The latest IAB UK Digital Adspend 2025 figures show why gaming advertising deserves more of media planners’ attention. Gaming ad spend in the UK rose 11% last year to £1.3bn, outpacing the wider digital market’s 9.6% growth. 

The IAB UK’s report put total digital spend at £40.4bn, but it’s gaming's growth rate that planners need to pay attention to.

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What 11% growth actually tells us

Gaming is still in the beginning stages compared to more established channels, but it's growing faster than the total market. IAB UK describes the channel as healthy and high-growth, but still transitioning from novelty to mainstream. Historically, that's exactly the moment buyer behaviour starts to shift, and early movers build lasting advantages.

Brands want environments with engaged audiences that are genuinely engaged. Gaming delivers this due to its immersive nature where people actively participate instead of passively consuming content.

Gaming advertising today mirrors mobile's early stage: forward-thinking brands adopt early, while others wait for more use cases. However, performance typically drives adoption; once gaming shows business outcomes, adoption quickly widens.

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Tighter creative rules? Gaming gives brands more room

Regulatory pressure is already reshaping where budgets go. The report flags a 'definite negative impact' from Less Healthy Food (LHF) regulation, pushing budgets away from publishing and TV and towards audio and DOOH. UK restaurants were among the fastest-growing agency categories in 2025, up 34%. For those brands, the challenge isn't just where to spend, but how to say enough when standard ad formats limit what's possible.

When a 30-second spot or static banner can't carry the full message, the next question is how to bring people into a space the brand controls. Gaming can act as the bridge between paid media and an owned landing experience, where richer product information and longer-form storytelling can live. Playable formats, such as a minigame, can begin inside an ad as a short taster, and then pull the user into a fuller experience on a landing page hosted by the brand. That gives the brand more room to manage first-party data, control the experience, and add the educational layer that regulated categories often need.

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Gaming complements YouTube - it doesn’t replace it

YouTube ads still have a part to play, and the wider video market is growing, with video investment up 18% to £9.3bn, according to the IAB UK figures. But when too much budget sits in the same environments for too long, frequency builds faster than reach. That's a planning problem, and one gaming directly addresses.

It's why incremental reach keeps coming up in planning conversations. Rewarded video can be more effective than YouTube on a CPM basis, and it can also help brands reach the 10-15% of campaign audiences who are gaming and aren’t being picked up in the same way on YouTube. That can help budgets work harder, as well as support mid-funnel and lower-funnel actions. 

The format itself also helps. The IAB UK’s gaming deep-dive notes that highly engaged audiences can be sensitive to intrusive or misplaced advertising experiences, which is exactly why rewarded video works so well when done properly. People expect the ad because there is a clear value exchange, be it an extra life, a level-up, or a power-up. Rewarded video is one of the few genuinely opt-in ad formats at scale, making it a rare territory where high attention is earned rather than forced. Anyone who’s watched an ad in Candy Crush just to keep going will recognise why that feels different from interruption, and why gaming can be attention-rich without being intrusive.

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Build the test-bed before policy changes force it

Mobile accounts for £27.8bn (69% of total ad spend), giving brands easy reach, especially among casual gamers. However, planners must not limit gaming to mobile alone, as PC and console remain relevant based on audience and objective.

The potential spread of social media regulation for younger audiences (e.g., Australia's 2025 minimum age rules) may force brands dependent on youth video reach to seek alternatives.

Gaming’s 11% rise reflects a channel that’s becoming more useful, and more accountable in the fragmented media environment that brands now have to plan for. For marketers chasing incremental reach, stronger attention, and a more resilient media mix, the question is no longer whether gaming belongs on the plan. The only thing left for planners to decide is when to start. 

If you need help building a gaming strategy that adds incremental reach, stronger attention, and more resilient planning, contact iion, or download the full IAB UK Digital Adspend 2025 report here.

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