Gaming engagement stays strong, even as regulation risks rise

The news: Gamers are a highly engaged audience that’s ripe for marketing, as long as brands can balance evolving regulations and users’ ad experience preferences.

• 70% of gamers play or watch video games daily, and 95% do so weekly, per a study from Activision Blizzard Media.
• 20% of gamers would play a title more frequently if in-game ads were high quality, but the same amount would abandon a game entirely after seeing disruptive ads.

Gaming provides deep access to a broad range of consumers and can greatly increase brand recall—the activity sees strong penetration across age groups, with over 70% of 12- to 34-year-olds playing games at least once per month, per our data.

Looking back: 2025 was a year of several major hardware drops, including the long-awaited Switch 2 and Microsoft’s ROG Xbox Ally and ROG Xbox Ally X.

Despite softening consumer spending and tariff threats, shopping for these devices isn’t expected to stop: The average US consumer planned to spend $931 on tech devices during the 2025 holiday season, per CNET.

For brands, that means gaming is a resilient, high-engagement channel with an audience that’s still eager to find new products, even in uncertain economic conditions.

Challenges ahead: Age-related changes raise the stakes for brands to stay both visible and trusted.

• Regulators are pressuring platforms like Discord to implement age-gating, making these platforms more complicated for advertising.
• In late 2025, Roblox introduced measures such as blocking messaging between adults and young users, facial age estimations, and age-based filters on chats that block inappropriate content or personal information.

To maintain brand safety, companies should ensure ad placements align with content ratings, audience age groups, and verified safe channels.

What this means for marketers: CMOs who prioritize quality creative, responsible data practices, and audience alignment can turn gaming into a long-term brand-equity driver while mitigating compliance risks.

Brands should capitalize on emerging platforms and consoles by matching brand message to title genre and format. For example:

• Use native, environmental integrations in games to maintain the immersive experience.
• Leverage rewarded ad formats to encourage positive associations with in-game ads.
• Adopt non-intrusive 3D ad formats, such as those offered by Roblox, to reach users without interrupting play.