IAB’s digital ad-spend report does not disclose a games cut

The IAB/PwC Internet Advertising Revenue Report for full year 2025 puts US digital advertising at $294.6 billion. The public category table breaks that total into social, search, digital video, commerce media, podcast and display—not into games or app-install media. IAB release.

Taxonomy is the claim

A planner who needs “games digital spend” cannot read that grain from this release. Social or video rows can include gaming advertisers, but the published taxonomy does not isolate them. IAB’s separate Gaming Measurement Framework addresses how to measure ads in gaming environments; it does not fill the missing spend cut in the revenue report.

Methodology on the release states that PwC compiles seller-reported and public data and publishes aggregates only, without an audit opinion. That supports treating the totals as an industry revenue benchmark for US digital advertising—not as a gaming UA budget map.

Mark games spend missing

Our recommendation is to label games/app-install spend as not disclosed in this IAB cut. Do not allocate a share of social or video using an estimated industry average to invent a games number.

Inspect the evidence

Download the source-population and comparability card. The extraction separates documented facts from our analysis and unknowns.

Further reading in the existing archive: The UA reading list: reports and benchmarks that matter; The benchmark report is selling you something. These links provide background; this check does not independently verify their full contents.

Research checked 19 September 2026. Local draft; human editorial review and byline assignment pending.