46% of AI chat queries focus on reporting: Hypercasual chases speed, Midcore and Casino go deeper
66% of iOS IAP revenue comes from Western countries, while emerging markets drive IAA growth
2,400–2,600 creative variations per quarter produced by top gaming spenders, up 25–30% YoY
Gaming’s golden age of marketing
The paradox is clear: AI makes it easier to build and create, but exponentially harder to stand out. In 2025, the bottleneck shifted from production to attention. Content creation exploded, game development accelerated, and creative variations multiplied, but the audience did not grow at the same pace. More games now compete for the same pool of players, often across multiple platforms, and only exceptional marketing backed by strong data foundations can rise above the noise.
AI democratized capabilities once exclusive to AAA studios. Any team can now generate code, mechanics, models, and animations at unprecedented speed. Development cycles shortened, creative testing accelerated, and paid channels filled with more games launching faster than ever. At the same time, player journeys became more fragmented as discovery, engagement, and monetization increasingly span mobile, web, PC, console, and social surfaces. The data reflects this scale and complexity: paid install share rose, ad impressions surged, creative production expanded, and UA budgets continued flowing into increasingly crowded channels. To cope, AI tools became embedded in daily workflows, with most AI assistant queries focused on reporting and performance breakdowns as teams sought faster visibility across growing data volumes.
In short, the production problem is largely solved, but the attention problem has intensified.
Success in 2026 belongs to teams who can stitch data from multiple sources together, making sense of the noise and fragmentation that AI-driven scale and cross-platform behavior create. But unified data alone is not enough. Teams must also understand where attention and value are actually forming: how platforms differ, which genres and regions show momentum, and where budget allocation delivers returns based on accurate signals rather than isolated views.
That is what this report provides. We examine how gaming studios navigated 2025, analyzing where UA budgets flowed, which genres and regions gained momentum, how creative production scaled across spending tiers, and where China-HQ publishers expanded their footprint. We also explore the shift toward hybrid monetization, the acceleration of iOS media diversification, and how AI chat usage varies by genre and team sophistication.
* All results are based on fully anonymous and aggregated data. To ensure statistical validity, we follow strict volume thresholds and methodologies and only present data when these conditions are met.
Gaming genres groupings as follows:
– Hypercasual: Hypercasual
– Casual: Puzzle, Party, Action, Match, Simulation, Tabletop, Kids
– Casino: Social Casino
– Midcore: Shooting, Strategy, RPG
AI floods gaming channels: share of paid UA up 10%, impressions up 20%
The paid install share for mobile games increased 10% year-over-year on both Android and iOS platforms in 2025, with ad impressions rising 20% during the same period. These numbers show a fundamental shift: there are now more games, more apps, more products, and far more creative variations, leading to dramatically intensified competition for player attention.
The driving force behind this transformation? AI’s dual revolution in 2025. Development tools made building games easier while creative tools accelerated asset production. Studios now generate code, mechanics, models, and animations with AI — capabilities once limited to AAA teams. The result: more games reaching market faster, flooding channels with creative variations.
On a platform level, Android skews heavily toward paid acquisition with 59% of installs, primarily driven by discovery and expansion budgets in non-Western markets. iOS sits at 44% paid share due to stronger organic pull and higher media costs that create acquisition friction.
On a genre level (see data sample above for information on how specific genres were grouped), Hypercasual games remain most dependent on paid traffic (83% Android, 72% iOS) as they are optimized for fast, paid-driven growth. Their short lifespan, low retention, and ad-based monetization make organic growth structurally insufficient to maintain scale. Casual games jumped 18% on Android to hit 54%, while Midcore enjoyed a 32% leap in iOS to reach 24%.
Regional variations reveal deeper complexities. In the US market, Android Casual games experienced an 18% increase in paid share in 2025, while iOS Midcore and Hypercasual games rose by 25% and 10%, respectively. The UK market experienced aggressive paid share growth on iOS across Casino (+13%), Hypercasual (+10%), and Midcore (+30%) genres, indicating competitive intensity in premium Western markets.
