What is Anzu’s 2025 Audience Report about?

The report explores the evolving US gaming audience, highlighting diversity, education levels, household dynamics, and spending power among gamers.

What myths does the report debunk?

It challenges stereotypes such as gamers being mostly male, isolated, or lacking purchasing power—showing that nearly half of US gamers are women and many are affluent and family-oriented.

Who contributed to the report?

The report is powered by insights from Semcasting, a leader in privacy-safe identity resolution and audience targeting, alongside Anzu’s proprietary data.

What insights does the report offer advertisers?

It provides data-driven audience personas, showing how brands can precisely target and engage gamers through privacy-safe, in-game advertising solutions.

What new capability has Anzu introduced?

Anzu launched a privacy-safe audience targeting solution, enabling advertisers to reach over 62,000 audience segments across 180+ countries without cookies or device IDs.

Where can the report be accessed?

The full report, From Data to Personas: The 2025 Guide to US Gaming Audiences, is available for free download on Anzu’s official website.

The Gamer Stereotype Is Dead: Today’s US Players Are Educated, Family-Oriented, And Nearly Half Are Women

Q: What game genres are analyzed in the report?

The report covers action, arcade, board, casual, music, puzzle, racing, RPG, simulation, sports, and trivia genres.

October 23, 2025 — According to Anzu’s 2025 Audience Report, launched today, the US gaming audience is far from the outdated “young, single, male” stereotype. The data shows that nearly half of all US gamers are women, most are highly educated, and gaming is now a social, family activity enjoyed across generations and lifestyles. With millions of US households playing, the report reveals a vibrant, diverse community that brands and advertisers can reach in their favoured gaming environments.

Some of the myths the report debunks include:

Gamers are male-heavy → Nearly half (45%) of US gamers are women, and the gender split is almost even across most genres. For example, board games and music games both show a balanced gender mix, while puzzle games skew female.
Gamers are idle loners → Gamers over-index for higher education, marriage, and larger households, showing that play often happens in family or group settings. Board gamers are over-indexed for large households (4+ children), and casual gamers are pragmatic multitaskers who balance family, work, and everyday life.
Gamers lack spending power → Gamers are spenders with real purchasing power, over-indexing for discretionary income and investing in lifestyle and entertainment. Simulation gamers are 1.24× as likely to have $10M+ net worth, and action gamers over-index for affluence and discretionary spending.

From Data To Personas: The 2025 Guide To US Gaming Audiences report, powered by insights from Semcasting, a leader in privacy-safe identity resolution and data-driven targeting, and Anzu data, analyzes how Anzu gamers compare to the general population to understand where gamers under-index and over-index. It also delves into game genre profiles and personas covering the action, arcade, board, casual, music, puzzle, racing, RPG, simulation, sports, and trivia genres.

“This report marks a turning point for the gaming industry, showing how far we’ve come from outdated stereotypes. At Anzu, we’re not just observing these changes; we’re actively educating the market and, together with our partners, building the infrastructure and tools advertisers need to connect with audiences in authentic, scalable, and cost-effective ways. Gaming is now an essential advertising channel and a permanent fixture in the media mix. With insights from this report and in-game advertising’s move beyond contextual targeting, brands can now reach and engage their entire gaming audience”, said Natalia Vasilyeva, EVP Marketing & Strategy, Anzu.

“Brands are integrating gaming and entertainment strategies more than ever, and demand is only increasing. Gaming offers unmatched scale, diversity, and ease of deliverability, making it a powerful channel for reaching audiences. The insights in this report are invaluable for US advertisers, showing that they can find and precisely target their audiences across gaming, truly meet them where they are, and drive measurable impact” — Sarah Salter, Vice President, Global Partnerships and AI Innovation, WPP.

The launch of this report comes on the heels of Anzu’s rollout of its privacy-safe audience targeting solution, making it the first intrinsic in-game advertising platform to offer precise, compliant targeting at scale. With access to over 62K audience segments across 180+ countries, brands can reach the full spectrum of gamers in the US and beyond, all without relying on cookies or device identifiers. This new capability means advertisers can move well beyond assumptions, connecting with real players based on demographics, interests, and behaviors, unlocking smarter, more meaningful engagement within gaming’s increasingly diverse audience.

Download the full report for free here.