蘑菇AV

Gaming is up, but marketers must pick their spots: Most casual gamers ignore ads, but players in story-driven and open-world titles are more likely to engage.

Discord expands ad offerings: The company is launching Video Quests for mobile in June 2025, incentivizing ad engagement with in-game rewards as it broadens its advertiser appeal beyond gaming.

Timing ad buys to seize on key engagement windows: Our Industry KPI data reveals Gen Z has predictable spikes in searches for apparel, gaming content.

AppLovin exits gaming in $900M sale to focus on AI-driven adtech: The company sells its entire "apps business," shifting its strategy to prioritize ad mediation, automation, and performance-based advertising.

AppLovin beat Q1 expectations and exited gaming: The company is now all-in on adtech, led by AXON鈥檚 rapid growth.

The news: Affirm partnered with Shopmonkey and Xsolla so auto mechanics and video game developers can offer installment plans at checkout. Our take: Affirm has focused on building out its partnership network and the Affirm Card鈥攁nd its fiscal Q3 results (ended March 31, 2025) bear out the strategies鈥� success, with total revenues increasing 36% YoY.

Gaming offers a long runway of opportunity for advertisers. In 2025, US digital gamers will spend nearly as much time playing as social network users spend on social platforms each day (1 hour, 48 minutes versus 1 hour, 51 minutes, respectively). But at $8.76 billion, US gaming ad revenues will account for just a fraction of the $102.66 billion that social networks garner in ad spending.

Over half (53%) of US video game players who mostly play story-driven, single player games say that advertising in games or game-related promotions has at least somewhat of an impact on their purchasing decisions, according to March data from CivicScience.

On today's podcast episode, we discuss why gaming is a digital advertising hotbed, how consumers are embracing shoppable media, and what happens now that the ride-sharing industry has bounced back. Tune in to the discussion with our forecasting writer Ethan Cramer-Flood.

It's been a year since the messaging app Discord launched its own reward-based ad format called "Quests" for PC and game console users, and they're ready to celebrate its success.

Chip maker NVIDIA last week launched a pre-roll ad product for cloud gaming that makes video game advertising look a lot more like connected TV (CTV).

YouTube has more users than Facebook, Netflix, or Spotify. But its advertising revenues do not match its vast reach. This report contextualizes the opportunities and scope for growth in various media spheres.

Its gaming portfolio had driven engagement and improved its ad targeting. On its Q4 2024 earnings call on February 12, 2025, AppLovin announced that it had signed a term sheet to sell its portfolio of gaming studios for $900 million. Up until that point, the company owned over 200 free-to-play mobile games that served as valuable data sources for AppLovin鈥檚 ad tech ecosystem.

Scopely鈥檚 $3.5 billion acquisition of Niantic鈥檚 games division strengthens its position in mobile gaming. Pok茅mon Go鈥檚 live-service model opens new revenue streams through in-game advertising, branded integrations, and sponsorships.

AppLovin is setting its sights on ecommerce: Executives plan to attract spenders and grow revenues with a slew of ad product launches.

US consumers will spend 8.6 hours daily with digital media in 2025. How they divide that time across devices is evolving as video content drives strong growth in connected TV usage.

Advertisers can turn the social advertising spigot on and off with relative ease, particularly compared with the higher-budget and longer-term commitments that characterize TV and CTV. This suggests social media may take the first hit from any downturn but also be the first to recover. If tariffs force Chinese advertisers to cut back, social platforms could see lower ad auction prices.