Leveling Up: Capturing Younger Audiences Through In-Game Advertising

Once upon a time, video gaming meant blowing into a cartridge, flipping the RF switch, tuning your CRT to channel 3 and flipping on your console.

Back then Super Mario Bros. and Duck Hunt were the height of interactive entertainment all be it confined to your living room. Fast-forward a few decades, and the scene looks wildly different. Gaming has gone digital, mobile, social. And it finds itself now as one of the most engaged ecosystems on the planet. Here’s the kicker: while billions of people play every day, in-game advertising is still overlooked by many media buyers. That’s a miss. (This is where the Duck Hunt dog would snicker at you.)

And while this intro likely appeals to the Millennial gamers among us, the reality is that gaming belongs to everyone now. More than half of Americans identify as digital gamers, with Gen Z leading the charge and Gen Alpha right behind them.

The average player spends nearly two hours a day in-game—time that demands attention, not passive scrolling in the background. Yet gaming only accounts for about five percent of digital ad budgets. That disconnect means a rare opportunity: less competition, higher share of voice, and a chance for brands to actually break through.

And make no mistake—this is where younger audiences live. Nearly three-quarters of Gen Z will be digital gamers by 2027, and seven in ten Gen Alpha kids are already logging four to five sessions a week. For them, gaming isn’t just entertainment. It’s a social hub, a hangout, a community builder. By 2030, Gen Z will control an estimated $12 trillion in spending power, while Gen Alpha already drives hundreds of billions in household influence. Brands that show up authentically in these spaces today are planting seeds for serious long-term value.

Gamers don’t stop at the console, either. They’re heavy consumers of streaming video, music, and social platforms—true digital natives who move seamlessly across screens. That makes gaming a perfect entry point for omnichannel strategies. Think product placement in a game, followed by a podcast reminder, then a short-form hit on TikTok or YouTube. Gaming provides the connective tissue for a story that carries across platforms without feeling forced.

For Gen Alpha especially, gaming is becoming what social media was for millennials and Gen Z—their primary digital hangout. By the end of the decade, it’s projected to be as central to their daily lives as TikTok is today. If advertisers still treat gaming as an afterthought, they’ll miss the cultural shift entirely.

The truth is simple: gaming isn’t the “future” of advertising. It’s the now. Brands that see it as a core channel, not just a quirky add-on, stand to gain attention, authenticity, and cultural relevance in ways other digital spaces can’t match.