cross-platform-gaming-measurement

The gaming industry is moving at top speed, driven by the pursuit of broader audiences and higher revenue streams. As game studios aim to expand their reach from mobile, many are bringing their titles to PC and console platforms to meet the growing demand for seamless gaming experiences across multiple devices.

In 2024, the gaming industry's revenue was $187.7 billion and is projected to grow to $213.3 billion by 2027. PC and console gaming combined accounted for 51% of the revenue in 2024 and are expected to continue showing steady growth.
(source: Newzoo Global Games Market Report 2024) 

Several key factors are driving this trend, including the demand for cross-platform compatibility, free-to-play monetization, and influencer & eSport streaming.

Cross-platform Compatibility

Players today expect a seamless gaming experience across PC, console, and mobile platforms. This growing demand has fueled trends like cross-platform play, cross-play, and cross-progression, which allow players to engage with their favorite games on any device, anytime.

• Cross-platform: Games available on multiple platforms, such as Minecraft and Fortnite, enable players to access them on iOS, Steam, or Nintendo Switch.
• Cross-play: Titles like Apex Legends and Call of Duty: Warzone 2.0 let users play together in real-time across different platforms, such as PC and PlayStation.
• Cross-progression: Games like Genshin Impact and Baldur’s Gate 3 allow players to continue their progress seamlessly across devices, such as switching from Android to PC without losing progress.

By embracing these features, game studios can deliver the seamless, flexible experiences players demand, ensuring greater engagement and loyalty across all platforms.

Free-to-Play (F2P) Monetization

F2P model has made games more accessible to wider audiences while opening up new opportunities for revenue growth. By offering flexibility in monetization strategies, developers can tailor in-app purchases to match player behavior and preferences, ensuring sustained engagement.

Games like League of Legends, Apex Legends, and Warframe have successfully adopted the F2P model, using it to maximize player lifetime value (LTV) and grow their user bases. As gaming shifts away from one-time purchases, understanding in-game player behavior across platforms has become essential for optimizing both engagement and revenue.

eSports & Influencer Streaming

Platforms like Twitch and YouTube Gaming have turned gaming into a spectator experience, with influencers and streamers playing a pivotal role in promoting games. Developers recognize the importance of enabling streamers to create high-quality content, as this directly impacts a game’s visibility and popularity.

PC games like Valorant, Overwatch, and The First Descendant dominate streaming platforms due to their superior visual quality compared to mobile games. By making games more accessible for streamers, developers can attract larger audiences through influencer-driven engagement.

[The First Descendant’s TikTok UGC & Video Ads]

With multi-platform games now the industry standard for success, player journeys have become more complex. This underscores the importance of accurate cross-platform measurement as the foundation for user acquisition (UA), engagement, and monetization strategies. 

In this post, we'll explore how to transform PC and console platforms as performance marketing channels, leveraging precise cross-platform attribution to accurately measure marketing impact.

Why Cross-platform Measurement Matters 

PC·console game marketing extends beyond acquiring users; it involves securing high-value players, maintaining their engagement, and driving conversions. To achieve this, marketers need to require end-to-end visibility into the player journey, from discovery to in-game purchases. 

Here are two key reasons why PC·console measurement is challenging and why it's essential.

Diverse UA Channels 

Players discover games through a variety of UA channels, such as search ads, display ads, social media, streamer and influencer promotions, and email marketing. Accurate measurement is critical for identifying which channels are most effective at reaching and engaging target audiences, enabling marketers to optimize strategies and drive better performance.

Cross-platform Player Journeys

As players actively switch between multiple platforms and devices, they follow diverse paths to install, play, and make in-game purchases, creating complex cross-platform flows that challenge measurement. Now, marketers need to understand player flow by actively tracking cross-platform UA and in-game scenarios.

• Cross-platform attribution: For example, if a user installs a PC game after clicking a mobile ad, marketers must attribute the event to the proper ad to measure its effectiveness accurately.

• In-game metrics: Marketers must understand in-game metrics like time-to-first-purchase, transaction amounts, and churn rates to create personalized experiences and inform retargeting efforts.

