Mobile Gaming CTR: Q3 Quarterly Trends Report

The Q3 2025 Quarterly Trends Report analyzes significant shifts in mobile advertising performance, specifically highlighting a dramatic surge in click-through rates (CTR) within the mobile gaming sector. The primary thesis posits that the rapid inflation of CTR on iOS—rising from 6.1% in January to 25.9% in June—is largely driven by the widespread adoption of rewarded ads utilizing SKOverlay technology. This mechanism, which presents lightweight app previews directly within game environments, has fundamentally altered the nature of engagement metrics, effectively transforming CTR into a proxy for impression counts in the current post-IDFA landscape.

Key findings indicate that while Android performance remains relatively stable, iOS gaming advertising has experienced consistent, month-over-month growth. Beyond gaming, other app verticals are showing notable activity; for instance, Android utility apps saw CTRs climb to 25.4% by the end of the quarter. The report also highlights broader industry trends, including a 45% quarter-over-quarter increase in global ad spend and a 15% rise in cost-per-install (CPI) within the United States. Additionally, fintech CPIs saw a substantial jump of nearly 80%, while overall targeting efficiency, measured by installs per mille (IPM), improved by 11.3%.

The analysis covers global mobile advertising data for the first half of 2025, with a specific focus on iOS and Android ecosystems across various app verticals. The methodology relies on aggregated performance data captured through the platform’s marketing analytics infrastructure. By contextualizing these metrics, the report advises marketers to adjust their performance expectations, noting that while traditional engagement tracking via SKAdNetwork remains limited, the current CTR trends offer new, albeit different, insights into ad visibility and user interaction patterns.