Non-Western markets like Vietnam and Turkey show more organic-heavy profiles for Casual and Midcore genres, with Hypercasual remaining the outlier that relies on paid models.
Paid install share trend per sub-category
Gaming UA spend hits $25B in 2025: iOS rises, Casual dominates
Mobile games spent $25 billion on user acquisition in 2025, up 3.8% compared to 2024 with iOS rising 6% and Android 2% (growth in non-gaming was significantly higher – see Top 5 data trends of 2025 for more). Despite Android’s market share domination, spend is only 8% higher on Google’s platform. iOS performance has stabilized post-ATT, driving renewed confidence and higher budget growth.
Gaming UA budgets remain heavily concentrated in Western markets, where iOS is the driving force. Almost 50% flowed into the United States alone, reflecting both monetization potential and intense competition leading to high media costs. However, ad spend in the US was 5% lower YoY. High costs and competition make incremental scale harder to justify. Turkey and India, on the other hand, enjoyed a 29% and 19% rise in spend, respectively.
Genre-specific spending patterns reveal strategic priorities (see data sample above for information on how specific genres were grouped). Across both platforms, Casual games command over 50% of total UA ad spend, balancing scale and monetization by combining IAA and IAP. However, their UA spend dropped -7% YoY on Android (with declines in all top six markets: US, UK, Japan, South Korea, Germany, and France) and remained mostly flat on iOS (+1%).
Midcore games rose sharply on iOS (+26%) but remained unchanged on Android. The genre’s ad dollars surged 43% on iOS in the US and 28% in the UK, while Japan and South Korea saw budgets drop -25% and -14%, respectively.
Hypercasual games showed stark platform differences: Android enjoyed a 14% overall YoY increase driven by India (+60%), Mexico (+36%), South Africa (+34%) and the US (+6%). iOS dropped -14% (with the US and UK both down -16%), indicating the genre’s economics work better on Android due to cheaper scale.
App install ad spend by platform in top markets in 2025 (USD) *
China-HQ publishers’ share in global UA up 22% YoY to reach 35%
China-based game publishers significantly expanded their global footprint in 2025, with their share of gaming UA spend outside China rising 22% YoY, reaching 35% of the total market. Growth differed by platform, with China-HQ UA spend increasing 29% YoY on Android compared to 10% YoY on iOS. In absolute terms, total gaming UA spend by China-HQ publishers on Android is now roughly double that of iOS.
Android enables global reach, faster creative iteration, and cost-efficient experimentation at scale. iOS plays a more selective role, focused on markets and genres where monetization potential justifies higher acquisition costs.
Growth was led by Hypercasual and Casual games, with UA share up 61% and 28% YoY, respectively, while Midcore also gained share (+8%). Hypercasual and Casual serve as a low-friction entry point for global audiences, enabling rapid localization and creative adaptation, while deeper genres support longer-term value capture once scale is achieved.
China-HQ publishers recorded strong share gains across highly competitive Western markets, including the US (+17%), UK (+26%), Germany (+31%), and France (+34%), showing creative localization has overcome cultural barriers.
Gains in Japan (+25%) and South Korea (+37%) represent competitive displacement in mature markets dominated by local publishers.
Latin America has emerged as a key acceleration zone, led by Mexico (+58%) and Brazil (+17%), supported by Android scale and strong performance of ad-supported and hybrid monetization models.
YoY % change in the share of gaming app install spend of China-HQ apps
Western markets command 60% of IAP revenue, emerging regions scale IAA growth
Western countries dominate the global revenue landscape, accounting for 55% of in-app purchase (IAP) revenue on Android and a significantly higher 66% on iOS. The US dominates with 45% of global spend on iOS and only 32% on Android. This gap between platforms highlights the disproportionate spending power of Apple users in mature markets.
