Mobile gaming is no longer just a pastime for the few; it's a thriving global community of over 3 billion active users. Mobile gaming is now a regular staple of day-to-day life, whether commuting to work, passing time at lunch, or even spending time indoors with friends and family. Mobile gaming has a growing place in our regular diet of media consumption.
For advertisers, mobile gaming and apps present an irresistible platform to form genuine connections between brands and audiences, in a way that other digital mediums such as podcasting, radio, and television just can't achieve alone.
A Gamer in Everyone. A Game for Everyone.
There was once a time when gaming was largely associated with teenage and young adolescent males (alongside a myriad of stereotypes). Since the advent of smartphones, the face of the gaming industry has been quietly changing in the background.
Gone are the days of our well-meaning, albeit often misguided elders referring to every game console and peripheral as ‘the Nintendo’, gaming is now an activity that everyone can enjoy. And the data shows that many are doing just that: one study found that 25% of gamers in the US are over the age of 45, proving that fun has no age limit.
Gaming is also proving to be a popular activity for families with the rise of mothers playing video games alongside their children in the UK, across consoles, tablets, and mobile. In general, women's games have increased steadily over the past few years with 74% of women of all age groups playing mobile games as part of their daily routine.
The Charm of Hypercasual Games
While our daily use and reliance on smartphones have no doubt driven an increase in the diversity within the gaming industry, within that sphere, a large amount can also be accredited to hypercasual games.
Hypercasual games are a genre of (mostly) mobile games which are easy to pick up and play, often requiring nothing more than simply downloading and then launching the app to get started. The popularity of hypercasual games has skyrocketed over the years with 62% of mobile gamers having recently viewed a rewarded ad, and 71% of gamers prefer this ad format over others, in 2023.
Hypercasual games (and mobile games in general) are largely built to be played in bite-sized chunks, perfect to accommodate working adults on the move, parents, and Gen-Z alike. In an era where the average consumer time is being fought for, mobile gaming demands little of our time which is exactly why it gets so much of it.
Engaging without disrupting
Mobile gaming presents a great opportunity to market to and engage with a diverse audience. Ads in free-to-play mobile games are already an expected occurrence for users, and unfortunately for many, such ads have also become a regular annoyance.
Many mobile games have become inundated with full-screen interstitial ads which pause the user's gaming experience to deliver ads, disrupting the flow of gameplay. Interstitial ads became such an issue that Google updated its privacy policy to curb its overuse.
That being said, advertising can and is used to successfully engage users without inundating or frustrating them. Here at Audiomob, we’ve created an audio-only advertising solution that lets users hear in-game adverts while still being able to continue playing their game or app.
Our advertising solution is seamlessly integrated into mobile games with the user experience in mind, with our dedicated team on hand to ensure that ads are triggered only at moments where it makes sense (e.g. in between levels, or manually by the user to get an in-game reward).
Audio advertising is a great way to leverage the expansive and growing user base on mobile while still maintaining all of the things users have come to love about their games and apps. More than that, audio ads can even add value by enhancing the users’ in-game experience.
For more insights on the ever-changing landscape of mobile gaming and advertising, make sure to follow our blog!
And to see our non-intrusive audio solution in action, book a demo today.
