The mobile gaming industry is booming and shows no signs of slowing down. Given the current economic climate, many industries are cutting costs to stay afloat, leaving the mobile industry to pick up the surplus ad spend. Chances are, if you own a smartphone, you’ve played a mobile game at some point.

The boom in mobile gaming

Additionally, NewZoo estimated this number would reach a peak of 2.6 billion users at the end of Q4. Of these users, reportedly 38% of them are willing to pay for mobile games.

What does the rise mean for marketers?

The mobile gaming community is massive and vast, making it an exceptional opportunity for advertisers. According to App Annie, consumer spend in mobile gaming is expected to dominate 60% of market share among all gaming platforms, beating out console, PC or handheld gaming in 2020. Well, this is mostly attributed to the sheer volume of mobile gamers and their attitude towards in-app advertisements. With over 3.5 billion smartphone users across the globe, 70% of which use mobile gaming apps every day, the pool marketers have to advertise in is massive.

Of these gamers, it is crucial to note that many of them are used to seeing ads. These users take ads in their games as part of the experience and are particularly inclined to viewing ads when there is something in it for them. These are known as rewarded video advertisements. Essentially, this is when the user gets a reward for watching an advert to completion.

The catch is the user can only watch an ad in exchange for more lives three times before they will have to make in-app purchases in order to continue the game. The number of free mobile games that use in-app purchases increased from 84% to 94% in 2018, proving that more free game developers are looking to in-game advertisements to monetise content.

Understanding this audience

The mobile gaming industry has a diverse and expansive audience, as anyone can be a gamer. This could be why the industry is growing at an imaginable pace because it caters to all walks of life. Additionally, as the gaming industry is so diverse in nature, it is also dynamic, meaning that mobile gamers enjoy seeing fresh content on a regular basis.