Refining Gaming Measurement: Exploring The IAB’s New Framework

For years, gaming has been the elephant in the digital media room. More than 205m Americans - and over 3.3bn people worldwide - play each week, yet advertising in and around games still attracts just 5% of total digital spend. 

We all know why. Advertisers love gaming’s scale and immersion. But many still cannot answer the question that pops up in every wrap-up meeting: Did it work?

IAB’s recent webinar, Play to Win: Measuring Gaming Ad Success, tackled this head-on. Representatives from Roblox, Publicis Media, and IAB agreed that gaming has lacked decades of agreed standards, suffered from bespoke activations that are hard to compare, and been dogged by inconsistent definitions. One buyer’s ‘impression’ is another publisher’s ‘view’, so confidence wavers and budgets drift to the channels with cleaner scoreboards.

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A shared language at last

The new Gaming Measurement Framework is designed to end that confusion. Rather than inventing brand-new KPIs, the task-force took a format-first approach that mirrors the way planners already buy display, video, audio, and custom experiences. Every format carries baseline metrics (delivery and viewability) that partners must supply, and also enhanced metrics (attention, brand lift, incremental reach) that unlock deeper insight when budgets allow. In other words, focus on benchmarks first, and bells and whistles later.

Crucially, these definitions also align with MRC standards for viewable impressions, so a gaming display ad is judged on the same field as its web or CTV cousin. Buyers can compare like with like across channels, and publishers finally have a roadmap that scales from minimum viable measurement to advanced, outcome-based storytelling.

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Why this matters to advertisers right now

Headlines like “brand X enters Fortnite” are no longer enough. Company boards want business outcomes, renewals depend on hard evidence, and measurement must be baked in from the brief, not stapled on at the end.

First-party data is a lifeline for campaigns with modest budgets. When third-party data/measurement partners are too pricey or the sample is too small, first-hand platform data (e.g. on time spent, connections made, or experiences visited), can prove value quickly and lay the groundwork for larger, fully-measured, campaigns.

With a common reporting backbone, creative teams can still flex their muscles, but the results land in dashboards that buyers actually understand. This makes repeat investment far more likely, especially when planners realise that gaming delivers 10 times more attention than standard web placements, and achieves 98% viewability.

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How to turn guidance into proven outcomes

The IAB framework validates principles we have championed since day one:

• Unified access, unified reporting - our immersiion DSP for brands and fusiion SSP for publishers connect every touchpoint, in-game, around-the-game, and away-from-game. Because inventory, data, and creative sit in one stack, baseline and enhanced metrics flow straight into a single report.
• Attention you can count - independent studies show gaming secures attention up to 5 seconds per impression, versus about 1.7 seconds on social feeds. Our partnerships with Amplified Intelligence layer live attention scores onto every placement, letting planners price media on cost-per-attention minute rather than blunt CPMs. 
• First-party intelligence, future-proofed targeting - our proprietary DMP ingests billions of real gaming interactions and operates with both ID-based and ID-less solutions, so buyers can remain privacy-compliant even as third-party cookies crumble.
• Creative impact that respects the player - in-house designers build mini-games, playables, and rewarded formats that enhance, rather than interrupt, play. These engaging ad formats foster positive user experiences, and show significant improvements in awareness, consideration, and purchase intent.

In short, the Gaming Measurement Framework gives the market a waypoint - iion provides the control pad, map, and a results engine that turns measurements into growth.

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From hoodie-clad teenage gamer to the masses: smashing outdated stereotypes 

The webinar also highlighted the lingering notion of teenagers in hoodies gaming in their bedrooms. Our own data show that almost 75% of the US population are gaming enthusiasts, spanning Gen Alpha to Boomers. Women, parents, and high-income professionals all lean into gaming culture, often spending 23% more time there than on social networks. Brands that cling to outdated targeting assumptions leave money on the table, and the attention metrics prove it.

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It’s time to collaborate

Perhaps the most human moment of the webinar came when Allison McDuffie of Roblox invited buyers to be demanding. ‘Tell us your wishlist,’ she said, ‘and we will build towards it.’ Measurement may feel daunting, but the sector is moving fast, and no one should walk away wishing they had asked for more. We echo that challenge. 

The IAB Gaming Measurement Framework is a starting whistle, not the final score. We’re ready to collaborate with agencies, brands, and publishers who want to test, learn, and raise the bar. Whether you need baseline delivery verification for a toe-in-the-water pilot, or a full-funnel programme that links five-second attention spikes to sales-lift, we can help you plan, execute, and prove it.

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