Read this first
This page is the short, plain form of a long paper. The paper looks at ads that brands buy in and around games in 2026. It looks at the US first. It uses facts that were public by 1 October 2026. The abstract has the full story.
What counts
An ad can sit inside the game. It can be a sign by a race track, or a video you watch to earn a prize in the game. An ad can also sit next to the game: on a stream, in a chat app, or on a site about games. The paper keeps these apart. See what counts as game ads.
The paper also asks who pays, and why. Game firms buy a lot of ads to get new players. That is not the same as a brand that wants to be known. This paper is about brands. Ads that sell new games are listed, but they are not scored.
How big it is
We found no one who says how much brands spend on ads in games. The one firm we found that gives US dollar figures for game ads is EMARKETER. It said US game ad sales would be $8.59 billion in 2024, and that 90.4% of it was on mobile. It also says game firms buy most of the ads in games. So most of that money is likely game firms that want new players. That last step is our guess, since no one splits the money. See how big it is.
Lots of people play. That does not mean an ad can reach them all. Each count of players uses its own rules, and none counts who can see an ad.
What holds brands back
Our old playbook said brands hold back because the ads are hard to plan, check and keep safe. We tested that. Two polls, one from 2023 and one from 2024, put brand safety first. But neither is shown to be from the US, and neither lead is shown to be bigger than chance. We found no US poll that asks the same thing. So we cannot say the playbook was right, and we cannot say it was wrong. See the polls.
Who sells
There are three kinds of seller. We never score one kind against another.
- Firms that put ads in other firms' games, such as Anzu, Frameplay and Gadsme. See who sells in games.
- Firms that sell ads in their own games or worlds, such as Roblox, Microsoft, EA and Zynga. See the platforms.
- Firms that sell ads near games, such as Twitch, Discord, Overwolf and Medal. See the media near games.
Sellers post lists of the firms they sell for. Six of these lists name 1,619 web addresses of the firms they sell for, but only 1,381 once you drop the ones that show up more than once. A name on a list means a seller may sell for that firm. It does not show that an ad ran, that a game is live, or how many people saw it.
Who checks the counts
There is a rule book for how to count ads that sit in games. It was done in August 2022. In the US, a group called the MRC checks that ad counts are right. On 29 September 2026, it had not signed off on a count of ads built into a game scene from any firm we scored. Other ads in game apps, such as videos, fall under its rules for phone apps. Most other checks are press notes from 2022 to 2025. See who checks.
Kids and safety
Some games have lots of kids. On Roblox, over a third of users who checked their age in mid-2026 were under 13. A US rule says a firm needs a parent's okay before it shares a child's data with other firms. Roblox and Microsoft do not let their ads be aimed at users under 18 by what they know about them. Some firms show how brands can keep ads away from things they do not want near them. Others just say they are safe. See the rules.
Game boxes
On Xbox and PlayStation, most ads we found sit outside the game. They are on the home screen, in the store, in TV apps, or play before a game starts. Some are just tests. EA sells ads in its own sports games. We could not tell where some Microsoft ads show up, so we leave that question open. See game boxes.
Do the ads work?
Each test we found of a real brand campaign came from a firm with a stake in it: the seller, a firm that sells the measuring, or an ad agency. We found no fair test of a brand's ads in or near games paid for by someone with nothing to gain. See the proof.
What is changing
Small firms that sold ads in games have been sold or shut. We found at least three sold or shut since 2021, not counting a merger. None of the records says the ads were to blame. At the same time, big game firms such as Roblox and EA now sell ads in their own games. See what is changing.
The scores
We scored 23 ad products on 12 things a buyer needs to know. A score shows how much a firm has put in writing that we could check. It does not show how well the ads work. Twitch has the most in writing of the firms near games. In the group that puts ads in other firms' games, 4 firms are in the second band. There are too few firms that sell in their own games to split into bands. See the scores.
What to ask a seller
- Which games is the ad live in now, and since when?
- Can we find your name on each game's own list of sellers?
- Who counted the ads, and did anyone check that count?
- How do you treat players under 18?
- Did someone with nothing to gain test if it worked?
How we did it
AI tools found and read the sources. A second AI tool then tried to prove each point wrong. We logged 982 sources and 807 claims. A tool from another AI firm checked the plan, the facts and the draft. AI tools read the draft three more times for errors. We checked each point at the source before we changed anything. A second AI tool scored the close calls again. It could not see our scores. It mostly agreed. No outside person checked the paper, and no ad seller paid for it or saw it first. See how we did it.