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Roblox soars in Q3 despite critical reports: The company saw significant user and revenue growth and restated its commitment to child safety.

Nintendo鈥檚 moves into music streaming and pricey alarm clocks feel like filler as fans await the overdue Switch 2.

Optimize: Feature play ads in places users are already using their hands, such as within mobile games or on social media platforms like Facebook or Instagram, and not music and podcast platforms. This was originally featured in the 蘑菇AV Daily newsletter. For more marketing insights, statistics, and trends, subscribe here.

Netflix cuts its expensive AAA gaming division, indicating anxieties about long-term, high-cost games projects. Focusing on smaller IP-based projects could better align with its business model.

Virtual goods sales, such as in-game currency, special characters, or premium features, are the dominant form of monetization for mobile games. Not only do they make up 96.0% of gaming IAPs, but the $22.18 billion they鈥檒l generate in 2023 will account for 52.3% of all IAPs. Those virtual goods sales in gaming are also over three times the volume of US mobile gaming ad revenues in 2023.

Amid industry layoffs and closures, Blizzard needs Vessel of Hatred to reignite interest in Diablo IV and maintain its strong position in the gaming market.

Sixty-three percent of US adult Gen Z gamers play games on their console or PC at least once per week, while 71% play mobile games that often, according to the Kagan survey. Teen Gen Zers (ages 13 to 17), however, are more likely to game on a console than a mobile device or PC, per an April 2023 survey from Giraffe Insights and Precise TV.

Roblox could kick down the door to an in-game advertising boom: The gaming and metaverse platform is deepening ties to the ad industry and hiring for ad tech roles.

While they benefit mobile games, they dramatically improve gamers鈥� experiences in larger virtual world games. These types of games are also where monetization could grow significantly, thanks to microtransaction opportunities like in-game commerce and virtual events. 5G will improve mobile gaming. After a slower-than-expected rollout, 5G is finally seeing large-scale implementation.

Mobile games dominate in total users, but less so in time spent. In the US, there are nearly two smartphone game players for every PC, tablet, or console player. The difference in time spent is much narrower, though. We estimate that the average US adult plays mobile games 24.4 minutes per day, or 40.2% of their total time spent on video games. Mobile games rely less on advertising than in the past.

Instagram and TikTok are both popular among Gen Z, but this generation shows a preference for one over the other for certain social activities, like viewing Stories and direct messaging.

Gaming is big among adults as well, particularly mobile gaming, which the average US adult spends about 27 minutes doing each day, according to our estimates. That鈥檚 about 13% of all time spent with mobile apps. 2. Consumer spend is contracting, but there鈥檚 more to the story for advertisers.

Mobile games: ByteDance already has mobile gaming aspirations. The Chinese tech giant produced $1 billion in player expenditures across its mobile games, a 16% increase from the year prior, per Sensor Tower. It could easily create a library of games exclusive to TikTok users.

US mobile gaming ad revenues will reach $6.67 billion this year, growing 12.0% over last year. Mobile games still rely on advertising for revenues, but in-app purchases will generate much more money and, by our estimates, exceed $20 billion in the US this year. Hypercasual games like Candy Crush are particularly effective at driving ad revenues. Use this chart:. Evaluate mobile ad spend strategy.

The company has been acquiring gaming studios such as Night School Studio in 2021 and Finnish mobile game studio Next Games in 2022. It has also dabbled in video game-like mechanics in some of its titles, like 2019鈥檚 鈥淏lack Mirror: Bandersnatch.鈥�. The state of cloud gaming: Revenue from cloud gaming is expected to reach $4.3 billion in 2023, a 62% increase from $2.6 billion in 2022.

Mobile games, one of the industry鈥檚 largest segments, are a major channel that we expect to bring in $8.59 billion in ad revenues this year. But so-called AAA games have historically resisted the pull of ads, and EA will have to introduce them carefully to avoid blowback.

Ads that allow people to test drive mobile games within News Feeds or Stories. When are they useful? When driving users to a mobile game or app. Messenger Ads. What are they?

The opportunity: Trial and error with mobile gaming ads. As developers release more high-production mobile games, they will also add more in-app buying options for subscriptions, game currency, and premium content, giving brands more options for ad formats. Intrinsic ads, for example, blend into the gaming environment, often with 3D effects as a graphic billboard.

Tuning in to CTV: At long last, Netflix is reportedly testing ways to bring its mobile game catalog to TVs, which would unify its game library under one hub since it launched gaming efforts in 2021. Roku is letting go of 200 more employees after laying off 200 last year due amid the weaker ad environment. Given its rising viewership, it could be an acquisition target.

In September, a Bloomberg investigation found that iHeartMedia (which will account for one-fifth of US podcasting revenues) and The New York Post bought millions of fraudulent listeners via mobile game ads that prompted podcast downloads. Our take: Podcasting鈥檚 next frontier is beyond North American markets.

The performance ad structure of mobile games is geared toward installs, but as developers seek brand dollars, this will likely lead to additional shoppable formats. Read the full report, US In-Game Ad Revenues Forecast 2024.

Yeah, that non-mobile gaming portion is interesting. So you were talking about total game ad revenues at the start of this section and they're going to get to eight and a half billion and call it nine this year. Pretty good staircase growth going forward.