SocialPeta: The number of advertisers among mobile games began to fall. All because of iOS 14.5

The mobile gaming advertising market is going through a bad time. In many regions of the world, there was a significant reduction in the number of mobile game advertisers and creatives in May.

This is reported in the latest report by the analytical company SocialPeta. However, at first she gives only general data for the first five months of 2021. According to them, the decline in the number of advertisers was observed exclusively in Europe, Southeast Asia, the CIS, South Africa, Japan and Korea, as well as in the Middle East.

As for the number of advertisers in North America and Oceania, by the end of January-March, they seemed to be growing there. And significantly – by 19.79% and 14.75%, respectively. Thanks to these regions, the global growth of mobile gaming advertisers in January-May 2021 relative to the same period in 2020 was still observed, although it was completely insignificant – 1.78%.

Dynamics of the number of game advertisers in mobile 
If you look at the chart with the dynamics of the number of simultaneously active game advertisers, where constant fluctuations are visible, the situation does not seem completely transparent, it is unclear why the market is stagnating.

Here we see that after the first half of January there were periods when there were noticeably more active advertisers, then we see how this value falls again. And so in waves.

Dynamics of the number of game advertisers and creatives (mir, January-May 2021)
The situation ceases to seem complicated if you segment the dynamics of the growth/decline of advertisers by market.

For example, take the US market, which seems to have grown in the number of advertisers. It really shows that at one time their number was growing. But the growth turned into a collapse in May, after Apple released iOS 14.5.

Dynamics of the number of game advertisers and creatives (USA, January-May 2021)
The situation is similar with the number of game advertisers in Russia.

Exactly until May, their number was slowly increasing. Then there was a sharp decline to values much lower than in January. Recall that in January, all advertising campaigns on the mobile market were at a minimum.

Dynamics of the number of game advertisers and creatives (Russia, January-May 2021)
The picture is completely similar in Southeast Asia.

The first four months are growth. The second month of spring is coming… and we see a collapse.

Dynamics of the number of game advertisers and creatives (Southeast Asia, January-May 2021)
The same is the case with the number of creatives circulating on the market.

Until May, it was growing in the world and in every single market. Moreover, in the first half of April, the daily number of active game creatives in the world exceeded 7 million. However, immediately after the release of iOS 14.5 (its worldwide launch took place on April 26), they began to become less and less.

It is unclear whether this trend will continue. But only by the end of the first five months of this year, most of the posted game creatives are on Android. iOS accounts for only 42% of the market.