Customer acquisition hits $25 billion as creativity reshapes iGaming
Global spending on customer acquisition in the gaming industry is on a steady increase. In 2025 alone, global advertisers spent around $25 billion on acquiring users. Half of this expenditure was spent on the US market alone. These are the statistics according to AppsFlyer’s report on The State of Gaming for Marketers in 2026. Saturation rather than visibility is what today’s advertisers are now fighting.
The increase in content creation
The biggest spenders in the gaming industry have seen a large increase in the amount of content being produced, with the biggest advertisers increasing their levels of production by a significant 25% to 30% on a YoY basis, and the smaller advertisers increasing their levels of production by as much as 40% on a YoY basis. Essentially, companies are fundamentally changing how they approach customer acquisition strategy.
Creative boom redefines competition
AI-powered ad production is driving this rapid output by reducing costs and shortening production time. This speedy efficiency gives advertisers a chance to produce and roll out their messages. AppsFlyer highlights that increased efficiency also floods the market with messages. The truth is that just throwing money around does not work. Speed replaces budget as the primary measure of success.
Speed replaces budget as a success metric
In the current environment, speed is one of the basic factors that influence the success of customer acquisition. Advertisers must innovate and update their creative assets faster than the competition. Speed is now more important than scale for advertisers, and the problem of creative fatigue becomes an issue faster.
AI goes beyond creative tasks
The applications of AI are expanding beyond content creation. Performance measurement, reporting, and analysis consume a significant amount of queries, with 45.4% of the total queries being related to reporting, performance analysis, and breakdowns. The number of queries pertaining to ideation is less, indicating the increasing use of AI as an analysis tool.
Implications for gaming marketers
Gaming advertisers must change their approaches in 2026. There is a need to focus on scaling content creation and putting more risk behind big creative bets. It is also essential to focus on the use of AI as an insights engine to facilitate fast analysis and optimisation.
What it means to the iGaming industry
This creative explosion directly impacts iGaming operators, with intense competition for new customer acquisition remaining increasingly fierce. Operators should embark on fast cycles of creative testing, with insights delivered by AI helping to uncover key audiences faster. Data-driven decision-making eliminates waste in customer acquisition, but iGaming brands must carefully weigh speed with regulatory requirements.
AI transforms communication and trust
AI is transforming communications in regulated industries and how brands communicate with their clients. It is particularly the case in finance and regulated environments. Tatiana Botskina, the CEO of Deriskly, shared insights with SiGMA of how we are entering an era of hyper-personalisation, where customers will communicate with machines and not people, with some attendant risks involved.
Building context-aware relationships
AI will enable businesses to have a broader perspective of the operation, including the flow of information from the compliance, customer service, and product departments. The presence of AI, in turn, will allow the company to make big decisions. According to Tatiana, “I believe that AI will make relationships more trust-based and context-aware.” AI will serve as an “intermediary layer between customers and institutions. It will understand the intentions of the customers and the offerings of the products.”
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