Cross-platform Measurement with Airbridge 

Airbridge offers comprehensive cross-platform measurement, providing a unified view of user journeys across mobile, PC, and console platforms, from UA to in-game purchases. Conversion events from PC, console, and mobile platforms can be collected by Airbridge, allowing for seamless integration of these data points to optimize ad campaigns across all devices. With Airbridge, marketers can measure performance regardless of whether they have a dedicated marketing landing page for their multi-platform games. 

• Games with marketing landing page: Games like Fortnite have dedicated marketing websites where users can explore details and access downloads. In this scenario, when users click an ad, they're redirected to a landing page with the Airbridge Web SDK installed. Airbridge then collects data from this website and the PC·console game to measure ad performance effectively.

Airbridge's cross-platform measurment for PC·console games with marketing landing pages.

• Games without marketing landing page: Games like Darkest Dungeon, rely on platforms like Steam or GOG for game information and purchases. In this scenario, Airbridge collects data using tracking links across platforms to measure the performance of PC·console ads effectively.

Airbridge's cross-platform measurment for PC·console games without marketing landing pages.

Airbridge’s cross-platform measurement links ad clicks to in-game actions, giving marketers a clear view of the user journey to optimize campaigns.

Setting Up Key Metrics

To drive high conversion and engagement, defining and tracking key player interactions is the first critical step in optimizing cross-platform game marketing. To get started, consider setting up the following metrics to understand player progression and monetization potential. 

• Install complete – Game installation confirmed
• Tutorial complete – Player finishes onboarding
• First login – Player logs in for the first time
• Level 10 achieved – Milestone progression
• First purchase – Initial in-game transaction
• Subscription purchase – Recurring revenue events

[The First Descendant’s metric setup in the Airbridge Dashboard]
The data used in this dashboard is randomly generated and intended solely for demonstration purposes.

Nexon utilized Airbridge's PC·console measurement to optimize the launch of The First Descendant. By providing actionable lower-funnel, in-game metrics, Airbridge enabled The First Descendant team to move beyond traditional upper-funnel metrics like CPC, CPM, and CTR, which are limited to branding and awareness. 

With Airbridge, The First Descendant team gained comprehensive visibility into user journeys from ad clicks to downloads, in-game purchases, and conversions across both PC·console platforms from a unified dashboard. This insight allowed the team to rapidly iterate on new ad products, identify top-performing channels, campaign types, and creatives, and strategically allocate resources to attract high-value players. The First Descendant achieved success through the following strategies: 

• UA performance analysis with down-funnel metrics: The team used down-funnel metrics to identify the best-performing ad products across platforms like Google, Meta, TikTok, X, Reddit, and Amazon Ads (Twitch), maximizing the impact of each ad creative.
• Campaign optimization via CAPI Integration: The team leveraged Conversion APIs (CAPI) for Meta and X to connect PC·console in-game conversions with ad performance, enabling seamless campaign optimization.
• Targeted marketing based on high-value players: The team identified players with high lifetime value (LTV) and developed targeted marketing strategies based on in-game behavior.

Integrating Server-to-Server (S2S) API 

Since PC·console games primarily operate in a server-based environment, Airbridge integrates S2S APIs to track events accurately. For instance, when a player completes their first in-game purchase, marketers can send this data to Airbridge via API, enabling precise marketing attribution and campaign optimization.

Leveraging Probabilistic Attribution 

Airbridge uses probabilistic attribution, employing statistical modeling to connect ad clicks with conversions across platforms without relying on cookies or device IDs. As ad-blocking and privacy restrictions increase, this method is becoming vital for providing accurate performance insights while maintaining strict privacy compliance.

Key Takeaways

• Game studios are expanding from mobile to PC·console platforms to reach broader audiences and revenue streams. 
• This shift is also driven by the growing demand for seamless cross-platform gaming experiences.
• Cross-platform measurement is challenging due to players switching between platforms and devices through multiple UA channels.
• Airbridge offers a unified view of user journeys across mobile, PC, and console platforms, from user acquisition to in-game purchases. 
• Airbridge also leverages S2S APIs and probabilistic attribution to deliver accurate insights while maintaining privacy compliance.
• With Airbridge, game marketers can transform PC and console campaigns into performance marketing channels.

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