Marketing reports and market data
1,533 game industry reports, presentations and talks about marketing from writers such as PocketGamer.biz, Two & a Half Gamers and Thomas Brush, newest from 2026. Every document has a summary and key insights with the page they come from, and 5,954 charts and tables are extracted as data.
Key figures
The Southeast Asian mobile gaming market saw a 19.7% year-over-year increase in active advertisers in 2026, signaling a rapidly maturing ecosystem.
SocialPeta, 2026 · 2026 Southeast Asia Mobile Game Marketing Report, p. 7
The virtual world market is dominated by four platforms: Roblox (380 million monthly active users), Minecraft (200 million), Fortnite (130 million), and ZEPETO (33 million).
GEEIQ, 2026 · Brands in Gaming 101: Virtual Worlds, p. 19
Rewarded UA is now a core marketing channel, with 61% of surveyed studios planning to increase their budget in 2026 and 65% of studios allocating between 11% and 50% of their total UA spend to the channel.
Almedia, 2026 · Rewarded UA Handbook: 2026, p. 3
Marketing execution is the primary driver of performance, with conversion rates for F2P games varying by 371x across different ad networks, dwarfing the 35% baseline advantage F2P titles hold over Premium games.
Gamesight, 2026 · Conversion Drivers in Videogames: Q1 2026, p. 16
92% of marketing decision-makers identify AI as the primary driver for redefining the customer journey, signaling a shift from linear funnels to fluid, data-driven ecosystems.
Smartly, 2026 · 2026 Digital Advertising Trends Report, p. 7
Documents
Steam Next Fest is cooked! It's the slop right? It is cooked slop?
Steam Next Fest has evolved into a critical barometer for indie game success, driven by a surge in developer participation and the increasing accessibility of AI-assisted development tools.
- Steam Next Fest functions as an amplifier for existing momentum rather than a discovery engine for unknown projects, making pre-event marketing essential for success.
- Success is heavily dependent on genre selection, with strategy, simulation, and crafting-oriented games consistently achieving superior peak concurrent user counts and wishlist growth.
- Platformer genres, including 2D, 3D, and puzzle variants, consistently struggle to capture significant player engagement compared to systems-driven titles.
🚨📢BREAKING NEWS: BioWare Shutdown 😱, PEGI 16 rating on lootboxes, Griffin Gaming film studio
The current landscape of the gaming industry is marked by significant structural shifts, including major corporate restructuring, regulatory tightening, and evolving investment strategies.
- Electronic Arts has initiated a major restructuring that includes the closure of the BioWare studio following the underperformance of Dragon Age: The Veilguard.
- Apple’s App Store review process is facing significant delays, with wait times extending to several weeks due to an influx of over 50,000 AI-generated submissions per day.
- The Pan European Game Information (PEGI) agency has implemented a new policy requiring a 16+ rating for games featuring paid loot boxes, a mandate that now applies to titles like Pokémon TCG Pocket.
Subnautica's Rise: How Charlie Cleveland Beat the Odds in Gaming
The trajectory of Unknown Worlds Entertainment serves as a case study in the resilience required to navigate the independent game development landscape.
- Unknown Worlds Entertainment achieved independence in 2021 by executing a full buyback of the studio following the commercial success of the Subnautica franchise, which has sold over 12 million copies.
- The studio utilized a 2011 acquisition by Perfect World to secure the necessary capital to complete the development of Natural Selection 2, demonstrating the strategic use of external funding to survive financial instability.
- The transition from niche multiplayer titles to the mass-market Subnautica was driven by a commitment to open development, early crowdfunding, and the integration of player feedback into the design process.
Why Use Tenjin’s MCP Server?
Tenjin’s Model Context Protocol (MCP) server serves as a bridge between AI assistants like Claude and live mobile measurement partner (MMP) tools.
- Tenjin’s Model Context Protocol (MCP) server enables AI assistants like Claude to perform both read and write operations, moving beyond passive reporting to active execution of mobile measurement tasks.
- The platform allows users to manage technical infrastructure, including creating applications, configuring callbacks, and setting up tracking links, directly through natural language commands.
- By automating routine account management and API chains across ad networks and analytics tools, the system eliminates the need for manual dashboard navigation and reduces data fragmentation.
The REAL Cost of Vibe-coded Game Mashups | Games For Breakfast
The modern gaming industry is currently defined by a tension between rapid, AI-driven development workflows and the preservation of long-term product stability.
- The adoption of 'vibe-coding'—generating software via natural language prompts—has led to measurable performance regressions in major platforms like the Epic Games launcher, where speed-prioritized updates have compromised background functionality.
- Reliance on AI-driven development without rigorous human oversight is creating unstable, buggy software that fails to meet the quality standards of established platforms like Steam.
