Interactive ads and AI-led optimisation define 2025’s global mobile gaming ad landscape

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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.

While hyper-casual titles remained the most downloaded category, puzzle and action games sustained strong traction. For ad-driven monetisation, shooting and puzzle games topped the charts. An indication that high-engagement genres continue to fuel advertiser demand.

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Interactive formats go mainstream

A core trend highlighted in the report is the mainstreaming of interactive creative formats. Playable ads and hybrid video-playable executions, which were once treated as experimental “nice-to-have” units, are now central to many marketers’ user acquisition strategies.

Video-dominated ad formats accounted for 81% of all global gaming creatives. However, hybrid formats surged the fastest, suggesting wider adoption of immersive ad experiences that help bridge entertainment and performance. South America emerged as the most active advertising region, producing the highest creative volume worldwide, with video creatives making up nearly 85% of all ads in the region. Europe, North America, and Southeast Asia each exceeded 2 million creatives.

Europe showed relatively higher adoption of playable ads, while North America and Southeast Asia exhibited balanced format distributions, indicating similar creative strategies across mature markets.

Meanwhile, Meta maintained its leadership in global spend across both casual and hardcore genres, followed by Google and TikTok, reinforcing advertisers’ continued reliance on large, optimised ecosystems for scale.

AI reshapes creative production

One of the report’s defining findings is the rapid rise of AI-generated creatives. Video templates, AI avatars and automated editing tools are now widely used to personalise engagement and improve conversion efficiency.

“As advertisers prepare for 2026, we’re seeing a clear shift toward more automated, cross-channel workflows that streamline planning, execution and measurement across major media networks,” said Zidan Tang, head of XMP by Mobvista. “2025 marked a turning point for mobile advertising as advertisers moved from volume-based campaigns to creative-led, performance-driven strategies powered by AI and cross-channel visibility.”

Tang added that hybrid ad strategies and AI-led optimisation “are now the rule, not the exception,” as marketers look to unify fragmented ecosystems and improve measurable growth.

Major challenges remain

Despite strong global performance, advertisers also faced rising user acquisition (UA) costs and increased complexity managing campaigns across multiple platforms. Cross-channel fragmentation, especially in creative, bidding and reporting workflows, remains a key barrier for marketers chasing efficiency.

The report noted that advertisers are now placing heavier emphasis on four operational pillars. They are cross-channel campaign management across Meta, Google, TikTok and SDK networks; centralised creative management for video, images and playables; AI-powered optimisation for bidding, budgeting and creative rotation; and full-funnel transparency through integrated analytics and unified ROI tracking.

With both global ad spending and mobile game downloads continuing to climb, the findings indicate a sector moving decisively into an “intelligent era”, one defined by creative innovation, automation and tighter performance measurement.