By Becky Johnson, Host of Advertising Week’s Modern Marketing + Measurement Podcast
By now, the numbers are no longer up for debate. Gaming isn’t emerging — it’s entrenched. It’s where younger audiences spend their time, build relationships, and increasingly, shape their identities. For Gen Z and Gen Alpha, gaming isn’t just entertainment; it’s infrastructure.
And yet, for all its scale and cultural gravity, gaming remains one of the most misunderstood — and underleveraged — channels in modern marketing.
This isn’t a discovery problem. It’s a comprehension problem.
The Disconnect Starts with Definition
One of the biggest reasons brands struggle with gaming is deceptively simple: they don’t know what it is.
Too often, gaming is treated like a channel — something to be slotted into a media plan alongside social, CTV, and display. But gaming isn’t a format. It’s a behavior. A culture. A collection of ecosystems that span platforms, genres, and communities.
As one industry leader put it, gaming today is “social, entertainment, and even sport” all at once.
That ambiguity creates friction. If gaming can be everything, it’s difficult for marketers to know where to start — or worse, where to measure success. So instead of engaging deeply, many default to surface-level activations that mimic traditional media.
And gamers notice.
Authenticity Isn’t Optional
Gaming audiences are among the most discerning in media. They don’t just consume content; they inhabit it. That creates a very different expectation for brands.
Showing up with a banner ad or a repurposed TV spot isn’t just ineffective — it’s intrusive.
Advertising Week’s own coverage makes this clear: to make an impact in gaming, brands must avoid “superficial engagement” and demonstrate a genuine understanding of gaming culture.
That’s where many non-gaming brands fall short. They approach gaming as an extension of campaign distribution, not as a native environment with its own norms, language, and value exchange.
In gaming, attention is earned through participation — not interruption.
The Measurement Trap
If misunderstanding gaming is the first barrier, measurement is the second.
Marketers are conditioned to rely on standardized metrics: impressions, clicks, conversions. But gaming doesn’t behave like other media — and trying to force it into those frameworks creates blind spots.
An IAB-focused analysis highlighted this exact issue: traditional measurement models fail to account for the way gaming content is shared, amplified, and experienced within communities.
In gaming, engagement isn’t linear. A moment in a game can ripple through Discord servers, Twitch streams, TikTok edits, and group chats — creating a level of amplification that legacy metrics simply don’t capture.
So what happens?
Brands undervalue the channel.
Despite massive reach — more than 3 billion players globally — gaming still receives a disproportionately small share of ad spend.
It’s not because gaming lacks impact. It’s because the industry hasn’t fully adapted how it defines impact.
Passive Thinking in an Active Medium
There’s also a deeper philosophical gap at play: most advertising is built for passive consumption. Gaming is the opposite.
In traditional media, audiences watch. In gaming, they act.
This shift from spectator to participant fundamentally changes how brands need to show up. Successful activations aren’t just seen — they’re experienced.
Gaming offers the ability to turn audiences into active participants, creating persistent, evolving interactions instead of one-off impressions.
But many brands still approach gaming with a broadcast mindset. They look for placements instead of experiences. Reach instead of relevance.
The result is work that feels disconnected from the medium — and quickly ignored by the audience.
The Fragmentation Problem
Even when brands want to engage meaningfully, the gaming ecosystem itself can feel overwhelming.
Unlike social platforms or streaming services, gaming isn’t centralized. It’s a patchwork of platforms (console, PC, mobile), genres (FPS, simulation, sandbox), and environments (Fortnite, Roblox, indie titles, esports).
That fragmentation creates decision paralysis.
Where should a brand show up? What format should it use? Which audience matters most?
As one industry executive bluntly put it, the space can feel like “a fair amount of snake oil” to marketers trying to navigate it.
Without clear entry points, gaming often gets relegated to “innovation budgets” — the first line item cut when pressures mount.
Outdated Perceptions Still Linger
Layered on top of all this is a perception problem.
Despite years of data, many marketers still carry outdated assumptions about who gamers are — and what gaming represents.
The reality is far broader. Gaming spans demographics, geographies, and psychographics. It’s as mainstream as any media channel — arguably more so for younger audiences.
But when brands view gaming through a narrow lens — as niche, male-dominated, or purely entertainment-driven — they limit both their ambition and their investment.
Gaming Isn’t a Channel — It’s a Context
So what’s the unlock?
It starts with reframing.
Gaming shouldn’t be treated as a line item. It should be approached as a context — a dynamic environment where culture, community, and creativity intersect.
That means shifting from:
- Campaigns to ecosystems
- Impressions to interactions
- Targeting to participation
It also means thinking beyond advertising altogether.
Some of the most effective brand integrations in gaming don’t look like ads at all. They’re experiences, collaborations, or contributions that enhance the environment rather than disrupt it.
From branded game modes to virtual concerts to creator-led storytelling, the opportunity isn’t just to reach gamers — it’s to become part of what they’re already doing.
The Real Opportunity: Cultural Fluency
Ultimately, the brands that win in gaming aren’t the ones with the biggest budgets. They’re the ones with the deepest understanding.
Gaming rewards cultural fluency.
It favors brands that understand how communities form, how value is exchanged, and how identity is expressed within these spaces. It demands patience, experimentation, and a willingness to let go of traditional control.
That’s a departure from how many marketers are trained to operate.
But it’s also the opportunity.
Because while most brands are still trying to “figure out gaming,” a smaller group is already embedding themselves within it — building relevance that extends far beyond a single campaign.
Brands Need to Do Better
Gaming doesn’t need to prove its importance. It already commands the attention, time, and emotional investment that marketers spend billions trying to capture elsewhere.
The question isn’t whether brands should be in gaming.
It’s whether they’re willing to meet it on its own terms.
Right now, many aren’t.
And until that changes, gaming will remain what it is today for advertisers: not an underperforming channel — but an under-understood one.
