CADPA Releases Industry Report: Mobile Game User Acquisition Spending Ratio Declines for First Time in Five Years, Marketing Models Shift Towards “Depth and Quality”

At the recent “Light · Growth Unbounded” 2025 Tencent Advertising Game Ecosystem Summit, Ao Ran, Executive Vice Chairman and Secretary-General of the China Audio-Video and Digital Publishing Association (CADPA), officially released the 2025 China Mobile Game Advertising and Marketing Report. A key data point from the report shows that in the first half of 2025, the average sales expense ratio for major listed Chinese game companies was 21.8%, a decrease of 2.9 percentage points compared to the same period last year. This marks the first significant decline in this metric in nearly five years. This change signals a profound transformation in the gaming industry’s marketing strategy—from “extensive expansion” to “intensive cultivation”—against the backdrop of China’s mobile game market entering a mature development phase and a slowdown in user growth.

Market Maturity Drives Shift in Marketing Focus

The report indicates that China’s mobile game market has entered a mature stage, with an annual market size stabilized above 200 billion RMB, accounting for approximately three-quarters of the domestic overall game market. However, with the fading demographic dividend of mobile internet and slowing growth in total users, “deeply engaging existing users” has become the industry’s main theme. The user structure is becoming more diverse: the 20-34 age group, still the core, accounts for 52.1%; meanwhile, benefiting from the development of mini-games, the proportion of middle-aged and older users is rising; driven by female-oriented games like Love and Deep Space, the user gender ratio is now nearly 1:1.

Against this backdrop, the underlying logic of marketing has fundamentally changed. The key metrics for industry stakeholders have shifted significantly from superficial data like impressions and clicks to deeper indicators such as payment conversion and user retention, pursuing higher marketing return on investment (ROI). Data shows that among companies that reduced their sales expense ratio in H1 2025, 77.8% achieved an increase in net profit, and 63% saw revenue growth, indicating the positive results of the cost-reduction and efficiency-improvement strategy.

Diversification of Marketing Formats and Channels

Format Preferences: Short video ads have become the most mainstream marketing format, with over 60% of users preferring to obtain game information through short videos. Diverse formats such as graphic feed ads, landing page ads, live streaming, IP collaborations, and playable ads also have their adherents.

Channel Distribution: Mobile app stores (74.3%) remain the primary channel for users to download games. Simultaneously, video platforms (33.3%), content platforms (16.8%), and game live streaming rooms (10.5%) are playing increasingly prominent roles in user acquisition and re-engagement, with the value of marketing centered on content ecosystem construction continuing to grow.

App Games: User Acquisition Shifts from “Volume” to “Quality”

The report shows that while the number of ad placements for App games in 2025 decreased significantly compared to 2024, the total placement expenditure continued to grow. This reflects companies concentrating their budgets on fewer but higher-quality ad creatives, aiming to drive revenue by improving creative appeal and placement precision, achieving “quality over quantity.”

This change is driven by multiple factors: firstly, companies are increasingly focusing on deep conversion goals; secondly, many products originally reliant on in-app advertising (IAA) monetization are shifting to hybrid monetization models, reducing dependence on large-scale user acquisition. Additionally, the gaming industry faces competitive pressure for ad share from other sectors like short dramas.

In terms of genres, MMORPG and fishing games remain the main drivers of ad spending, together accounting for over 40% of placement share. Genres with market opportunities, such as idle and simulation management games, have seen a noticeable rebound in their share of ad placement numbers.

Mini-Games: IAA Dominates, Puzzle Games Stand Out

The mini-game market continues to develop rapidly, with distribution channels becoming increasingly diverse. Currently, the WeChat ecosystem remains the most preferred mini-game platform for users, accounting for 87.6%.

In terms of business models, games relying on in-app advertising (IAA) dominate in quantity (81.9%), and user acceptance is relatively high. However, from a spending perspective, in-app purchase (IAP) and hybrid monetization games, representing less than 20% of active games, account for over 80% of ad placement expenditure, demonstrating greater user payment potential and capacity for user acquisition costs.

Among these, puzzle mini-games perform particularly well, with high user penetration (56.9%) and strong willingness for ad monetization (76.4% of users accept in-game ads). Their core appeal lies in being instantly playable, requiring low investment, and providing high feedback.

Six Future Marketing Trends

The report concludes by outlining six major trends in mobile game marketing:

Deeper Platform-Developer Collaboration: Marketing platforms like Tencent Ads are extending their data and insights capabilities forward, providing game developers with full-cycle empowerment from “concept, optimization, to growth.”

“Playable Ads + Mini-Games” Becomes a Trend: Leveraging the core advantage of “interactive experience first,” playable ads can significantly improve conversion efficiency. Daily consumption of playable ads for WeChat mini-games surged 844% year-on-year in 2025, potentially becoming a standard ad format in the future.

Driven by Creativity and Intelligence: The quality of ad creativity has become key to attracting users (36.8% tried more games because ads were interesting). AI-assisted creative generation and management, along with intelligent placement systems, will play a central role.

Increased Importance of Automated Marketing: Achieving deep marketing goals requires more refined user engagement. Automated marketing tools represented by AI agents (e.g., Tencent Ads’ “Miao” series) will significantly improve quality and efficiency through closed-loop collaboration.

PC Becomes a New Marketing Scenario: Nearly 70% of mobile game users also play games on PC, opening new opportunities for cross-platform marketing. Games with native dual-platform support or offering a good PC experience will have an advantage in the conversion funnel.

Live Streaming E-commerce Potential Awaiting Release: Some games have achieved monthly virtual goods sales exceeding 100 million RMB through official live streaming e-commerce, and nearly 70% of users expressed interest in purchasing virtual game items during live streams. However, current industry investment in this area is generally insufficient, with a very low proportion of products having official stores and regular live streams, indicating significant future growth potential.

Conclusion

The 2025 China Mobile Game Advertising and Marketing Report clearly reveals that China’s mobile game marketing has moved beyond an era reliant solely on spending increases and is evolving towards a lean growth model centered on data, creativity, technology, and deep user operations. Cost reduction, efficiency improvement, deep conversion, content integration, and intelligent upgrades will become key factors determining future competitiveness in the game market.