The news: In the EU and UK, mobile gamers are getting more valuable as new audiences become harder to reach. In-app purchase (IAP) revenues are growing in these regions—including an 11.5% YoY increase in the UK—but downloads are decreasing, per Sensor Tower 2026 State of Gaming report. These trends have continued since 2022.

Mobile game monetization is shifting from scale to depth. With downloads declining, publishers are relying less on user acquisition and more on increasing spending from existing players through live services, subscriptions, and personalized offers.

This dynamic is also visible in the streaming market, where revenue growth is being supported by price optimization and ad-supported subscription tiers rather than new users.

Zooming in: Meanwhile, mobile gaming ad spend is shifting unevenly across apps and social platforms.

• Nearly three-quarters (71.5%) of mobile gaming ad spend in the UK goes to mobile apps. That indexes higher than worldwide data, which shows 61.3% of such spending going to mobile apps.
• Spend share is more distributed across the EU, with less going to mobile apps in Germany (59.4%). Instagram takes the top share of mobile gaming ad spend in Italy and Spain, accounting for 35.1% and 40.8%, respectively.

Ad spend diversity means marketers have a plethora of places to reach consumers across geographies and can explore mobile app ads in one country if Instagram is proving too saturated in another.

What it means: The data points to growing regional differences in mobile gaming strategies—while mobile apps rule gaming ad spend in the UK, the EU’s greater diversity around where ad spend goes show how regional advertisers are spreading out across channels.

As publishers focus on monetizing existing users, the industry may see increasing tension between personalization and player fatigue. Aggressive offer strategies, battle passes, and ad load optimization can improve average revenues per user (ARPU) in the short term but risk undermining retention if players experience ad fatigue or perceive monetization as overly intrusive.

Recommendations for marketers: Focus on retention-led user monetization as publishers home in on existing players, analyze regional media strategies, and look into sophisticated player targeting to avoid inundating loyal players with repetitive ads.

• Align campaigns with games that have strong long-term engagement.
• Increase personalized offers and behavioral targeting within gaming environments to create opportunities for tailored ad experiences.
• Target mobile apps with higher IAP rates, as these gamers may be more open to spending on in-app ads or engaging with interactive ads.