Are you ready to become a top player in the world of mobile games? If so, you should make sure you know everything there is to know about reward video ads. As we move farther into 2021, video ads are overtaking in-app purchases for mobile games and apps. As a result, even companies wary about reward video ads are starting to change their tune.

That doesn’t mean you shouldn’t create video games with in-app purchases. It just means that you shouldn’t make that the single source of revenue within your game. For example, many companies have started to add in reward video ads to make more money alongside the traditional in-app purchases of coins, extra lives, and cosmetic items.

What Are Reward Video Ads?

Videos and ads are nothing new in games and apps. However, reward video ads are a specific type of ad. The basic idea is that a user gets some kind of in-game reward for spending a few seconds or minutes watching full-screen advertisements.

For example, let’s say your mobile game has coins as the currency. So you could have a 15 to 30-second video that a user watches all the way through and then gets a chunk of gold to use in the game. One of the benefits of video ads like these is that they are typically opt-in so that users who aren’t interested can pass them by without any issues.

Adoption of Reward Video Ads 2020 vs. 2021

More companies than ever are using reward video ads in apps and games and for a good reason. Check out the following statistics:

  • 76% of mobile games in the US prefer these ads over interstitial ads
  • 53% of users indicated they played a game longer because of ad rewards
  • 32% find these ads useful, 27% find them interesting, and 12% enjoy them

On top of that, they are seen as the least disruptive form of ads in mobile games. Less than 25% of users find them disruptive, perhaps partially due to the ability to avoid them if a user doesn’t want to see them.

Reward video ads are now the most common mobile game ad format, with more than 80% of developers implementing them. They can boost ad revenue by up to 40% and almost 80% of developers count them as the most successful ad format they use.

Why Reward Video Ads Are Gaining Momentum

Reward video ads are likely becoming more popular for several reasons. For one, they offer benefits to users, publishers, and advertisers. They’re also known for creating better retention and user engagement rates, so more people stick around to play after getting a reward from a video.

For game developers out there, reward video ads are a great way to stay modern and make money. Implemented with in-app purchases, you have a much better chance of being successful than apps that don’t use one or either. So modernize your video games and give players what they want while getting benefits for yourself, too.