In-Game Advertising Platforms and Formats: Intrinsic, Rewarded and Roblox Ads Explained

Game ads split into two families. Intrinsic ads live inside the game's 3D or 2D world, so the player sees them while playing. Interface ads sit around the gameplay, in breaks between levels or in menus, and look like ads in any other app. The difference decides how they are measured and sold, as the table shows.

Rewarded ads deserve a note, because they are the format most players accept. Google's AdMob describes them as ads served only after a user explicitly chooses to watch, with a countdown of 5 to 30 seconds before the reward (Google AdMob Help, accessed 9 November 2026). Roblox reported completion rates above 80% in early tests of its own rewarded video (company data) (Roblox, 1 April 2025).

Three recent launches show where the market is heading.

1. Roblox rewarded video. Players can opt in to full-screen videos of up to 30 seconds and receive power-ups or in-game currency from the game's creator. Roblox made the format buyable programmatically through Google and through direct insertion orders (Roblox, 1 April 2025).
2. Anzu's click-enabled intrinsic ads. On 9 February 2026 Anzu launched intrinsic placements a player can tap, using double-tap or tap-and-hold gestures meant to avoid accidental clicks. It pitched them to performance DSPs as new supply (company announcement) (Anzu, 9 February 2026).
3. AppLovin outside games. AppLovin's 2025 annual report says it has opened its ad platform to web-based advertisers such as e-commerce, a sign that game ad networks now sell their audiences well beyond game makers (AppLovin 10-K, FY2025).

A buyer's scenario makes the choice concrete. A snack brand wants teenagers in the US during the summer holidays. It can buy rewarded video on Roblox through Google's tools for reach and opt-in attention. It can add intrinsic billboards in mobile racing and sports games through an intrinsic specialist's private deals for repeated exposure. And it can leave interstitials to performance advertisers who pay per install. Note that Roblox says only users over 13 are eligible to see ads, which shapes any youth campaign (Roblox, 1 April 2025).

Most mobile games do not run their own auction. They install a mediation SDK, which asks several ad networks and bidders to compete for each slot. AppLovin's MAX, for example, runs what AppLovin calls a single real-time auction among bidding platforms for the publisher's inventory (AppLovin 10-K, FY2025). Unity sells mediation, its own ad networks and an offerwall (Unity 10-K, FY2025).

This in-app bidding replaced the older waterfall, where networks were called one after another in a fixed order. The idea mirrors header bidding on websites, explained in our guide to header bidding. Intrinsic ads work differently. The game integrates the specialist's SDK, which defines ad surfaces in the game world, measures what the player sees and pulls demand from DSPs and direct deals.

In OpenRTB 2.6, a rewarded video looks like any app video request with two extra signals. The instl field is set to 1 for full screen, and rwdd is set to 1 because the user receives a reward (OpenRTB 2.6). The example below uses illustrative IDs and floor values.

There is no OpenRTB object for "a billboard inside a game", so intrinsic sellers usually describe placements in deal terms and their own SDK data. The cat value here uses an older content taxonomy code for video games and is illustrative. Our planned OpenRTB bid request builder and OpenRTB 2.6 explained cover the full request.

The table lists the main in-game advertising platforms named in this guide, described from their filings, releases or websites, checked on 9 November 2026. It does not rank them; scale figures are not comparable because the companies report different things.

Mobile games are where most in-game ad money flows, and three groups dominate the tooling. Their business is mostly performance: advertisers, often other game makers, pay to acquire players who install and spend.

Unity. Unity merged with ironSource, an Israeli ad tech company, on 7 November 2022, with ironSource shareholders taking about 27% of the combined company (Unity 8-K, 7 November 2022). Unity now runs two ad networks. In Q4 2025 the Unity Ad Network, rebuilt on its Vector model, made up 56% of Grow Solutions revenue and the ironSource Ad Network 11% (Unity 10-K, FY2025). Unity says it earns most Grow revenue on revenue-share terms with publishers.