In the Midcore genre, Japan, Vietnam, and South Korea account for approximately 40% of total IAP revenue among the top 15 analyzed markets.
Brazil and India experienced drops in Casual IAP revenue (-37% and -35%, respectively), while South Africa rose with iOS IAP up 31%. France saw Android gains across Casino (+29%), Casual (+11%), Hypercasual (+39%), and Midcore (+12%). Vietnam saw Hypercasual ad revenue drop on both platforms (-23% Android and -37% iOS), while Casino rose (Android +17%, iOS +9%).
Western countries hold an even larger share of IAA revenue: 81% on iOS compared to 65% on Android.
Several emerging markets show rapid growth in ad-based revenue. Turkey saw a 25% increase in IAA revenue across all genres, with Casino surging 110% on iOS and 33% on Android.
Casino shows consistent YoY growth across both platforms in most markets.
IAP revenue split per country among top markets
IAA revenue split per country among top markets
7% more games now use a hybrid monetization model, but most still don’t
The mobile gaming monetization landscape continues its structural transformation, as 7% more apps shifted from single-revenue models, whether in-app purchase (IAP) only or in-app advertising (IAA) only, to hybrid monetization in 2025. Hybrid setups convert some users into paying customers while monetizing non-payers through ads, helping maximize total average revenue per daily active user across the entire player base.
That said, hybrid adoption is still far from universal. Fewer than 30% of games currently run hybrid models overall, with meaningful variation by genre. Hybrid penetration remains lowest in Midcore (15%) and Casino (20%), while Casual (33%) and Hypercasual (32%) show higher, but still minority, adoption into hybrid casual.
On Android, traditional IAA models are gradually losing ground to hybrid. While Casino games remain firmly rooted in IAP with a 72% average share, pure IAA-based Casino titles have dropped by 33%, alongside nearly 20% growth in hybrid adoption. Midcore games remain even more specialized, with 80% still relying on IAP only, though pure IAA Midcore titles declined by 12% as some shift toward hybrid setups. Rising development and UA costs increasingly challenge ad-only viability for complex titles.
The iOS ecosystem mirrors these trends, but with higher baseline IAP concentration. Casino games on iOS are 65% IAP-based, and Midcore titles reach 83%. Even Hypercasual games, historically dominated by ad revenue, continue moving toward hybrid, with a 10% increase in adoption.
Overall, the industry is gradually moving toward “hybrid-casual” designs, blending simple mechanics with deeper monetization layers. While hybrid remains a minority approach today, its steady expansion suggests studios are actively exploring more resilient monetization mixes rather than abandoning established models outright.
Share of apps by monetization model trend
Paid install growth moves beyond top markets into Midcore-led expansion
Paid install trends in 2025 highlight a clear split between mature scale markets and emerging growth engines. While top markets continue to drive the majority of paid volume, category momentum is increasingly coming from mid-sized and emerging regions.
In the largest markets, growth has slowed or turned negative across several categories. The US saw year-over-year declines in paid installs across Casual, Hypercasual, and Midcore, reflecting tighter efficiency thresholds and reduced marginal scaling. Brazil, Mexico, and Turkey also experienced overall contractions, with Hypercasual and Casual under the most pressure. These drops are largely driven by Android, while iOS shows more selective scaling.
Midcore remains the standout growth category outside the top markets. Strong YoY increases appear in Bangladesh (+135%) and Bulgaria (+90%), all of which now represent meaningful Midcore paid-install volumes. Depth-driven gameplay is reaching broader audiences in emerging economies.
Casual games continue to dominate paid-install volume globally, but incremental growth is shifting geographically. High-growth emerging markets in Africa such as Nigeria (+85%), Kenya (+72%), and South Africa (+37%) are driving Casual expansion, offsetting stagnation in mature regions. Casual is increasingly reliant on geographic expansion rather than deeper penetration in established markets.
