore's fee and when do payouts come?

RuStore takes 15% of the developer's revenue for the month, and that already includes RuStore's taxes and payment system costs. Money comes once a month in Russian currency to the bank account of a sole proprietor or company, within 15 business days after the month closes. RuStore takes no fee on third-party payment methods.

How long does RuStore moderation take?

By RuStore's rules, a game is reviewed within 72 hours of submission. On first release, moderation may ask for extra information. Every update is reviewed again. They can reject without giving a reason, and you can appeal once through support@rustore.ru, with an answer within 30 days.

Can I upload the same APK to RuStore as on Google Play?

Yes, we did it: we ported APKs from Google Play with the same descriptions, and about 20 games passed moderation. But the build must not have protection like Google Play Integrity that stops the game from working when installed from RuStore, and the RuStore version must not lag behind other stores. Otherwise the game gets unpublished.

How do I get into RuStore collections?

You can't buy featuring, RuStore's editorial team picks games for the storefront. It looks at installs, rating, replies to reviews, fresh updates, the store card, video and integrated RuStore SDKs, the Pay SDK first of all. You can apply for an event yourself in the console's "Promotion" section, and requests are reviewed for up to 14 days.

Sources

• For developers: sign-up, monetization, FAQ, RuStore (in Russian)
• "Developer registration FAQ", RuStore blog, 07/22/2026 (in Russian)
• Changes for self-employed people and individuals, RuStore blog, 01/20/2026 (in Russian)
• Publishing and reviewing apps: publishing is free, RuStore help (in Russian)
• Publishing an app: formats and store card, RuStore help (in Russian)
• RuStore moderation rules (in Russian)
• Developer agreement (fee, clause 6.1), version of 08/03/2026 (in Russian)
• Payment acceptance terms (payouts, clause 5.2), version of 08/03/2026 (in Russian)
• RuStore SDK catalog (in Russian)
• Developer tools in RuStore Console (in Russian)
• Featuring: formats and selection criteria, RuStore help (in Russian)
• Event requests, RuStore help (in Russian)
• Payment statistics, RuStore help (in Russian)
• "Ad digest Q3 2026", RuStore blog, 10/05/2026 (in Russian)
• Evgeny Grishakov, "How to make money from mobile games on RuStore. An interview with Ekaterina Kolmykova", YouTube, 07/10/2025 (in Russian)
• Evgeny Grishakov, "We're putting games on 100 different platforms!", YouTube, 03/20/2025 (in Russian)
• Evgeny Grishakov, interview with Maxim Klochkov, YouTube, 03/07/2024 (in Russian)
• Evgeny Grishakov, Telegram posts #1600, #1667, #2373, #2546, #2607, #2608, #2649, #3016 about RuStore (in Russian)

In February 2026 I asked my readers whether you can make $10,000 on RuStore. What do you think, is it realistic with a portfolio of small games? How our numbers grow, I share on X.