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Industry staples like display, video, and OTT have been in place for some years, but there’s a looming shadow on the horizon; a massive media powerhouse that has only begun to dip its toes into everything digital advertising has to offer: gaming.
No longer a niche medium, video games have gone mainstream and reach a worldwide audience of 3.32 billion players. A recent report from Comscore highlights just how large and diverse the gaming audience has become; it’s not just kids playing games these days. Let’s take a look at the current landscape of video game advertising and what to expect in the future:
Key Metrics for the Comscore Report
A LOT of People are Playing Games
One reason why advertisers often hesitate with in-game advertising is the perceived gaming audience: video games have long been thought of as entertainment for children. That may have been true 30 years ago, but all those kids have grown up: now, 62% of adults play video games!
Millennials are far-and-away the largest generation of gamers, representing about 49% of the online population. The next highest group is – surprisingly – Gen X, at 28%, while Gen Z and Boomers bring up the pack at 13% and 11% respectively.
Not only are many adults playing, but they are playing a LOT. In 2023, gamers spent a reported 45 billion hours playing; by comparison, people spent a combined 1.6 billion hours in movie theaters that same year. What does this mean? It means you have an untapped marketing channel where your audience is spending a TON of their time!
The Main Gaming Groups
Comscore divided gamers into two general categories: mobile and console/PC. There is a lot of overlap in these groups; the report suggests that 77% of gamers play on more than one platform. Still, the mobile and console/PC categories have different primary audiences and different views on in-game advertising.
Mobile gamers are much more amicable towards advertisements since they generally only play “free-to-play” games; 75% say advertisements don’t impact the gaming experience.
Console/PC gamers generally have a much higher affinity toward single-player games with an emphasis on storytelling, and are overall less accepting of ads. Still, around 34% of gamers say that product placement from real-world brands can make the game world feel more “real”. This placement can work really well; the author of this article is a gamer himself, and remembers products that appeared in a game from 2010!
Programmatic’s Current Place in Gaming
Mobile gamers make up a significant portion of the gaming market and are all too familiar with ads. Most mobile games are free apps supported by in-app ads which can be bought through DSPs and served programmatically. Ads in mobile games are generally not the diegetic in-game ads; they are usually full-screen ads that interrupt the gameplay every once in a while.
Less intrusive is the “billboard” style, where the ad occupies a space within the game world itself. These have existed in games for some time, but are only now starting to be programmatically served. The most popular game to introduce these types of programmatic ads is Roblox.
For the uninitiated, Roblox is a platform that allows users to play and even create smaller gaming experiences; within the creation tools is the option to include ad space within the creator’s world to host programmatic ads.
These ads include impression tracking based on how much of the advertisement is within the player’s view, even taking into account variables like viewing angle and time spent in screen-space. Roblox is a game primarily geared towards younger audiences, but well over 50% of players are above the COPPA threshold and receive targeted ads within the game.
In fact, a 2022 survey suggests that 76% of all gamers are over the age of 18. Advertisers and developers will need to work together to follow data privacy laws going forward to reach this largely untapped audience.
Genius Monkey and Gaming
In-game programmatic advertising is still in its infancy; most ads in video games today fall under the intrusive “in-app” category that Genius Monkey generally avoids. Accidental clicks and audience annoyance are common occurrences, often wasting ad spend and brewing bad faith with potential customers.
Genius Monkey COO, Travis Champ, stated “Gaming and DOOH are the big new things for programmatic. I expect the growth in placements and capabilities in both of these mediums to be exponential in the next year.”
Gaming is clearly a powerful medium that’s growing among all generations – young and old – and presents a powerful new way to reach your audience. The industry is just starting to scratch the surface of what’s possible with advertising; perhaps in-game programmatic will remain niche, or it could be a new avenue for extremely creative advertising and consumer interaction. Whatever the future holds, Genius Monkey will be there with trusted, verifiable means to reach your audience.
Don’t Wait for Your Audience to Come to You
Are you ready to meet your audience on whatever screen they may use? Genius Monkey’s device agnostic approach means you can serve better ads at just the right time, lowering your cost and increasing your conversion rates. Learn how to evolve your marketing to the next level by getting in touch with the Genius Monkeys today!