Hypercasual shows selective, cost-driven growth rather than broad recovery. Gains are limited to efficient markets such as Kenya and Bulgaria (around +20–30%), while most top markets remain flat or declining, reflecting sustained ROI pressure.
Casino growth concentrates in higher-value, regulated European markets including France, Romania, and Poland, while remaining muted in large emerging markets.
YoY % change in the number of paid installs (2025 vs. 2024)
All genres use AI chat for speed, Midcore and Casino go deeper
AI chat usage among gaming app teams is dominated by performance monitoring and rapid analysis. Across all genres, nearly half of all questions fall into reporting and breakdowns (46%), with teams using AI as an on-demand analytics assistant rather than a strategic advisor.
Hypercasual teams focus most heavily on reporting, with nearly 50% of queries dedicated to performance visibility. The genre’s fast iteration cycles and short lifespans mean teams prioritize immediate visibility into installs, revenue, and campaign performance over deeper diagnostic analysis.
The second most common query type, winners, losers, and leaderboards (16% overall), shows how AI accelerates decision-making. Casual and Hypercasual teams use AI to quickly identify what is scaling and what should be cut, treating it as an operational efficiency tool rather than a planning resource.
Midcore and Casino teams use AI differently. These genres show a higher share of questions related to explaining changes and anomaly diagnosis, with Midcore reaching 15%. Higher-LTV games use AI not just to observe performance, but to interpret fluctuations, investigate causes, and support live-ops and monetization decisions over longer horizons.
Comparisons and benchmarking are more prominent in Midcore and Casino, as teams contextualize performance against past periods, geos, or peers, rather than reacting solely to short-term results.
Casual shows a relatively high share of explain and summarize queries. AI acts as a translation layer, helping teams turn complex data outputs into digestible insights for broader stakeholders.
Creative-focused questions remain a smaller share across genres. AI is used more for performance understanding than for creative ideation or iteration.
AI assistant questions split by type *
Top spenders expand creative output 25–30% YoY to 2,400-2,600 variations per quarter
Creative performance in gaming remains a numbers game. Finding winning ads is increasingly difficult, and sustained success depends on maintaining high testing velocity over time. Top-spending advertisers ($4M+ per quarter) operate with this reality in mind, expanding output to 2,400–2,600 creatives per quarter in 2025, up 25–30% YoY. Even as acquisition efficiency tightens, these advertisers maintain creative scale as a core competitive advantage.
Smaller advertisers (under $500K per quarter) increased production 20–40% YoY, recognizing that earlier output levels were too low to compete. AI-assisted production, faster iteration, and automation enable these teams to scale cost-efficiently, narrowing the gap without proportionally increasing resources.
The mid-tier splits into two paths. Lower mid-tier advertisers ($0.5–1M per quarter) show flat or declining creative output YoY. These teams sit in a difficult position: too large to rely on scrappy experimentation, yet lacking the industrialized scale of top spenders. Pulling back on creative volume reduces the chances of identifying winners precisely when competition intensifies.
Upper mid-tier advertisers ($1–4M per quarter) behave more like top spenders. Creative volumes remain stable or modestly growing, approaching 1,000 per quarter. These teams understand they compete directly with industry leaders and maintain scale through better tooling and optimization.
With AI-powered creation, measurement, and optimization now available, the risk is no longer overproduction, it’s falling behind on the testing velocity required to discover what works.
Average number of video creative variations per app by budget tier *
iOS media diversification accelerates in gaming, rising up to 15% YoY
Media source diversification in gaming UA shows clear structural differences by platform, genre, and direction of change over time.
iOS gaming advertisers operate across more media sources per quarter than Android in most categories and at most scales. This gap becomes most pronounced among top advertisers, where iOS runs on roughly 15% more media sources than Android overall. iOS advertisers add more channels as they scale rather than increasing spend on existing sources.
