What the industry told us at Cannes 2026: mobile gaming is no longer optional

Jul 2, 2026|5 Min
Image of the Cannes coastline

The Croisette was buzzing with the expected conversations about AI, creativity, and the future of media. But this year, something felt different about how the industry talked about mobile gaming. Not as a niche channel to test. Not as an afterthought line item. As a serious, full-funnel media investment that belongs in every digital advertising plan.

We sat down with industry leaders from across the advertising ecosystem at Unity’s Content Studio. Three themes came up in nearly every conversation.

The audience is everyone, and that changes everything

Objections to mobile gaming investment trace back to the same mental image: a young, male-skewed audience with little purchasing power. That perception is clearly outdated, and the industry is acknowledging it.

Alex Gardner, CRO at Index Exchange, put it plainly:

"The biggest misconception about mobile gaming is that it represents a user defined by a very narrow set of characteristics. The reality is that marketers are looking for a diverse audience, and that audience is very much represented within mobile gaming — whether it's someone like myself or my children, my wife, my friends. You name the audience attributes, and I will bet that you'll find them within mobile gaming."
ALEX GARDNER / INDEX EXCHANGEChief Revenue Officer

The stereotype isn't just inaccurate. It could be costing advertisers access to one of the most valuable audiences in digital media. The conversation around this stereotype has moved on. Programmatic plans should too.

Attention here is unlike anywhere else

Proving who the audience is only gets you so far. The question that follows is whether you can reach them in a way that actually moves metrics.

Jen Sposeto, VP of Partner and Category Marketing at Best Buy, talked about gaming as the unique combination of reach and attention:

“I think it's a unique platform that takes aspects from other media platforms, like the reach of social and the attention of premium video, and combines it in one space. Now we're seeing more conversion with commerce we've had over the years, so you really get this full time, full funnel approach within this new innovative inventory.”
JEN SPOSETO / BEST BUYVP of Partner and Category Marketing

Made with Unity apps reach over 3 billion unique monthly active devices globally¹, and these are not passive viewers. They are an audience that can choose to engage with ads in exchange for something they want. This level of attention and reach is a rare combination in the media landscape, yet mobile gaming remains an underutilized channel. EMARKETER states that “gaming captures similar time spent with social video, but just one-tenth the ad dollars per minute.”.

Mobile gaming is full funnel, and the industry is catching up

The assumption that mobile gaming is a lower-funnel, direct-response channel useful for app installs but not much else has held back most budgets in the space. The industry is moving past it, and as the leaders we spoke with at Cannes made clear, the signals and infrastructure to back that up are finally in place.

Lauren Wetzel, Global President of Data and Technology Solutions at WPP, offered her perspective:

“I think of the marketing funnel today as more like a pinball machine. This notion of a linear journey—from upper funnel to mid-funnel to performance—isn’t really how consumers engage anymore. They’re everywhere, media is everywhere, and people move fluidly across channels, moments, and devices. That’s why attention is only part of the equation. Engagement is what creates real understanding. We’ve moved beyond thinking about mobile gaming as simply another media placement or banner ad. It’s a rich source of intelligent signals that help brands better understand consumers, make smarter decisions, and ultimately create more relevant experiences.”
LAUREN WETZEL / WPPGlobal President of Data and Technology Solutions

The full-funnel argument used to be theoretical. The signals and infrastructure are finally in place to prove it.

What this means heading into H2

Three themes. One direction. The industry isn't debating whether mobile gaming belongs in a programmatic plan; it's debating how quickly budgets should move there.

The audience is broader than most marketers assume. The attention is deeper than most channels can offer. And with The Trade Desk, LiveRamp, and the broader programmatic stack now pointing at gaming, the infrastructure to close the loop on full-funnel performance is finally in place. For programmatic teams, the next step is acting on it.

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1 - As of December 2025. Source: Unity Ads, Apptopia, Steam. Disclaimer: This estimate is based on a combination of Apptopia and Steam data from Dec 1 2025, and unique identifiers from internally available Unity data for mobile and desktop devices only.