XMP has reported a sharp rise in mobile gaming advertising activity in 2025, driven by rapid creative innovation, expanding use of artificial intelligence and a growing preference for interactive ad formats. The findings come from the company’s latest Global Mobile Gaming UA Trends & Strategy Report, which highlights how the sector is adapting to rising user acquisition costs and increasingly complex cross-channel marketing demands.
The report shows that interactive formats, once viewed as experimental, are now widely adopted. Playable demos, hybrid videos and other immersive formats have become central to user acquisition as advertisers seek more engaging and performance-driven creative strategies. Video remained the primary format and accounted for 81 per cent of all creatives, although hybrid formats recorded some of the fastest growth as developers searched for ways to blend entertainment with measurable results.
Global mobile game installs increased 7.4 per cent year on year, reaching 38.9 billion downloads between Q1 and Q3 2025. Android maintained its lead with 80.8 per cent of global installs, while iOS represented 19.2 per cent. Revenue from in-app ads and in-app purchases rose 13.2 per cent to US$82.5 billion, reflecting sustained commercial momentum across both casual and hardcore segments.
Shifts in genre performance and regional activity
Hyper-casual titles remained the most downloaded genre worldwide, maintaining their appeal among users seeking simple, fast-paced experiences. Puzzle and action games continued to perform well across multiple regions. On the revenue front, shooting and puzzle games were the top performers for ad-driven monetisation, underscoring the diversity of demand across markets.
South America emerged as the most active advertising region, generating the largest creative output globally. Video creatives accounted for nearly 85 per cent of ads in the region, demonstrating the extent to which video remains central to campaign strategies. Meta continued to dominate global ad spending across both casual and hardcore genres, followed by Google and TikTok, as advertisers maintained their reliance on established platforms capable of delivering scale and optimisation.
The expansion of AI-generated content has also reshaped the creative landscape. AI-produced videos and avatars are increasingly used to personalise campaigns and improve retention and conversion rates by adjusting content in real time according to user behaviour.
Automation and cross-channel efficiency gain importance
Despite the strong performance, the report notes that advertisers faced clear challenges in 2025. Rising user acquisition costs, data fragmentation across multiple platforms and the need for unified creative management added pressure to marketing teams. These issues reflect a wider industry shift toward streamlined workflows, improved transparency and greater reliance on automation to manage the growing complexity of cross-channel campaigns.
Modern campaign execution now centres on four core capabilities. Cross-channel management tools allow advertisers to run campaigns across Meta, Google, TikTok and SDK networks from a single platform. Unified creative management consolidates video, image and playable assets. AI-powered optimisation enables automated bidding and budget decisions based on real-time signals. Full-funnel transparency combines analytics from different sources to deliver clearer visibility into return on investment.
Zidan Tang, Head of XMP by Mobvista, said that advertisers are entering a new phase of mobile marketing maturity. “As advertisers prepare for 2026, we’re seeing a clear shift toward more automated, cross-channel workflows that streamline planning, execution and measurement across major media networks. 2025 marked a turning point for mobile advertising as advertisers moved from volume-based campaigns to creative-led, performance-driven strategies powered by AI and cross-channel visibility, which shows that mobile gaming marketing has fully entered the intelligent era.”
He added that efficiency, precision and data integration are becoming essential. “Advertisers are moving toward efficiency and precision. Our data shows that hybrid ad strategies and AI-driven optimisation are now the rule, not the exception. XMP helps brands unify fragmented ecosystems and achieve measurable growth.”
The report suggests that as the year closes, mobile advertising is continuing to expand while evolving in form and function. With downloads and ad spending rising and interactive formats gaining traction, brands entering 2026 will be best positioned if they adopt AI-enabled workflows, richer creative formats and connected data systems capable of supporting real-time decision-making.