Casino consistently operates with the broadest media mix, averaging around 6–6.5 media sources per quarter at the large tier and 8–10+ at the top. Hypercasual sits at the opposite end, typically running on 4–5 media sources at medium scale and 6–7 at the top. Midcore falls between the two, but leans closer to Casino as scale increases, particularly on iOS.
Year-over-year changes reinforce these structural patterns. In Casino, media diversification expanded on iOS across all tiers (+12–15% YoY), while contracting among top advertisers on Android (-8%). In Casual, iOS diversification growth is strongest in the medium and large tiers (+10–14%), with more measured expansion at the top.
Hypercasual remains the only genre still expanding media breadth at scale on both platforms, with an 11% YoY increase among top advertisers on Android and iOS. Midcore shows accelerating iOS diversification across all tiers, particularly among large advertisers (+16%).
Average number of media sources per quarter by app size *
Player spend grows across platforms as play-anywhere behavior takes shape
According to Newzoo’s 2025 market data, the global games market is on track to reach $197 billion (+7.5% YoY), with growth across all major ecosystems. Mobile is expected to generate $108 billion (+7.7% YoY), while PC spend is forecast at $43 billion (+10.4% YoY) and consoles at $45 billion (+4.2% YoY). These platform-level gains reflect broad and sustained engagement across devices.
But platform economics alone don’t tell the full story of how players engage. Players increasingly discover games through social and creator channels, enter on mobile, and then spend and play across PC and console over time. Mobile often serves as the initial touchpoint, while PC and console capture deeper engagement and premium revenue — and value accumulates across those cross-platform journeys.
Newzoo also highlights that players gravitate toward fewer, deeper experiences, a pattern that aligns with cross-device engagement rather than isolated sessions on one platform. That trend reinforces the idea that player value is not confined to a single ecosystem, even if spend is reported by platform.
In a play-anywhere world, platform-level spend accurately captures how much players invest in games across mobile, PC, and console. But understanding how that value is generated requires stitching together signals across devices, as players often move between platforms and accumulate value over time through multiple touchpoints.
Newzoo data: Global player revenue by platform (2022-2028F) *
- As studios focus on providing player-first monetization experiences, how important is it for developers to have visibility into the ads shown in their games?
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Developer visibility into the ads running in a game is foundational to player-first monetization. We see advertising as an integral part of the player experience, and when developers have deep visibility into ad interactions, they can understand players holistically across every touchpoint in the app – whether through gameplay or advertising.
Ad experiences directly influence app-store ratings, retention, and ultimately a studio’s brand, which is why advertising should be treated with the same level of care and intention as core gameplay content.
Unity provides tools like AdQuality that help developers fully understand what ads are running in their apps. We also offer diagnostics and services that allow studios to operate their games effectively.
With that level of visibility and control, developers can proactively create monetization experiences that reinforce trust and continuously test and iterate using performance metrics such as retention, ARPDAU (Average Revenue Per Daily Active User), and LTV (Lifetime Value).
- As IAP-focused games incorporate ads, and IAA-led games introduce IAP, what factors are shaping how developers balance IAP and IAA to drive sustainable revenue?
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Several factors shape how teams balance IAP (In-App Purchases) and IAA (In-App Advertising) to build sustainable revenue.
First is meeting players where they are. Teams need a clear understanding of player behavior to decide how and when to monetize. Players are often receptive to ads when they support progression rather than disrupt it. Rewarded ads that help players overcome a difficulty spike, unlock a cosmetic, or speed up a timer tend to perform better and cause less friction.
Second is thoughtful monetization design. When IAP and IAA are designed together — rather than as separate systems – monetization becomes part of the core game loop, not a bolt-on. Ads are best used to support progression or access, while IAP focuses on personalization and convenience.
When these roles are defined upfront, and players are segmented by engagement and spend behavior, both models can reinforce each other and create a more stable, long-term game economy.
