10 Jul 2020
What Gamers Want From Marketers
The following article was originally written in 2017. I've decided to move it here. Although it's been 3 years since I conducted the survey, I think the results are still valuable and likely still accurate.
Last week I had the opportunity to speak at the 2017 Game Developers Conference (GDC) in San Francisco. My session, Breaking Ad: The Formula for Winning Video Advertising, explored ways to improve video ad metrics based on data from real world tests. One perk of being a speaker is a complimentary conference pass, and since this was my first GDC I took full advantage of it and attended as many talks as possible.
One of the sessions I attended, Quantic Foundry’s The Anatomy of Gaming Motivations: What We Learned from 250,000 Gamers (awesome presentation by the way), got me thinking about how gamers would respond to a survey on video ads. So, after GDC wrapped up, I fed my curiosity and put together a short survey.
Disclosure: I included an optional incentive for survey-takers in which one randomly chosen participant (who opted for the incentive) would receive a $50 gift card to a video game marketplace of their choice.
According to the survey results, 63.9% of gamers are indifferent towards video game video ads, agreeing that their decision to pay attention to an ad depends on whether or not it looks interesting. Furthermore, only 20.4% of gamers absolutely hate video game video ads and always skip them when they can. The remaining 15.7% sincerely enjoy video game video ads.
One of the takeaways from my GDC presentation was the importance of showing gameplay and in-game experiences in your video ads. This point is echoed by the survey data showing that 90.2% of gamers enjoy seeing gameplay most in video ads, followed by 4.0% of gamers who wish to see other people playing the game. 2.7% of gamers prefer in-game cinematics while 2.3% prefer exclusive animations that use in-game assets. Quotes from journalists or user reviews are least preferred with only 0.8% support.
89.9% of gamers will watch an ad if the first thing they see is interesting gameplay. 28.9% will pay attention if they immediately see a high-quality cinematic (regardless of its origins), and only 12.4% will consider watching if the first thing they see is an influencer (YouTuber, streamer, etc.) who they recognize and respect. If the first thing they see is a logo for the game or a logo for the developer/publisher, only 12.3% or 25.6% are likely to continue watching the ad, respectively. In line with what gamers least prefer to see, only 5.3% are intrigued by immediately seeing a quote from a journalist or user review.
When gamers watch a video ad or trailer, 66.8% say they notice gameplay the most, while 25.1% primarily notice the artwork/graphics and only 8.1% find that the music and sound effects stand out more than the previous elements.
Interestingly, 69.4% of gamers admit they rely most on user reviews when making a purchasing/downloading decision (regardless of if the game is free or paid), but when it comes to video ads only 0.8% of gamers prefer to see quotes from journalists or user review
10.8% of gamers make their purchasing/downloading decision based on the game’s trailer, while 10.2% base their decision on the game’s screenshots. Only 9.6% of gamers will rely the game’s written description.
89.9% of gamers will watch an ad if the first thing they see is interesting gameplay.
Last week I had the opportunity to speak at the 2017 Game Developers Conference (GDC) in San Francisco. My session, Breaking Ad: The Formula for Winning Video Advertising, explored ways to improve video ad metrics based on data from real world tests. One perk of being a speaker is a complimentary conference pass, and since this was my first GDC I took full advantage of it and attended as many talks as possible.
One of the sessions I attended, Quantic Foundry’s The Anatomy of Gaming Motivations: What We Learned from 250,000 Gamers (awesome presentation by the way), got me thinking about how gamers would respond to a survey on video ads. So, after GDC wrapped up, I fed my curiosity and put together a short survey.
The Survey
The survey was very simple, containing 5 questions about the participant’s identity and 5 questions about their feelings toward video advertising (you can see the full list of questions at the bottom of this article). I shared the survey across several gaming-focused subreddits and Discord servers. 1,041 gamers took the survey between March 3rd and March 9th, providing a 4% margin of error with a 99% confidence level (assuming a gamer population over 1 billion in size).Disclosure: I included an optional incentive for survey-takers in which one randomly chosen participant (who opted for the incentive) would receive a $50 gift card to a video game marketplace of their choice.
Survey Demographics
Gender- 90.3% of participants identified as male
- 8.3% of participants identified as female
- 1.4% of participants identified as neither male nor female
- 47.4% of participants were 20 to 29 years old
- 35.6% of participants were 10 to 19 years old
- 14.6% of participants were 30 to 39 years old
- 1.9% of participants were 40 to 49 years old
- 0.5% of participants were 50 to 59 years old
- 49.1% of participants were from the United States
- 9.1% of participants were from the United Kingdom
- 7.9% of participants were from Canada
- 33.9% of participants were spread across 72 other countries
- 61.1% of participants identified as mid-core gamers
- 27.1% of participants identified as hardcore gamers
- 11.8% of participants identified as casual gamers
- 91.6% of participants regularly game on a PC (OS not specified)
- 46.5% of participants regularly game on a mobile device (e.g. phone, tablet)
- 45.3% of participants regularly game on a stationary console (e.g. PlayStation, Xbox)
- 26.2% of participants regularly game on a portable console (e.g. Nintendo 3DS, PS Vita)
- 1.3% of participants regularly game on a type of device that was not listed
General Opinions
What is your general opinion of video advertisements for video games?According to the survey results, 63.9% of gamers are indifferent towards video game video ads, agreeing that their decision to pay attention to an ad depends on whether or not it looks interesting. Furthermore, only 20.4% of gamers absolutely hate video game video ads and always skip them when they can. The remaining 15.7% sincerely enjoy video game video ads.
