Dentsu’s new Ready Player Brand report, launched at Campaign Gaming Summit - where Overwolf was headline sponsor - confirms what we’ve been seeing for years: gaming isn’t growing alongside other media in the UK. It’s replacing it.
The Great Attention Rebalance: Why Gaming is the New Main Map for Brands
If you feel like the ground is shifting under the feet of the advertising industry, it's because it is. We recently had the pleasure of being headline sponsors at the Campaign Gaming Summit, where our partners at dentsu UK officially unveiled their latest Consumer Navigator report: Ready Player Brand.
Overwolf was proud to participate heavily in this research, and the findings confirm a trend we’ve been seeing for years: we are witnessing a permanent reallocation of human attention.
The most striking data point? 1 in 4 UK gamers expects to spend less time on social media over the next five years specifically to make more room for gaming. Furthermore, 20% of players say they will cut back on streaming TV and film for the same reason.
More Than Just a Game: It’s Identity
Why is this shift happening? Because for modern consumers, gaming is where identity is built.
- 70% of UK adults now engage with gaming in some form
- 86% of UK players play weekly
- 52% of UK players say gaming is a meaningful part of who they are - rising to 70% for Millennials and 69% for Gen Z
As our CMO, Shahar Sorek, noted in the report:
"Gaming is the format of the future, a true second life for players, with at times much more real and visceral connections than real life."
How Brands Can Win (Without Being "That Guy")
The report highlights that players aren't actually hostile to brands. In fact, 67% of players say brand presence either doesn't bother them or feels natural when it fits the environment. The key is value exchange.
We saw this in action with our work for Naked Smoothie. Instead of interrupting a high-intensity moment, the campaign used a behavioral insight: players naturally take breaks about 78 minutes into a session. By appearing with rewarded messages during those natural pauses, the campaign delivered:
- 1 million+ players reached
- 54% uplift in purchase intent
- 42% increase in brand favorability
- 12% increase in brand sentiment
“Not all screens and experiences are the same: contextual and placement are everything. If you get it wrong, you get backlash. If you get it right, everybody wins: the player, the creator, the studio and the advertiser.”
- Shahar Sorek, CMO at Overwolf
What This Means for Advertisers Right Now
The data in Ready Player Brand describes what’s already happening. Players are already reallocating their time. The audiences that brands want to reach are already spending more hours inside games and fewer on the platforms that currently dominate most media plans.
The question the report ends with is a good one to sit with: What role will your brand play in the worlds where people are choosing to live?
Read the Full Report Here
About Overwolf
Overwolf is a world-leading gaming platform empowering brands and advertisers to reach over 113 million monthly gamers across hundreds of the world's biggest titles and premium gaming websites.
Ranked by Comscore as the #2 Biggest US Gaming Property, winner of ADWEEK's Top Ad Tech Company, Digiday's Best Gaming Ad Tech and The Drum's Best Platform/Tech Partner of the Year, Overwolf is trusted by global brands and agencies such as Universal Pictures, P&G, Lancôme, AMD, Monster Energy, Nissan, KFC, WPP, Dentsu, Havas, The Trade Desk and more.
For more information on Overwolf, visit www.overwolf.com/ads.