At the same time, shifts in industry dynamics are giving developers more flexibility in how they deliver and monetize IAP, including opportunities to reach players more directly. - In a crowded market, how can studios reach the right players for their games, and what dynamics are shaping effective discovery today?
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Discovery is about matching the right players to the right games at scale. At the moment of acquisition, studios have limited insight into who a new player is, which makes discovery a cross-application, platform-level problem — and one where platforms have a real structural advantage.
What studios can control is how well they understand the channels and tools they use to acquire players. Teams that do this well design stronger creatives, choose the right creative volume, and apply channel-specific tactics that drive better results across their portfolio.
Over time, platforms that span development through live operations, like Unity, can connect player behavior back to how games are built and experienced, closing the loop between discovery and long-term growth.
- How will advances in AI-driven modeling reshape UA strategy diversification in 2026, and what impact will AI have on precision targeting and cross-geo/channel portfolio allocation?
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AI-driven modeling is changing diversification in UA by acting as a productivity multiplier, enabling studios to generate significantly more creatives and improve them continuously over time.
This shift goes beyond efficiency and has a real impact on marketing effectiveness. Faster iteration and customization help teams tailor creatives and campaign setups by specific channel and market, leading to stronger overall UA performance.
Beyond workflows, AI will fundamentally change how UA systems operate. As models become more sophisticated, precision-based value identification will increasingly replace reliance on large volumes of low-intent traffic.
The result is more relevant ads, better-controlled ad experiences, improved discovery, and higher player satisfaction and retention — benefiting the entire ecosystem. - What role do longer-window optimizers play in shaping smarter budget allocation across different games, cohorts, and markets?
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Early indicators like D1 (Day-1) or D3 (Day-3) retention remain important signals for validating performance and ensuring campaigns are tracking as expected. With the addition of longer optimization windows, developers now have more choice than ever to select the approach that best matches their app’s behavior and monetization model.
Games with longer retention horizons can benefit from extended cohorts, while still using shorter-window campaigns for validation, learning, or policy checks.
More casual games with simpler mechanics can continue to rely primarily on shorter windows and, in doing so, face less competition for the player profiles they target-profiles that longer-cycle games may deprioritize as they shift more budget toward longer cohorts. - There’s a clear tension between rising UA costs and monetization. How do you expect this dynamic to evolve by 2026? (with or without the impact of AI)
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In 2026, we want developers to have more choice. Choice puts control back in their hands—and that’s what Unity has always stood for. We exist to help game creators succeed; it’s in our DNA. And that means making sure user acquisition cost and monetization aren’t in tension.
Tension shows up when UA costs rise without corresponding gains in monetization. That growing gap creates real challenges for studios to grow. Our role is to help close that gap by ensuring that UA and monetization work hand in hand — and the most effective way to do that is by giving developers more choice than ever, so they can decide which partners and solutions best fit their needs.
On our side, advances in AI-driven innovation will play a big role, enabling more precise value identification and targeting so UA spend works harder, delivering greater returns.
That efficiency, in turn, allows us to support more premium payouts for developers who choose to monetize through advertising, while improving ad relevance and reducing wasted ad load. The result is a healthier ecosystem where ad experiences are more efficient and the entire developer community benefits, both in UA and monetization.
- From your vantage point on PC and console, what changed most in player behaviour in 2025 as games expanded beyond single platforms?
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From a PC and console player behavior point of view, the biggest change in 2025 was where player loyalty sits.
Established IPs still proved their resilience. Franchises like Battlefield and Monster Hunter continue to perform when they deliver a genuinely compelling experience. Brand equity still matters, but it is no longer a sufficient moat on its own.
At the same time, there has never been a better environment for viral breakout success from newcomers. Titles like Schedule I or Peak benefited from creator-led discovery, short-form video, and rapid community amplification. Visibility is less gated by platform holders than it used to be, and more driven by social momentum.
