During the COVID-19 pandemic, gaming enjoyed a tremendous surge in popularity — a high point that has suffered somewhat of a dip in the last year. However, gaming executives are bullish on their 2025 prospects. “During the pandemic we saw double digit growth in mobile, PC and console,” explained Sensor Tower SVP of Gaming & Entertainment Chirag Ambwani. “And now, in the last six months, we’re seeing gaming coming back to growth after that slight dip.” Better, some trends are highlighting the growing importance of gaming, suggest the experts. United Talent Agency’s Michelle Kim moderated a CES panel on Gamevertising to address the latest trends.

Claire Nance, Activision Blizzard’s Head of Gaming Business Success Strategy, noted that the second screen paradigm has switched. “Now, the device is playing games on the phone or console and the TV is the secondary form of entertainment, rather than the other way around,” she said.

Zynga VP of Global Brand Sales & Partnerships Gabrielle Heyman agrees. “There’s an increase in commitment to gaming this year,” she noted. “There was a lot of experimentation during COVID, and now people are seeing cross-generational opportunities where everyone in the family is gaming, but in different ways.”

On a CES panel on Gamevertising: Immersive Brand Experiences in Gaming, moderated by UTA agent Kim, gaming executives shared their thoughts on best practices for strategizing brand engagement in gaming. First is to reassess the environment. According to Ambwani, “the audience has vastly grown.”

“Over 3.5 billion people interact with games, which is half of the world’s population,” he said. The typical gamer is no longer the adolescent boy in his parent’s basement.

“A lot of myths need to be busted, including the perception that the big screen in the living room is the best place to be” added Heyman, who pointed out that “over 50 percent of the gaming world is on mobile where watching an ad is a value exchange for free play”

“Understanding the gamer is a fun struggle for me,” said Ambwani. “When you’re building content, understand the motivator for the audience and if your brand fits with it. Your brand might not always work with the game play.”

He pointed to how McDonald’s integrates its brand into the game experience, “like using its food items to level up.” “It’s not an ad,” he said. “But it’s an ad and a seamless experience.”

“The best practice is to find the right gaming environment in a way that’s authentic and seamless — and also being crystal clear on what you’re trying to achieve,” Nance suggested.

Heyman noted that “sometimes brands think they’ll do Activision or Zynga.” “Buy both because you’ll get increased range and very little overlap,” she said. “That’s how things are going to go in 2025. Go broad. Look at gaming as the same as buying on Netflix, Peacock and other streaming platforms.”

She added that, “casual games tend to be a female audience — and they make 80 percent of the purchasing decisions.”