Activision Blizzard’s Jonathan Stringfield on creating for the unseen gamer

The whole world of gaming is opening up — from who plays to the devices they play on to the immense amount of advertising possibilities in the gaming world.

Research company Omdia projects that global in-game advertising revenue will reach $71 billion in 2023, up from $67 billion. In addition, Omdia predicts that gaming will nearly equal traditional TV ad revenue by 2027.

With an estimated 3.38 billion gamers worldwide — 1 in 5 of which are moms with kids — it’s time to redefine who is seen as a gamer.

“When we think about what it means to play a video game more generally, you kind of get that classic view of like someone with a controller or maybe at a PC,” Activision Blizzard’s VP of global business research and marketing, Jonathan Stringfield, shared on The Current Podcast. “But realistically, one of the biggest segments of gaming fans out there is mobile. And since virtually everyone has a mobile device globally that can handle games like Candy Crush, what we found is that the surface area for people that enjoy games is just that much bigger.”

Elsewhere on the podcast, Stringfield breaks down why he thinks the future of gaming will happen on any screen with an internet connection, how advertisers can attach themselves to gamers’ loyalty to specific franchises, and how he found community in gaming.