In parallel, platform boundaries blurred further. “Games as platforms” such as Roblox and Fortnite reinforced a shift toward hardware agnosticism. Players increasingly move fluidly between living room, desk, portable, and mobile contexts, often within the same ecosystem and account. The device matters less than continuity of identity, progression, and social presence.
The net result is a bifurcation: strong legacy IPs can still win big, but discovery dynamics now allow new entrants to scale faster than ever—and players increasingly follow experiences, not hardware.
- How are discovery and attention shifting for PC and console titles, especially as creators, communities, and social platforms play a bigger role?
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Discovery and attention for PC and console titles have shifted decisively outside traditional storefronts.
With thousands of games releasing each year, achieving meaningful share of voice on platforms like Steam or console stores has become increasingly unrealistic, especially without top-tier featuring. As a result, awareness and intent are now formed upstream, through creators, communities, and social platforms. Store pages have effectively become conversion points rather than discovery engines.
Creators and community dynamics now act as primary filters. Short-form clips, streams, memes, and update-driven moments determine which games even enter player consideration. This favors titles that are socially legible and watchable, not just mechanically sound. Virality is less manufactured and more emergent, driven by authentic engagement rather than campaign timing.
This shift is even more pronounced among younger audiences, many of whom spend significant time in platform-games like Roblox. Rather than competing with these ecosystems, publishers increasingly need to use them as on-ramps. Branded or native experiences inside such platforms can build early IP familiarity and emotional attachment, later redirecting players toward premium PC or console titles.
Despite the noise, two levers still cut through. High product quality remains the strongest amplifier: in a social-media-driven environment, word of mouth scales rapidly, and quality directly fuels shareability. In parallel, demos are regaining relevance. They reduce friction, build trust, and give both players and creators a low-commitment way to engage—particularly important in premium-priced ecosystems.
Overall, discovery is no longer won at launch or inside stores. It is earned continuously, through experience, recommendation, and sustained social visibility across ecosystems that increasingly sit beyond traditional PC and console boundaries.
- What are studios underestimating when they move from mobile-first growth into PC and console ecosystems?
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Studios moving from mobile-first into PC and console underestimate expectation depth, IP stewardship, and the impact of pricing norms.
PC and console players expect long-term mastery, systemic depth, and technical reliability from day one. Cadence alone is insufficient; if core gameplay or performance falters, retention drops quickly and is hard to recover. These expectations are closely tied to fidelity to IPs. Players judge new titles against past entries, genre benchmarks, and the promises an IP has built over time. Design or monetization shifts are often framed as dilution rather than iteration.
This is reinforced by pricing context. Many successful PC and console titles remain premium, pay-to-play, and premium pricing carries premium expectations around quality, completeness, and vision. Conversely, free-to-play is still not the default model on these platforms and can suffer from a perception of lower quality or aggressive monetization before players even engage.
Combined with vocal, technically literate communities, this makes credibility, consistency, and stewardship critical—and frequently underestimated. - How are monetization models evolving on PC and console, and what does that mean for studios running hybrid or cross-platform strategies?
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Monetization on PC and console is continuing to hybridize, but designing in isolation is increasingly impossible as games ship on more platforms by default.
Premium pricing still plays a central role, particularly on PC and console where upfront payment signals quality and completeness. Live monetization layers – cosmetics, passes, expansions – are broadly accepted, but only when they feel additive rather than corrective.
As titles expand across platforms, players naturally compare value, progression, and entitlements. Differences in pricing, content access, or progression speed between PC, console, and other devices are quickly noticed and often perceived as unfair. What might have been a local optimization on one platform now has global consequences for trust and retention.
Free-to-play remains viable but uneven. On PC and console, it is largely concentrated in category leaders. New F2P titles face skepticism around monetization intent, especially when cross-platform economies feel unbalanced or opaque.
