2Q Mobile AdTech Preview: alpha rich 2H26 with many catalysts ahead

Research evidence excerpt

2Q Mobile AdTech Preview: alpha rich 2H26 with many catalysts ahead

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US Internet/Marketing & Advertising Technology

2Q Mobile AdTech Preview: alpha rich

2H26 with many catalysts ahead

Price Objective Change

Could runtime data be the holy grail for Unity Ads? 22 July 2026

We think a key debate in mobile game advertising over the coming months is whether Equity

Unity Ads can build a durable data advantage by integrating game engine data. Unity is United States

expanding its data footprint by encouraging developer data sharing via both the Unity US Internet/Marketing & Advertising

TechnologyAds SDK and game engine opt-in. Its runtime data could offer visibility into player

behaviors (engagement, ad interactions, purchases, etc.) across the ~70% of top mobile Omar Dessouky, CFA

games built on Unity Engine, narrowing the gap vs AppLovin in user-data coverage. Research Analyst

BofAS

Crucially, runtime data captures in-game events in their actual sequence, something +1 646 855 0686

MMPs handle poorly, which could enable more granular pricing of ad impressions. The omar.dessouky@bofa.com

open question is whether these sequential signals let Unity outbid rivals like AppLovin in Arthur Chu, CFA

Research Analyst

real-time auctions and win incremental wallet share. We think the debate stays BofAS

unresolved until the technology delivers tangible financial proof points later in the year. +1 646 855 1131 arthur.chu@bofa.com

DTC adoption to support a healthy ad spend backdrop

We expect the mobile gaming ecosystem to stay healthy in 2H26, supporting user-

acquisition budgets and, ultimately, ad network revenues. Newzoo forecasts mobile

gaming IAP spend to grow +7% Y/Y, yet Sensor Tower’s app-store-only tracking shows MMP: Mobile Measurement Partners

Y/Y declines YTD.