AppLovin. AppLovin has turned itself from a game maker into a pure ad platform. It sold its Apps business to Tripledot on 30 June 2025 and kept an equity stake (AppLovin 10-K, FY2025). Its 2025 revenue growth came mainly from a 72% rise in net revenue per installation, with install volume up 3%. Advertisers set return goals, and AppLovin charges dynamically against them rather than at a fixed price per impression.

Google AdMob. AdMob is Google's mobile app ad network and mediation tool, and its rewarded units can serve video, playable ads or surveys (Google AdMob Help, accessed 9 November 2026). Google's wider ad tech, including Ad Manager and Authorized Buyers, also sits behind Roblox's programmatic offer.

For a game publisher, the practical choice is which mediation layer runs the auction and which networks bid in it. Many publishers use one company's mediation and several companies' demand. Unity notes in its 10-K that it relies on third-party mediation platforms, some run by competitors, for much of its inventory.

Intrinsic advertising is the part of gaming that looks most like brand media. The ads sit in the scenery, players do not have to stop playing, and buyers judge them on viewable time rather than installs.

Anzu. Anzu sells intrinsic placements across mobile, PC and console games. Its developer page calls it "the sole officially licensed in-game ad provider for Xbox" (company claim; we found no Microsoft statement confirming it) (Anzu, accessed 9 November 2026). Its February 2026 launch added clickable formats aimed at performance DSPs. Anzu says they lift click-through rates by 13% for video and 5% for display against online benchmarks (company data) (Anzu, 9 February 2026).

Frameplay. Frameplay offers an SDK for game developers and sells intrinsic placements to brands. In October 2023 it announced that Integral Ad Science would provide independent impression counts and IVT measurement across its network (Frameplay, 5 October 2023). IAS has been privately owned by Novacap since 23 December 2025 (IAS 8-K, 23 December 2025). See the Integral Ad Science profile.

Neither company held MRC accreditation for in-game measurement on 9 November 2026, based on the MRC's public lists. Independent checks therefore come from verification partners such as IAS, rather than from an MRC audit of the intrinsic metric itself.

Roblox. Roblox is the clearest example of a game platform building its own ad business. Creators insert immersive ad units, such as Rewarded Video, Billboards and Portals, and Roblox serves ads into them programmatically, sharing revenue with creators as earned Robux (Roblox 10-K, FY2025). It added Google Ad Manager in April 2025 and planned to connect PubMatic and other DSPs through Google's Authorized Buyers. Cint, DoubleVerify, IAS, Kantar and Nielsen were named as measurement partners (Roblox, 1 April 2025).

The business is still small. Roblox's 10-K describes advertising and licensing together as an insignificant share of revenue, though it plans to keep investing in ads. Its age gate matters too: in April 2025 it said more than 61% of daily users, over 50 million people, were over 13 and eligible to see ads (company data) (Roblox, 1 April 2025). For DoubleVerify, see the DoubleVerify profile; Nielsen agreed to acquire DoubleVerify on 6 August 2026, with closing pending (DoubleVerify 8-K, 6 August 2026).

Microsoft and Xbox. Microsoft has not announced an in-game ad product for Xbox that we could find. In June 2026 Xbox's chief strategy officer, Matthew Ball, discussed ads as a way to offer cheaper options, then clarified that he did not mean in-game ads (Windows Central, updated 12 June 2026). Console in-game ads today come mainly through third parties such as Anzu, under their own claims.

The IIG Guidelines 2.0 were written jointly by the IAB, IAB Tech Lab and MRC, and they adapt online viewability to a 3D world (MRC, August 2022). Four rules matter most to buyers:

1. Pixels and time. At least 50% of the ad must be visible from the player's view for one continuous second, or two seconds for video.
2. Minimum size. The visible part of the ad must cover at least 1.5% of the screen.
3. Angle. Where it can be measured, the ad should face the player at no more than 55 degrees on any axis, though vendors may use other thresholds with evidence.
4. One count per session. Seeing the same billboard again in the same session adds viewable time but not another viewable impression.

