Mobvista's cross-platform smart media buying platform, XMP, recently released the "2025 Global Mobile Game Acquisition Trends and Strategies Report." The report points out that as global mobile game advertising spending and user acquisition costs (UA costs) rise in 2025, brands are accelerating their shift to using AI-generated creatives and immersive interactive formats to maintain growth. This year also shows a key turning point in mobile advertising, shifting from "volume-driven" to "creativity-led and performance-driven."
Global downloads increased by 7.4%, with Android accounting for 80%.
According to XMP data, global mobile game installations in the first three quarters of 2025 (Q1-Q3) increased by 7.4% year-on-year, reaching 389 billion. Android dominated with 80.8% of installations, while iOS accounted for 19.2%.
In terms of revenue, global mobile game revenue (including in-app advertising (IAA) and in-app purchases (IAP) increased by 13.2% year-over-year to $825 billion.
In terms of game genre, "hyper-casual" remains the most downloaded category, while puzzle and action games performed strongly across all markets. Regarding monetization, shooting and puzzle games lead in ad-driven revenue.
Video ads account for 81% of ads, and the hybrid format of "trial play + video" has become the new mainstream.
The evolution of advertising formats is a major highlight for 2025, with the report indicating that video advertising remains the mainstream, accounting for 81% of all creative materials. However, "hybrid formats" that combine entertainment and performance, especially "video-playable combinations," have seen rapid growth.
This shows that advertisers have moved interactive advertising, which was previously considered experimental, such as playable ads, into the mainstream to provide a more immersive user experience.
In addition, AI-generated videos and avatars are reshaping the content production process, improving user retention and conversion rates through large-scale personalized interactions.
South America is the most active market for advertising, and Meta remains the dominant platform for ad spending.
In terms of regional performance, South America became the most active advertising region globally, generating the highest volume of creative materials, with audio and video materials accounting for nearly 85%.
As for where advertising spending goes, Meta maintains its global dominance in both casual and hardcore gaming, followed by Google and TikTok, reflecting that advertisers still heavily rely on these ecosystems with large-scale optimization capabilities.
2026 Outlook: Cross-Platform Automation and Full Funnel Transparency
Faced with rising customer acquisition costs and data fragmentation, Zidan Tang, head of XMP, said advertisers are turning to more automated cross-channel workflows.
To meet the challenges of 2026, modernized advertising campaign processes are focusing on four core capabilities:
• Cross-channel management: Control the Meta, Google, TikTok and SDK networks from a single interface.
• Unified asset management: Centralized management of audio-visual materials, images, and demo assets.
• AI-driven optimization: Automatically adjusts bids, budgets, and creative rotation based on real-time performance.
• Full funnel transparency: Integrating multi-source analysis to monitor return on investment (ROI).
Tang Zidan emphasized that mobile game marketing has fully entered the "smart era," and advertisers who embrace AI, interactivity, and unified data visibility will lead the next wave of mobile growth.
