In 2023, the overall gaming market had been experiencing a pullback after its peak during the pandemic. Economic turmoil and slump also constituted a further challenge to game developers. There were two major marketing trends in the global mobile games market: a rising number of advertisers, and increases in the proportion and number of new creatives.

As significantly higher-quality creatives were required in 2023, game advertisers needed to release unique and charming ad creatives to attract users. In terms of global mobile games marketing, the Asia-Pacific region remained the most competitive. Southeast Asia experienced the fiercest competition in media buying in 2023. Blue Ocean Markets started to bloom. Due to privacy policy, the proportion of mobile games, and other matters, Android greatly surpassed iOS in marketing efforts and is expected to do so in 2024.

To this end, SocialPeta has published the 2023 Global Mobile Games Marketing Trends White Paper. This whitepaper deeply analyzes the core dynamics of the global mobile gaming market in 2023. It offers a comprehensive analysis of the gaming market, delving into top charts of mobile games in advertising, revenue & downloads, analysis of global hit games, and observations of popular markets. This equips game developers, marketers, and mobile marketing peers with the latest and most comprehensive insights into global mobile game marketing.

Mobile game advertisers grow by 50%, and Southeast Asia becomes the most competitive market

There were over 40K monthly mobile game advertisers in 2023, up nearly 50% YoY. Similar to the trends in 2022, most media buying activities were at the beginning of the year and in May and June, followed by a decline towards the end of the year.

Advertising trends

Source: SocialPeta

Considering the marketing insights into mobile games in different regions in 2023, Southeast Asia has indeed become the most competitive market in 2023:

The average monthly number of advertisers in Southeast Asia is nearly 20,000, surpassing Oceania to become the No.3;

Southeast Asia leads all regions in the average monthly volume of mobile game creatives, with each advertiser averaging 135 creative pieces per month. Additionally, the average monthly volume of materials in China’s Hong Kong, Macau, and Taiwan also exceeds 130.

Marketing insights into mobile games

Source: SocialPeta

Casual games continue to have the highest proportion of advertisers and creatives, with the proportion of casual creatives increasing by 9.5% compared to last year. SLG games are undoubtedly the genre with the most significant marketing contraction in 2023; while the proportion of advertisers remains almost the same as in 2022, their share has decreased by over 2%.

Advertising insights by genre

Source: SocialPeta

US mobile game advertising remains the highest; RPG game creatives focus more on gameplay display

In 2023, the monthly mobile game advertisers in the United States exceeded 26K, far surpassing other countries/regions. Among them, Android has already taken a dominant position in the U.S. mobile game market, with advertisers accounting for over 70% and creatives amount exceeding 68%.

Advertising insights into American gaming market

Source: SocialPeta

In popular game genres, RPGs are undoubtedly the most outstanding genre this year. The average monthly number of RPG advertisers is around 1,4K. The proportion of new RPG creatives each month exceeds 35%, with China’s Hong Kong, Macau, and Taiwan experiencing the fastest speed in releasing new RPG creatives, where the average monthly proportion exceeds 46%.

Advertising Insights into RPGs

Source: SocialPeta

Regarding popular creatives for RPG games, many advertisers focus on showing the gameplay and the game’s built-in controls, such as AI portrait generation, world map, gacha and other patterns for video creatives.

RPG’s popular creatives

Source: SocialPeta

RPG’s popular creatives

Since mini-game advertising was first applied, game companies have been bothered by problems including gamer fraud, poor union with main gameplay, dissatisfactory user acquisitions, and low user retention rates.

Nowadays, mid-core and hard-core games have lighter and lighter gameplay, and ACG minigames are booming. Having their many doubts dispelled, game companies embrace mini-game advertising with no hesitation. Mini-game advertising has evolved from “main game + mini-game” into “mini-game +”. 2023 witnessed the full evolution and overall popularization of mini-game advertising.

Mini-game ad creatives have changed from awkwardly added mini-games to well-designed three-stage creatives. For example, the universally popular formula of “eye-catching start + gameplay display + deliberate failure”.

Mini-game ad creatives

Source: SocialPeta

Additionally, this whitepaper reviews the marketing performance of Honkai: Star Rail, Arena Breakout, MONOPOLY GO!, and Block Blast! in 2023.

The release of this whitepaper received strong support from many industry partners, including  Singular, Udonis, AnyMind Group, Appvertiser, Persona.ly, AppSamurai, Tenjin, Gamee Studio, Mobidictum, UGC NINJA, AdQuantum, and App Masters.

The full report is over 70 pages, offering the latest and most comprehensive data, along with forward-looking industry insights, to empower gaming professionals to excel in the global market.