A worked example shows how strict the size rule is, using the guideline's own logic. A trackside billboard covers 2% of the screen when fully visible. If a car blocks half of it, the visible part covers 1%, below the 1.5% floor, so the impression is not viewable even though half its pixels show. The guidelines give a near-identical example.

The scope is narrower than many buyers assume. The IIG rules cover ad-served placements in games on desktop, mobile, console and AR or VR headsets. They do not cover interstitials, banners or in-stream video, which follow the normal MRC rules for apps, nor hard-coded brand integrations. The general MRC viewability rules are explained in our guide to viewability, attention and brand safety, and fraud filtering in ad fraud detection tools.

The IAB has since added buyer guidance. Its Gaming Measurement Framework, released on 26 June 2025, lists standard gaming formats across display, video, audio and custom units, with must-have and nice-to-have metrics for each (IAB, 26 June 2025). A Gaming Ad Formats Framework, dated 29 May 2025, describes the formats themselves (IAB, accessed 9 November 2026).

"Programmatic" means different things across gaming, and buyers who mix them up overpay or under-deliver. The table sorts the main routes.

For brand buyers, the useful rule is this: use programmatic guaranteed or PMP deals for intrinsic and platform inventory, where volume is limited and quality varies by game. Leave open in-app auctions to campaigns judged on installs or sales.

For advertisers:

1. Decide brand or performance first. Intrinsic ads and Roblox suit reach and attention; mobile ad networks suit installs and sales.
2. Ask which measurement standard applies. Intrinsic placements should report under IIG 2.0; interface ads under the normal in-app rules.
3. Ask for IVT measurement by a third party, and check which vendor and what scope.
4. Check the age rules of each platform and your own policy for audiences under 18.
5. Get a game-level list of where ads ran, not just a network total.
6. Test against a holdout before scaling, as for any new channel.

For game publishers:

1. Pick the mediation layer deliberately, since it decides which demand competes for your slots.
2. Design ad surfaces that meet the 1.5% size floor if you sell intrinsic inventory.
3. Declare rewarded and full-screen slots accurately with rwdd and instl, and keep app-ads.txt current.
4. Keep reward values balanced so ads add to play rather than replace it.

1. IAB, "IAB Releases Intrinsic In-Game (IIG) Measurement Guidelines 2022" (31 August 2022). https://www.iab.com/insights/iab-releases-intrinsic-in-game-iig-measurement-guidelines/
2. IAB, IAB Tech Lab and Media Rating Council, "In-Game Advertising Measurement Guidelines 2.0" (August 2022), hosted by the MRC. https://mediaratingcouncil.org/sites/default/files/Standards/In-Game%20Advertising%20Measurement%20Guidelines%2008-31-22.pdf
3. IAB, "IAB Launches Gaming Measurement Framework to Standardize and Elevate Advertising in Gaming" (26 June 2025). https://www.iab.com/news/iab-launches-gaming-measurement-framework-to-standardize-and-elevate-advertising-in-gaming/
4. IAB, "Gaming Ad Formats Framework" (29 May 2025; accessed 9 November 2026). https://www.iab.com/guidelines/gaming-ad-format-framework/
5. Unity Software Inc., Form 8-K, completion of the merger with ironSource (7 November 2022). https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1810806/000119312522279161/d402948d8k.htm
6. Unity Software Inc., Form 10-K for fiscal year 2025 (filed 11 February 2026). https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1810806/000181080626000011/unity-20251231.htm
7. Unity Software Inc., Form 10-Q for the quarter ended 30 September 2026 (filed 5 November 2026). https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1810806/000181080626000055/unity-20260930.htm
8. AppLovin Corporation, Form 10-K for fiscal year 2025 (filed 19 February 2026). https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1751008/000175100826000010/app-20251231.htm
9. AppLovin Corporation, Form 10-Q for the quarter ended 30 September 2026 (filed 4 November 2026). https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1751008/000175100826000069/app-20260930.htm
10. Google AdMob Help, "Overview of rewarded ad units" (accessed 9 November 2026). https://support.google.com/admob/answer/7372450?hl=en