Samsung has found that gamers are spending more time playing games and streaming content, while linear content continues to decline in popularity.
Samsung Ads looked at the data for how 1.5 million gamers that use its smart TVs in Canada spent their time with linear TV, OTT and gaming during Q2 2021. Activity was measured by Automatic Content Recognition technology (ACR) within Samsung TVs.
According to the company’s resulting report, more than half of its gamers’ TV time was spent streaming, and just over a quarter was spent gaming. That leaves a mere 15% viewing in a linear environment to be exposed to traditional TV advertising.
Regular gamers are 46% less likely than other smart TV owners to mostly view linearly, and 16% more likely to be mostly streamers.
COVID restrictions have increased cocooning, and Samsung reports that average daily hours spent with consoles increased, along with the average number of daily gamers: since January 2020, gamers on the Samsung platform spent 10% more time gaming, reaching an average of 5.1 hours per day with their consoles during Q2 2021.
Gamers are also spending over one hour a day more streaming content in Q2 2021 than they were a year earlier, with a 19% increase just on AVOD services.
Advertisers looking to reach gamers on TV through linear only are risking missing the majority of gamers with their messaging, according to Dave Pauk, regional sales director for Samsung Ads. The report release coincides with the announcement last month that Samsung would be offering premium ad placement on Samsung TVs that displays when gamers are booting up a connected console. The format, Pauk says, offers complete share of voice to an advertiser, and uses ACR data to target ads based on viewing preferences and interests.
According to Pauk another impactful way to reach gamers is through native ad placement among the app widgets or along the side of a smart TV’s main menu. In both cases, the idea is to reach gamers before they enter the gaming environment, either to support in-game ads or to drive incremental reach, as linear content is decreasing in popularity among this audience.
