The news: Mobile gaming publishers rely on a mix of creative to keep ads fresh, and they’re using an omnichannel approach to find gamers across devices and platforms, per Sensor Tower.

• Display and video dominated ad spend in Q3 2026, where they focused a 62.2% share, a slight drop from 63.3% in Q3 2025. This includes placements in other mobile gaming environments, purchased through mobile app networks.
• Social networks’ share grew to 21.0% from 18.3% in that time span. Spend in the channel dropped just over 1 percentage point in Q2 2026 before recovering more than four points the following quarter.
• TV and streaming garnered less attention, as the category fell to 16.8% ad share from 18.4%. Most of this drop came in Q3 2026 after a slight surge in Q1.

Meanwhile, the median top US mobile game advertiser—based on a cohort of 49 games with the highest ad spend—increased its monthly number of ad creatives by 131.4% YoY in July, to 391 from 169.

What it means: Mobile gaming brands are experimenting with a mix of methods to reach gamers in a crowded market. Increasing the variety of video ad creative is a reliable way to stave off fatigue, and placing these spots across a mix of apps—including social platforms and other gaming environments—reduces the likelihood of duplicated reach.

Casting a wide net is critical for these brands to recruit players from all over the digital landscape given that mobile phone gaming is so prevalent. We expect the number of US players to reach 188.0 million in 2027, accounting for 92.1% of digital gamers and 55.1% of the population.

Recommendations for marketers: Diversification is a smart strategy, but marketers need to pair their larger variety of ads with more ad spend to increase the frequency of these placements. Seven in 10 US mobile gamers play every day, per Axon and AppLovin, suggesting there are ample opportunities to engage them repeatedly.

Make deeper use of programmatic mobile app networks to disseminate ads across games, and treat social networks as separate entities. For instance, while Instagram and Facebook strategies should emphasize short-form video placements, YouTube strategies call for more spend on in-stream content.

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