蘑菇AV

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.

Cloudflare found that recent attacks surged across telecom, gaming, and gambling, with cybersecurity and aerospace emerging as surprise targets, indicating that no industries are safe from DDoS threats. Geographically, Germany, Turkey, and China bore the brunt of attacks, while Hong Kong and Indonesia led attack sources. Key takeaway: DDoS attacks are only going to get worse.

The feature builds on the popularity of 鈥淭he Six鈥� within Samsung鈥檚 Gaming Hub, where the game saw 42% growth in monthly active users from Q3 to Q4 2024 and nearly 50% growth in early 2025. In early testing, the format delivered a 53% lift in unaided brand recall and was preferred over traditional ads by 89% of viewers, per Samsung and MediaScience research.

Nearly 62% of gamers find reward-based ads the most engaging, per Attest, indicating a high success rate that could give advertisers more confidence in the platform鈥檚 ability to garner attention. And reward-based video ads connect particularly well with younger consumers like Gen Z, one of Discord鈥檚 core audiences.

Marketers may have success reaching Gen Z on gaming and entertainment apps as well. Those are downloaded by 54% and 53%, respectively, of Gen Zers. For those seeking a Gen X audience, shopping and weather apps also have high downloads, with 52% and 51%, respectively, of Gen Xers downloading those. 50% of millennials also prefer shopping apps, but they also throw gaming apps (50%) into the mix.

Gaming offers brands direct access to younger consumers鈥�-nearly 75% of Gen Z will engage in some form of digital gaming by 2027, 蘑菇AV forecasts. The perception that gamers lack purchasing power stems from unnatural product integrations that target them, said Alex Blum, chief operating officer of Unity, which powered the software integration for in-game purchases.

"That will entail more standardized ad formats, easier tools, better tracking鈥� I think this is going to be a fairly common move by most big game developers.". This was originally featured in the Retail Daily newsletter. For more retail insights, statistics, and trends, subscribe here.

Use this chart: Marketers can use this chart to make the case for leaning into video, social, and gaming to reach Gen Z. Retailers can use Gen Z鈥檚 high digital buying penetration to make the case for better shopping UX. And media planners can use it to determine investments in channels like podcasting and VR. Related 蘑菇AV reports:.

Shipments of MR headsets are expected to increase 361% to 15.2 million, up from 3.3 million, driven by gamers and content. AR remains niche, with shipments projected to reach just 475,000 by 2029. New challengers: While Meta鈥檚 products鈥攅specially Ray-Ban Meta Smart Glasses鈥攃ontinue to dominate, players like XREAL, Viture, and TCL are growing.

It now dominates the cloud computing segment with Microsoft Azure and the gaming market through its Activision Blizzard acquisition. Microsoft may have failed to capitalize on the smartphone and mobile app explosion of the past decade, but investments in cloud computing and generative AI (genAI) anchor its future expansion.

Despite financial troubles among some esports and gaming video platforms, ad revenues will continue to grow for both media.