Published August 10
Electronic Arts’ launch of EA Advertising has sparked plenty of discussion about the future of in-game advertising. But in the Asia-Pacific region, where gaming is mainstream, the conversation has already moved from whether brands should invest to how brands can tap into one of the world’s largest digital audiences.
“Gaming will earn its place as a core channel for the same reason mobile did. Attention follows behavior, and consumer behavior is already there,” Valerie Phang, APAC marketing lead at DT (formerly Digital Turbine), told The Current.
“In three to five years, gaming won’t be asking for experimental budget; it’ll be competing for the same line item as social,” she said.
The opportunity is hard to ignore. According to a recent study, APAC is the world’s largest gaming region by revenue, accounting for 49.5% of the global gaming market. This has largely been driven by mobile-first adoption across China, Japan, India and South Korea.
Yet despite that scale, marketing budgets haven’t kept pace. “Brand investment is still treating gaming as a bonus rather than a core line,” Phang said.
Jason Barnes, APAC chief revenue officer at PubMatic, says one of the biggest barriers to investment is outdated assumptions about who gamers are.
“When I started, the perception was fixed — gamers were young, male and performance-focused,” he said. “Now brands are moving from ‘Should we invest in gaming?’ to ‘How do we access gaming audiences?’ Gaming is no longer a niche, hard-to-reach segment.”
“The biggest [misconception] is still that gaming is niche,” Phang said . “With over 1.9 billion players in APAC alone, that argument does not hold up.”
Another common misconception is that gaming audiences lack purchasing power. But in reality, she argues, the broader gaming population is a high-value, mainstream consumer base with substantial spending capability, “ranging from Gen Zs to moms to senior execs who just want a break from the daily grind.”
New formats for gaming ads have also helped draw in more marketers, from more interactive creative to click-to-cart and in-ad product browsing experiences.
“I speak to buyers every day, instead of saying, ‘Let’s experiment in games,’ they’re saying, ‘Games are part of our omnichannel mix; how do we buy more?’” Barnes said.
Measurement still has work to do
As perceptions continue to evolve, experts say marketers’ confidence is also hampered by subpar measurement.
While platforms such as EA Advertising are introducing more sophisticated reporting capabilities, experts say self-reported metrics alone won’t be enough.
What still needs to improve is standardization. “Every platform defines ‘engagement’ differently and, until there’s a shared benchmark, CMOs will keep discounting gaming’s numbers against more mature channels,” Phang said.
Rocky Zheng, director of SSP partnerships at LoopMe, believes the industry is moving in the right direction but says foundational issues remain.
“Even basic things like when a viewability session should start for a full-screen or rewarded ad aren’t consistent across iOS and Android yet, which sounds minor but affects whether an impression even counts as real,” he said.
“Until that kind of foundational structure is standardized and independently verified, gaming measurement won’t be trusted the same way CTV or mobile is.”
One region, many gaming cultures
Experts also caution marketers against treating APAC as a single gaming market.
“Asia is made up of multiple culturally different markets and hence the gaming culture per country is a direct product of how different the region’s cultures, infrastructure and device habits are,” Phang said.
“What will work depends on device behavior and session context, not just language localization.”
Claire Wu, APAC head of supply business development at LoopMe, says the region’s diversity extends to monetization models and creative expectations.
“Japan and South Korea have more premium markets. … China represents a unique, self-contained programmatic and social ecosystem … and India is a hypergrowth, volume-first market where ad-supported gaming dominates,” she said.
“It’s important to be open-minded as APAC developers, especially in China, experiment with more ad monetization options. Diving deeper into the user analytics and paying more attention to user experience will also drive success, especially when it comes to localizing ads for different markets.”
