At IAB PlayFronts, gaming platforms and marketers laid out why ad spending in gaming still lags far behind the audience size, and what it takes to close the gap.
At IAB PlayFronts, gaming platforms, developers, and brand marketers gathered to address a persistent gap: two-thirds of Americans are gamers, according to the event discussion, yet advertising budgets have not come close to reflecting that reach. The conversation centered on what is holding spending back and what needs to change for gaming to take its rightful place in the media mix.
For business owners accustomed to search and social advertising, the gaming channel can feel unfamiliar. But the audience data makes a strong case for attention. When a majority of the country engages with a medium regularly, that medium becomes hard to ignore from a pure reach standpoint.
Gaming advertising has historically suffered from perception problems. Many media buyers still associate gaming with teenagers, even though the actual player base spans every adult age group. IAB PlayFronts was designed in part to correct that assumption, putting platform data and audience research in front of marketers who control budgets.
The fragmented nature of gaming inventory also creates friction. Unlike search or social, gaming advertising runs across console platforms, mobile games, PC titles, and live-streaming environments. Each requires different creative formats and has its own measurement standards, which slows adoption among advertisers who prefer consolidated buying.
For industrial, commercial, and small business owners, the opportunity is straightforward: a channel with massive adult reach and relatively low advertiser competition means lower costs per impression now than you will see once mainstream budgets fully arrive. The platforms discussed at PlayFronts are actively building the tools to make buying easier, which means the friction that kept big agencies away is shrinking.
The audience skews toward adults with disposable income and real purchasing decisions. That includes the exact profile many B2B and commercial service advertisers need to reach, whether that is facility managers, fleet owners, or small business operators who game in their off hours.
IAB PlayFronts highlighted that gaming advertising is continuing to find its footing, per Marketing Dive's coverage of the event. That framing matters. The channel is not fully mature, which means standards are still forming and early movers can help shape how measurement and attribution work in their favor.
Formats under discussion include in-game display, rewarded video, and sponsorship integrations with streaming platforms that carry gaming content. Each has a different cost structure and engagement profile. What they share is access to an audience that is actively engaged, not passively scrolling.
Two-thirds of Americans are gamers. Why hasn't ad spending caught up?
Marketing Dive, September 21 2026
The IAB PlayFronts conversation signals that the industry is serious about bridging the gap between audience size and ad dollars. For business owners evaluating where to put the next dollar of growth budget, gaming deserves a serious look before the rest of the market catches on.
How WebKing runs this
We track where audience attention is moving before ad costs spike. Gaming advertising involves a mix of in-game placements, streaming integrations, and platform-specific formats that require different creative and targeting logic than search or social. We evaluate whether gaming inventory fits your customer profile, negotiate the right placements, and monitor performance so you are not paying premium rates for the wrong audience.
You can opt out. Google lets advertisers disable generative resizing if you want to control exactly how your video appears across different placements. The feature is on by default for Performance Max, but the control is yours.
Google says the goal is to improve viewing experience, not degrade it. The tool extends existing videos into missing formats rather than cropping or letterboxing, but the quality depends on your source video resolution and composition. Vertical-friendly horizontal videos tend to resize better than heavily framed shots.
You film one video, and it can now run on vertical placements (Reels, TikTok-like inventory) and square formats (Stories, feeds) without extra production. More placements per dollar means lower cost-per-reach if the resized creative converts as well as the original.
Shoot with square-friendly framing and center your subject when possible. Avoid extreme letterboxing or wide-angle shots that lose meaning when cropped vertically. Google's AI handles basic resizing, but smarter composition on your end improves output quality.
Sources
The Lab is original analysis by WebKing. We summarize and interpret developments from the sources above for industrial, commercial, and small business owners. Figures are reported as published by their sources.
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