AI has changed the game, now gaming marketers must fight harder to be seen

The global mobile gaming industry is facing a new visibility crunch. Artificial intelligence has made it faster and cheaper than ever to build games and generate marketing assets, but that efficiency has come at a cost. With more titles, ads and creative variations flooding the market, competition for player attention has become more intense, fragmented and expensive.

According to AppsFlyer’s "State of Gaming for Marketers 2026" report, the sector has moved well beyond its land-grab phase. Total gaming revenue is projected to reach US$205 billion this year, with mobile accounting for more than half of the market. Growth, however, is no longer driven by a surge of new users. Instead, it is increasingly concentrated among a smaller pool of high-value players, forcing studios to rethink how they approach scale, discovery and monetisation.

That pressure is playing out most visibly in user acquisition. Global UA spend reached US$25 billion in 2025, yet this investment is chasing an audience that is not expanding at the same pace as content production. Generative AI has lowered barriers to entry across development and marketing, resulting in a surge of creative output across acquisition channels. Top gaming advertisers are now producing between 2,400 and 2,600 creative assets per quarter, up around 30% year on year, as they attempt to counter ad fatigue and sustain performance.

Felix Thé, senior vice president product and technology at Unity, described AI-driven modelling as a productivity multiplier, enabling studios to generate and iterate creative at unprecedented speed. As these models mature, he said, the focus is shifting away from volume-driven acquisition.

“Precision-based value identification will increasingly replace reliance on large volumes of low-intent traffic,” Thé explained. The outcome, he added, is more relevant ads, better-controlled ad experiences, improved discovery, and higher player satisfaction and retention.

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A shift towards APAC efficiency

As costs rise in mature markets, marketers are also being forced to rethink where growth comes from. UA budgets in the US declined 5% year on year as higher costs limited incremental scale, prompting greater attention towards emerging APAC markets where efficiency remains higher. India continued to strengthen its position as a high-growth hub, recording a 19% increase in UA spend. Vietnam showed signs of strategic maturation, with a pivot towards social casino titles as hypercasual ad revenue remained under pressure. Social casino revenue rose 17% on Android and 9% on iOS.

Across APAC, midcore games emerged as a key growth driver. In Bangladesh, paid installs for midcore titles increased 35% year on year, signalling growing appetite for more complex, higher lifetime value experiences in mobile-first economies. At the same time, competition has intensified further with the continued expansion of China-headquartered publishers. These companies now account for 35% of global gaming UA spend outside China, up 22% year on year.

Their impact is particularly pronounced in APAC. Spending remains heavily skewed towards Android, where budgets are nearly double those allocated to iOS, reflecting a focus on scalable, cost-efficient growth. In markets such as Japan and South Korea, long considered difficult to penetrate, Chinese publishers increased their spend share by 25% and 37% respectively. Faster localisation, aggressive creative testing and a strong focus on casual and hypercasual genres have helped them gain ground across both mature and emerging markets.

Discovery in an AI-saturated market

Beyond budgets and geography, the mechanics of discovery itself are changing. Emmanuel Rosier, director of market intelligence at Newzoo, noted that platform boundaries continued to blur in 2025 as players moved fluidly between mobile, PC and console. According to Rosier, “the device mattered less than continuity of identity, progression and social presence”, with players increasingly following experiences rather than hardware.

As a result, traditional app stores are playing a diminishing role in discovery. Store pages now function primarily as conversion points, while awareness and intent are increasingly formed upstream through creators, communities and social platforms.

This shift is unfolding alongside an AI-driven surge in competition across acquisition channels. AppsFlyer data shows the paid install share for mobile games rose 10% year on year on both Android and iOS in 2025, while ad impressions increased 20% over the same period. These figures point to a market flooded with new titles, apps and creative variations, fuelled by AI-powered development and asset production tools.

Studios can now generate code, mechanics, models and animations at speed, capabilities once reserved for AAA teams. The result is more games reaching market faster, and far greater pressure on marketers to cut through. Platform dynamics reflect this strain, with Android skewing heavily toward paid acquisition at 59% of installs, while iOS sits at 44% due to higher media costs and stronger organic pull.

The impact is uneven across genres and regions. Hypercasual games remain the most dependent on paid traffic, accounting for 83% of installs on Android and 72% on iOS, driven by short lifespans and ad-based monetisation models. Casual games saw paid share jump 18% on Android to 54%, while midcore titles recorded a 32% increase on iOS to reach 24%. In Western markets such as the US and UK, paid share rose sharply across casual, midcore and hypercasual genres, underscoring rising competitive intensity.

At the same time, Newzoo’s 2025 data highlights a broader behavioural shift. Players increasingly discover games through social and creator channels, enter via mobile, and deepen engagement and spending across PC and console. While AI continues to flood gaming channels with content, long-term value is being shaped by fewer, deeper player journeys rather than sheer scale alone.

Fighting for attention beyond installs

With acquisition costs at record highs, studios are refocusing on retention and monetisation. Hybrid monetisation models grew 7% year on year, as developers combined in-app purchases with advertising to stabilise revenue streams. For these models to succeed, Thé stressed that advertising must be treated as part of the player experience, not an afterthought. Ad quality, he said, directly influences retention, app store ratings and brand trust, and should be approached with the same care as core gameplay design.

In 2026, competitive advantage is no longer defined by who can produce the most content, but by who can sustain attention over time in a play-anywhere world. As Rosier observed, attention is now earned continuously, or lost quietly. “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: optimise for sustained visibility, not day-one spikes,” he said.

Last year, MARKETING-INTERACTIVE reported that mobile gaming advertisers spent much of 2025 in acceleration mode, fuelled by rising installs, surging creative volumes and a rapid shift toward interactive and AI-generated ad formats. According to XMP’s latest Global Mobile Gaming UA Trends & Strategy Report, the year marked a turning point for performance marketers navigating a more competitive and data-fragmented mobile ecosystem.

The report, which analysed global activity across 147 markets (excluding Mainland China) and more than 150 advertising media between January to September 2025, highlighted that mobile gaming installations rose 7.4% year-on-year to 38.9 billion. Android continued to dominate with 80.8% of installs, while total mobile gaming revenue grew 13.2% y-o-y to reach US$82.5 billion.

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