As global mobile gaming continues to grow in 2025, simply driving installs is no longer a sufficient metric for success. To stay competitive, advertisers need to attract the right players—those who are more likely to engage, retain, and monetize from the very first interaction.

Recently, XMP by Mobvista has cooperated with Insightrackr to release the Global Mobile Gaming UA Trends & Strategy Report (Q1–Q3 2025). This report provides a comprehensive look at the current market, and one of the standout findings is that creative volumes are expanding rapidly across major regions, intensifying competition for user attention. As a result, advertisers are prioritizing interactive formats while adopting AI-driven creative tools to manage the scale, iteration, and testing.

Playable ads are emerging as a practical solution to this shift. By allowing users to test-drive before installing, playables help align user interest with the in-app experience, improving both acquisition efficiency and downstream performance. In this blog, we'll explore how mobile game UA evolved in 2025, examine the challenges of scaling creatives, and share best practices for execution.

Mobile Game UA in 2025: Video at Scale, Playables on the Rise

The report highlights several shifts shaping mobile game advertising today:

Video remains the dominant creative format, accounting for over 80% of global game ad creatives. At the same time, hybrid approaches are gaining traction. While standalone playable ads still represent a smaller share, the combination of Video + Playable is growing rapidly. In fact, this combination outnumbers traditional Video + Image creatives by nearly 11 to 1. Globally, the volume of playable ad creatives is steadily catching up to and even surpassing that of image creatives. Together, these trends point to a growing emphasis oninteractive formats, as leading mobile game advertisers are increasingly leveraging playables to deepen early user engagement.

The report also features case studies that illustrate how AI-driven creatives have moved from "nice-to-have" to performance drivers. For example, Word Search Explorer used AI-generated avatar testimonial videos to reach millions of impressions, using UGC-style formats to build trust. Meanwhile, Kingshot incorporated AI-generated characters and exaggerated streamer-style reactions to refresh high-frequency video campaigns, with some creatives running for over 50 days on Facebook. Together, these results indicate that: advertisers are increasingly using AI to expand creative variety, speed up iteration, and sustain performance.

The Scaling Challenge of Playables and AI Creatives

While playable ads and AI-driven creatives have shown strong performance, scaling them consistently remains a challenge. 

Playable ads require more than compelling visuals. They depend on structured interaction flows, pacing, and difficulty balance. Even small changes in level design or the flow can drive up production, making large-scale testing difficult under tight UA timelines. 

AI-driven creatives, such as avatars, AI-generated characters, and synthetic video hooks, extend creative lifespan and boost engagement. However, sustaining performance still requires constant variation of new scripts, visuals, and localized versions. Without streamlined workflows, teams risk shifting from creative fatigue to operational bottlenecks.

Executing Playables and AI Creatives at Scale

Rather than relying on a single production approach, UA teams should adopt a mix of workflows to balance speed, quality, and scalabilitybased on campaign needs.

Playable Ads: Scaling with Flexible Inputs

• Rapid Deployment: When speed-to-market is critical, genre-specific templates allow teams to launch playable ads in hours rather than weeks without needing for code.
• Creative Freedom: When brand differentiation is a priority, drag-and-drop editors enable customization without the complexity of manual development.
• Asset reuse: To maximize asset value, convert high-performing videos directly into interactive formats. This is one of the fastest ways to scale creative volume using existing assets.

By choosing the right approach for each campaign stage, teams can achieve scale without sacrificing creative quality.

AI Creatives: Fast, Flexible, Data-Backed

• Script & Visual Libraries: When scale and localization are required, reuse scripts and visual assets to quickly generate multiple creative versions across markets while maintaining brand consistency.
• Continuous Testing: Regularly test and refine avatars, hooks, and AI-generated visuals based on user engagement signals.
• Resource Integration: To improve creative appeal without slowing production, integrate prebuilt effects, sounds, and visual elements to enrich content and reduce manual edits.

Turning Strategy into Scalable Execution

While these strategies outline how to scale playables and AI creatives, execution at volume requires the right infrastructure. Playturbo is designed to support rapid iteration, localization, and cross-format production, enabling teams to build, adapt, and scale more efficiently. What Playturbo Enables: 

• Template & Editor Support: Quickly build and customize interactive creatives using ready-made templates or a flexible drag-and-drop editor, with no heavy technical dependency.
• Video Asset Reuse: Transform existing video materials into interactive formats, extending asset lifecycle and improving production efficiency.
• Batch Production & Localization: Generate, edit, and localize creatives in batches to support multi-market testing and fast global rollout.
• AI Avatar & Visual Generation: Create engaging AI avatars and visual assets from scripts, URLs, or product links with minimal manual effort.
• Asset & Effect Libraries: Enrich creatives with built-in visuals, effects, sounds, and animations to improve creative quality and speed.
• Preview & Testing Support: Preview creatives across real devices and formats before launch to reduce iteration risk and improve execution confidence.

By integrating internal creative direction and Playturbo's features, advertisers can turn playable and AI-driven creatives from high-effort experiments into repeatable, scalable growth assets, keeping pace with rising UA costs and competition.

Ready to elevate your ad strategy? Explore Playturbo's innovative solutions and discover how we support developers to generate high-performing AI ads at scale. Follow us on LinkedIn to keep track of all our updates. Contact us today to kickstart your journey with video ads!