The implication for studios is structural. Monetization can no longer be optimized per platform or per P&L in isolation. Business models must be designed holistically, aligned with IP positioning and long-term engagement, because players increasingly experience the ecosystem as a single, continuous product.
- What markets or regions surprised you most in 2025 in terms of PC and console growth or engagement?
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Tiago Reis, Market Analyst at Newzoo: If I had to highlight one market for PC, it would be China. The 2024 release of Black Myth: Wukong had a massive impact on the Chinese PC market. We expected the lack of a comparable hit in 2025 to stall further growth, especially given signs of saturation from an aging population and high existing spend, as well as domestic launches shifting revenue between titles rather than expanding the pie.
However, full-year availability of 2024 releases (e.g., Marvel Rivals, Delta Force), the sustained momentum from Activision Blizzard titles (World of Warcraft, Hearthstone, Overwatch), following their 2024 return via NetEase, and solid performance of existing titles drove sizeable gains in 2025. Revenue growth from giants like Tencent and NetEase, based on the first nine months of financials we have access to, signals healthy prospects for the overall market.
- As studios scale across platforms, where do you see the biggest measurement and decision-making blind spots today?
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The biggest blind spots are player-level understanding and cross-platform context.
Many studios still measure performance in platform silos – PC, console, mobile – while players increasingly move fluidly between them. Identity resolution remains weak, making it hard to see overlap, migration, and true incremental growth versus cannibalization. As a result, teams often optimize per platform without understanding total player value.
Time allocation is another gap. Revenue and MAUs are tracked, but where players actually spend time—across devices, modes, or titles within a portfolio—is less visible. This leads to distorted priorities in live operations and roadmaps.
Finally, data is often abundant but poorly synthesized. Telemetry explains what happened, not what to do next. Organizational structures reinforce this problem: platform P&Ls and regional ownership encourage local optimization, while the player experience is increasingly global.
The issue is not data availability, but measurement models that no longer reflect how players engage across ecosystems.
- Looking into 2026, what should gaming marketers rethink if they want to grow in a play-anywhere world?
- Stop planning per platform. Messaging, creators, and beats should follow player moments, not devices. Marketing needs to align with live operations, not launches. Most importantly: optimize for sustained visibility, not day-one spikes. Attention is now earned continuously, or lost quietly.
While everyone rushes to adopt AI tools, fragmented data undermines their effectiveness. AI-driven production creates scattered signals across platforms, networks, and tools. Stitch data from multiple sources into unified foundations as you scale AI capabilities. Since AI is only as good as its data, teams building accurate, centralized data systems will outperform those chasing AI capabilities with fragmented inputs.
As costs and competition intensify in mature markets, several emerging regions show signals worth testing for improved efficiency. Markets such as Turkey, India, Bangladesh, Venezuela, Nigeria, Kenya, and Mexico are seeing paid-install growth and expanding ad-based monetization as some top markets contract. These signals suggest potential improvements in payback dynamics, making them candidates for genre and platform-specific testing.
iOS gaming advertisers operate across significantly more media sources than Android, with diversification accelerating across all genres. Incremental iOS scale increasingly comes from adding channels rather than pushing existing ones harder. Test expanding media source coverage systematically as you scale to maintain efficient growth, hedge against platform volatility, and access new user pools.
Most AI chat queries currently focus on reporting and speed, but advanced teams use AI differently. Hypercasual prioritizes immediate visibility while higher-LTV genres leverage AI to interpret fluctuations and support longer-term decisions. Explore advanced AI usage patterns beyond basic performance reporting to extract strategic insights from your data, identify anomalies early, and inform live-ops and monetization strategies.
Creative performance remains a numbers game where finding winners is increasingly difficult. Top spenders continue expanding production while mid-tier advertisers showing flat output reduce their chances of discovering winners. Use AI-assisted production and measurement tools to increase testing velocity and improve your odds of identifying what works in saturated acquisition channels.
About the authors
