Mobile Monday: Diverse Gaming Audiences and Mobile as 53% of Gaming Market

Digital Turbine is constantly keeping tabs on the mobile world, and every week, we’re sharing the most interesting and important need-to-know stories and articles. In this edition of Mobile Monday, we’re covering brand advertising expansion into mobile games and reaching a diverse audience and the Global Games Market Report indicating mobile as the top catalyst for growth. Learn all about these stories in this week’s Mobile Monday!

Reaching a Wider Audience with In-Game Mobile Ads

What do mobile gamers look like? Past stereotypes may have included an image of a teenage boy playing games in a dark basement, but that is no longer the case. According to the Entertainment Software Association, 41% of gamers identify as female, as noted in the Ad Age article. What’s more, according to GlobalWebIndex, 70% of women in the U.S. play games on a smartphone or tablet, making mobile a more valuable avenue for marketers to use to reach a diverse audience.With the understanding that the mobile gaming audience includes a wide span of demographics, brands like OPI, Tampax, Benefit Cosmetics, and Hally Hair are utilizing this channel to engage with a highly interactive consumer group. Hally Hair, a home hair-dye company, used in-game ads in mobile apps to appeal to their target audience, and with that success, they added on a partnership with a female gamer, an integration with Roblox, and a new product launch, along with virtual goods connected to the Roblox avatars. Hally Hair is just the latest beauty brand to realize the potential of advertising in mobile games, as this channel activates an audience that is engaged, in a good mood, and community-focused, allowing for more conversation on brands and products advertised in gaming. Adding in mobile games to a brand’s advertising strategy can only increase brand awareness, interaction, and conversion, as users in this channel are highly engaged with their games and are already primed for brand interaction, especially when ads are created to flow seamlessly in the game experience.

Mobile Remains the King of Games — and Still Growing!

The mobile gaming industry boom has lasted years already, and momentum continues. Newzoo’s annual Global Games Market Report has the global gaming market at 3.2 billion gamers worldwide in 2022 expected to help generate $196.8 billion in 2022, up by +2.1% year on year.And mobile remains king. Expected to generate revenue of $103.5 billion this year, making up 53% of the market, mobile gaming remains the primary driver of revenue growth in the global gaming market. Annually, mobile gaming represents +5.1% of total gaming growth.

A closer look at North America shows that while the entire market will grow just +0.5% year on year, mobile is actually the one off-setting some steep declines in the general gaming market — while facing challenges of its own with the ongoing privacy policy changes by Apple and Google.