Gaming Deep Dive: Ad Monetization Report
Mobile games across the globe made over $12 billion in ad revenue in 2025. These ads were viewed a whopping 2.4 trillion times, and ad-monetized games raked in more than 25 billion downloads. With Sensor Tower, you can track all of this and more — as we’re about to show you in our latest report, Gaming Deep Dive: Ad Monetization.
Over the course of 35+ data-packed pages, we’ll cover the ecosystem of ad networks driving revenue, unpack the competitive landscape, and finish off with real-world case studies on some of today’s most popular mobile games.
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Here’s a sneak peek of the key takeaways:
Ads in mobile gaming are a $12B+ per year business: Mobile gaming ad monetization generated over $12 billion in annual revenue across 19 markets in 2025, with 2.4 trillion ad impressions served across the ecosystem.
Ad-monetized games are 83% of mobile game downloads: Ad-supported titles drove 24.6 billion downloads across the 19 ad monetization markets in 2025, making advertising the primary pipeline for new player acquisition.
Ad revenue is significantly less concentrated than IAP: Games ranked below #1,000 by ad revenue capture 29% of ad revenue, only 9% of IAP revenue is captured by games ranked under #1,000 by IAP revenue.
AppLovin + AdMob are 65% of mobile gaming ad revenue: AppLovin and AdMob have steadily consolidated their lead through 2025 into 2026, growing combined share at the expense of smaller networks.
Hybridcasual has matured into two models: Ads-first titles like Wordscapes derive ~80% of revenue from advertising, while IAP-first titles like Pixel Flow! and Color Block Jam run ~78–80% IAP.
Arrow games have taken over the downloads charts: Arrows Puzzle Escape was the #1 downloaded game in May 2026, with Arrows GO! at #5, two titles built on the same single-rule mechanic that went to the top in under a year.