- The industry is experiencing a rise in malware risks and security vulnerabilities due to AI-assisted decompilation and unauthorized game mashups that bypass traditional community-led verification processes.
Fixing Call of Duty: Inside Activision’s Modern Warfare 4 comeback plan
Activision is fundamentally restructuring its approach to the Call of Duty franchise in response to declining player engagement and a 50 percent drop in European launch sales for recent titles.
- Activision is restructuring the Call of Duty franchise to address declining player engagement and a 50 percent drop in European launch sales for recent titles.
- The strategy for Modern Warfare 4 prioritizes long-term brand health over immediate sales by shifting to a grounded, cinematic experience and reintroducing popular modes like DMZ.
- The U.S. gaming hardware market has reached its lowest August sales levels since 2013, with all major console manufacturers reporting double-digit declines.
🎯 20 years' experience: Luis de la Camara on WHY the networks know your users better than YOU!
Mobile game developers must shift their user acquisition strategy from adversarial competition with ad networks to a collaborative model that leverages the superior data capabilities of demand-side platforms.
- Mobile developers must transition from adversarial competition with ad networks to a collaborative model that leverages the superior user-behavior data held by demand-side platforms (DSPs).
- Studios should prioritize direct-response performance marketing over broad awareness campaigns to avoid the risks associated with inflated cost-per-install (CPI) metrics.
- Analyzing eCPM decay curves allows developers to distinguish between players driven by in-app purchases and those driven by ad-based revenue, enabling more precise audience segmentation.
🧠 How Deepstash gets 50% of subscribers from Web2App & 3,000 creatives a month
Deepstash has established a highly effective growth model by positioning microlearning as a gamified, subscription-based alternative to passive social media consumption.
- Deepstash acquires over 50% of its paid subscribers through a Web2App funnel, leveraging microlearning as a gamified, subscription-based alternative to social media.
- Deepstash's cross-promotion ecosystem with niche educational apps achieves conversion rates 10x higher than standard advertising channels.
- A 30-person team generates 3,000 creative assets monthly, utilizing AI-driven automation to maintain rapid testing and cultural relevance.
The next Steam Next Fest is going to be how busy?
Steam Next Fest has evolved into a massive promotional engine, with upcoming iterations expected to feature between 5,000 and 8,000 demos.
- Steam Next Fest is becoming increasingly saturated, with upcoming events expected to feature between 5,000 and 8,000 demos.
- Developers must adopt a dual-pronged marketing strategy, using short-form viral content to drive top-of-funnel awareness and high-quality trailers to convert interest into wishlists.
- To maximize visibility and avoid the saturated December release window, developers should strategically target the January and February periods.
2026 Southeast Asia Mobile Game Marketing Report
The Southeast Asian mobile gaming landscape in 2026 reflects a maturing ecosystem defined by a 19.7% year-over-year increase in active advertisers.
- The Southeast Asian mobile gaming market saw a 19.7% year-over-year increase in active advertisers in 2026, signaling a rapidly maturing ecosystem.
- Video content dominates user acquisition, comprising 73.7% of all advertising creatives, with a shift toward mid-length formats featuring live-action hooks and AI-generated visuals.
- Indonesia leads the region in total download volume, while Thailand maintains the highest revenue per user through in-app purchases.
Mobile & F2P | Michal Korek | How We Achieved 70% Store Share | Digital Dragons 2026
Direct-to-consumer web stores have transitioned from an experimental tactic to a fundamental requirement for mobile game developers seeking to bypass platform fees and maximize revenue.
- A Direct-to-Consumer (DTC) web store strategy enabled a mobile game studio to shift 70% of its total revenue away from traditional app store payment systems.
- Increasing purchase limits on lower price points (e.g., $10 and $20) and introducing high-tier price points of $250 and $500 significantly boosted revenue, with high-tier spenders doubling between events.
- Web store conversion rates improved by approximately 25% after implementing UX/UI optimizations, such as integrating loyalty programs, exclusive web-only skins, and unique, high-value offers not available in-game.
Mobile & F2P | Marek Pasieczny | ASO Meets AI: The LLM Advantage | Digital Dragons 2026
The landscape of mobile application discovery is undergoing a fundamental transformation, shifting from traditional, keyword-centric search models toward intent-driven, conversational interactions powered by Large Language Models.
- Large Language Models (LLMs) are shifting user behavior from traditional keyword-based searches to intent-driven, conversational prompts, requiring ASO strategies to evolve beyond simple metadata optimization.
- App stores are increasingly integrating AI-driven algorithms; Apple updated its search algorithm on April 22, 2026, to better align with user intent, while Google Play introduced core updates in late March 2026 to prioritize social proof and conversational relevance.
- To improve visibility in AI-generated shortlists, developers should focus on high-authority external content such as comparison pages, review accelerators like Capterra and G2, and community-driven platforms like Reddit, which LLMs actively scrape.