Bengaluru, INDIA, Jan 23: AppsFlyer, the Modern Marketing Cloud, today released the State of Gaming for Marketers 2026, an in-depth analysis of how AI, creative scale, and rising paid pressure reshaped mobile gaming marketing in 2025. Drawing on AppsFlyer data, the report examines how studios adapted as marketing activity expanded faster than player attention.
In 2025, AI-enabled production coincided with a sharp increase in advertising across iOS and Android. Creative output scaled rapidly across all spending tiers, with top gaming advertisers producing between 2,400 and 2,600 creative variations per quarter, up 25–30% YoY. That expansion increased pressure on paid acquisition channels. Paid install share rose 10% YoY across iOS and Android, while ad impressions increased 20%, indicating a significant rise in the number of ads competing for the same pool of players. To manage rising marketing volume and fragmentation, AI-enabled tools became a common part of daily workflows, with 46% of AI assistant queries focused on reporting and performance breakdowns, reflecting the need for faster visibility as data volumes grew.
“AI has dramatically increased the speed and volume at which games and marketing assets reach the market,” said Adam Smart, Director of Product, Gaming at AppsFlyer. “The result is not a shortage of creativity, but a surplus of it. As paid activity and creative supply expand faster than player attention, marketing success depends on how effectively teams can measure, interpret, and act on an increasing volume of fragmented signals.”
Additional key insights from the State of Gaming for India Marketers in 2026:
- Gaming UA spend increased 19% YoY, positioning India as one of the fastest-growing large gaming markets globally.
- Hypercasual UA spend increased 60% YoY on Android, supporting Android-led scale economics in the region.
- Casual game IAP revenue experienced a sharp drop of -35%
Methodology
AppsFlyer’s State of Gaming for Marketers 2026 is based on anonymized, aggregated data from thousands of gaming apps worldwide, analyzing installs, ad spend, creative production, monetization, AI-assisted workflows, and media source usage across iOS and Android during 2025.
