Mobile Gaming Breakdown For 2022 And What It Means For Marketing
Team Streams
January 20th, 2022
Team Streams
January 20th, 2022
Mobile gaming is a booming market. Ads on mobile games have become a powerful marketing tool but recent developments are forcing mobile gaming brands to adapt their strategies.
2022 is sure to be a year full of challenges and opportunities for mobile gaming. In this post, we take a look at the current state of mobile gaming and what we can expect to see in the coming year. We share our top insights into what these changes will mean for marketers and how you can start preparing for them now.
In the past 18 months, almost every industry you can think of has been disrupted. And most of the disruption has been negative. However, for mobile gaming, the pandemic has actually sped up growth and the thriving industry is the perfect place for marketers to boost their revenues.
Mobile game revenues averaged about $1.7 billion a week at the end of Q1 for 2021. This was a 13% increase from the same quarter of the previous year.
Downloads have remained steady over the pandemic. This is what we expect to see as users can only download an app once so the growth in downloads slows over time and the real focus of mobile gaming growth is on usage.
The growth in consumer spending we have seen throughout the pandemic indicates that mobile gaming users have become more comfortable spending money on subscriptions and in-app purchases.
One study by Facebook Gaming also found that mobile gamers who started playing after March 2020 are playing more hours per week than the existing mobile gamers who used these apps before the pandemic started. According to Facebook’s these ‘new’ gamers also spend more money.
Mobile gaming is booming and expanding to new audiences. During 2020 and 2021 the industry saw massive growth and mobile games attracted more users. But as the pandemic steadies, what can we expect to see happen to mobile gaming in 2022 and what does it mean for marketers?
Advertising is constantly getting more difficult. Users become numb to ads and stop paying attention to them, so marketers have to get more creative with their ads to stop users in their tracks and grab their attention.
Gaming influencers represent a perfect opportunity to break through the noise and reach highly engaged audiences. Influencers are authentic, produce creative content, and have established audiences for you to tap into.
In 2022, marketers are going to need to include more influencer partnership strategies to reach these mobile gaming audiences. Live streams will be a great asset to tap into as they are a core component of gaming culture. A live stream allows users to connect and interact with influencers in a more profound way and deepens their relationships. This trust then increases the value of your influencer partnership.
There is an explosion in demand for mobile games. In Q1 2021, in the Google Play Store, there were 477,000 mobile games were available for downloads. This is an 11.90% increase from the previous quarter.
More games are great for gamers, but it presents challenges for advertisers. The more saturated a market becomes, the harder it is to achieve success.
The metaverse raised some eyebrows when launched in 2021, and no matter your personal opinions, it isn’t going away anytime in 2022 and beyond
This virtual world gives endless possibilities for mobile games and mobile gaming. As fast adopters of technology, gamers will likely jump into the metaverse. As an advertiser, you should be thinking about how to leverage this opportunity before it becomes a saturated market.
Privacy laws have been at the forefront of advertisers' minds as new legislation has come in and Google and Apple have changed their policies.
These changes are pushing brands toward embracing new ad formats. Playable ads are set to be the key to a successful mobile gaming ad strategy in 2022. Playable ads are essentially interactive ads where users can play and try out an app – think of it as a free demo.
The major benefit of this ad format is the in-ad data that can be collected and the great user experience that they provide.
This interactivity is what makes these ads a winner. Gamification of ads naturally appeals to mobile gamers.
According to Facebook the gaming company Me2Zen increased click-through rate by 10 times and saw a 50% return on ad spend through playable ads. This makes them one of the most effective ad formats and if you're not already using them, now is the time to start.
Mobile game advertising is more competitive than ever, but it is also continuing to grow. With more competition, generic ad strategies will no longer cut through the noise and more creative ads such as those in playable formats will be needed to get ahead and separate you from the pack.
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