The Importance of Gameplay
When you watch a video advertisement or a trailer for a video game, what do you like to see most?One of the takeaways from my GDC presentation was the importance of showing gameplay and in-game experiences in your video ads. This point is echoed by the survey data showing that 90.2% of gamers enjoy seeing gameplay most in video ads, followed by 4.0% of gamers who wish to see other people playing the game. 2.7% of gamers prefer in-game cinematics while 2.3% prefer exclusive animations that use in-game assets. Quotes from journalists or user reviews are least preferred with only 0.8% support.
Attention Grabbers
When you watch a video advertisement or a trailer for a video game, what stands out to you most?89.9% of gamers will watch an ad if the first thing they see is interesting gameplay. 28.9% will pay attention if they immediately see a high-quality cinematic (regardless of its origins), and only 12.4% will consider watching if the first thing they see is an influencer (YouTuber, streamer, etc.) who they recognize and respect. If the first thing they see is a logo for the game or a logo for the developer/publisher, only 12.3% or 25.6% are likely to continue watching the ad, respectively. In line with what gamers least prefer to see, only 5.3% are intrigued by immediately seeing a quote from a journalist or user review.
When gamers watch a video ad or trailer, 66.8% say they notice gameplay the most, while 25.1% primarily notice the artwork/graphics and only 8.1% find that the music and sound effects stand out more than the previous elements.
Decision-Making
When looking at a video game, whether it’s free or paid, what impacts your purchasing/downloading decision the most?Interestingly, 69.4% of gamers admit they rely most on user reviews when making a purchasing/downloading decision (regardless of if the game is free or paid), but when it comes to video ads only 0.8% of gamers prefer to see quotes from journalists or user review
10.8% of gamers make their purchasing/downloading decision based on the game’s trailer, while 10.2% base their decision on the game’s screenshots. Only 9.6% of gamers will rely the game’s written description.
Key Takeaways
- The majority of gamers are open to watching video ads; 63.9% claim indifference toward video ads, admitting they’ll watch them if the game looks interesting.
- Gamers respond best to gameplay in video ads; 89.9% will watch an ad if the first thing they see is interesting gameplay, and 66.8% notice gameplay in ads and trailers more than they do artwork/graphics, music and sound effects.
- When making a purchasing/downloading decision, user reviews are the most influential factor on a game’s store page (69.4% of gamers rely on user reviews), while trailers, screenshots and written descriptions carry virtually the same weight.
- Only 12.4% of gamers will consider watching an ad if the first thing they see is an influencer (YouTuber, streamer, etc.) who they recognize and respect, and only 4.0% prefer seeing other people playing a game.
Download Results
Full Survey Questions
What is your gender?- Male
- Female
- Other
- 0–9
- 10–19
- 20–29
- 30–39
- 40–49
- 50–59
- 60–69
- 70–79
- 80–89
- 90–99
- 100+
- (A list of countries sourced from listofcountriesoftheworld.com)
- Casual gamer
- Mid-core gamer
- Hardcore gamer
- PC (Windows, Mac, Linux, etc.)
- Stationary Console (e.g. PlayStation, Xbox)
- Portable Console (e.g. Nintendo 3DS, PS Vita)
- Mobile Device (e.g. phone, tablet)
- Other
- I like seeing video ads. They teach me about new games that I might not learn about otherwise.
- I’m indifferent. If I see a video ad I might watch it or I might not, it depends on how interesting it looks.
- I hate them. I never pay attention to video ads and I skip them when I can.
- The game’s trailer
- The game’s screenshots
- The game’s user reviews
- The game’s written description
- Actual gameplay
- Quotes about the game from journalists or user reviews
- Other people playing the game
- Cutscenes or non-playable cinematics from the game
- Animation using artwork from the game, but made specifically for the video (i.e. not from the game)
- Immediately seeing interesting gameplay
- Immediately seeing a high quality cinematic (regardless of if it’s taken from the game or not)
- Immediately seeing a YouTuber, Streamer, or other game-focused entertainer that you recognize and respect
- Immediately seeing a quote from a journalist or user review in the form of text
- Immediately seeing a logo for the game
- Immediately seeing a logo for the game’s developer or publisher
- The gameplay
- The artwork/graphics
- The music and sound effects
