CTV Advertising and Gaming: What Publishers Need to Know

Connected TV is where a growing share of brand video budgets is moving. The IAB projects US CTV ad spend of $29.3 billion in 2026, up 11% (IAB, May 2026). The convergence of that spend with gaming is creating opportunities that did not exist a few years ago.

You do not need to become a CTV publisher to benefit from this shift. But you do need to understand what is happening and how to position your gaming inventory to capture some of that budget.

What CTV Actually Means

CTV (connected TV) refers to any television connected to the internet and used for streaming content. This includes smart TVs (Samsung, LG, Vizio), streaming devices (Roku, Fire TV, Apple TV, Chromecast), and gaming consoles (PlayStation, Xbox, Nintendo Switch) used for streaming apps.

CTV advertising is video ads served within streaming content on these devices. Think of the ads you see on Hulu, Peacock, Tubi, Pluto TV, or ad-supported tiers of Netflix and Disney+.

The ad experience is closer to traditional TV commercials: 15- or 30-second non-skippable spots, high production value, brand-safe environments. CTV CPMs typically run well above web video, often in the $25–50 range and sometimes higher for targeted segments.

The Gaming-CTV Convergence

Three trends are merging gaming and CTV into adjacent inventory categories:

1. Cloud Gaming on TV Screens

Services like Xbox Cloud Gaming, NVIDIA GeForce NOW, and Amazon Luna allow users to play console-quality games directly on their smart TVs through streaming. No download, no disc; just a controller and a broadband connection.

This means gaming is happening on the same screens where CTV ads run. The audience overlap is growing. Advertisers buying CTV inventory are increasingly reaching gamers on the same device.

2. Browser-Based Games on Smart TVs

Smart TV operating systems (Tizen on Samsung, webOS on LG) include web browsers. While the experience is basic, browser-based casual games are accessible on these screens. Some smart TV app stores already feature HTML5 game portals.

This is early-stage and may take years to matter. If your browser-based games do reach TV screens at scale, that inventory could start to qualify as CTV inventory.

3. Cross-Screen Campaigns

This is the convergence point that matters to you right now.

Advertisers running CTV campaigns do not buy CTV in isolation. They run cross-screen campaigns: CTV for reach and brand awareness, then digital display and video for retargeting and engagement on phones, tablets, and desktops.

When a brand plans a CTV campaign, part of the budget often goes to companion digital inventory for sequential messaging. The split varies widely by advertiser and agency. That digital companion budget flows through the same DSPs (Demand-Side Platforms) and SSPs that serve ads on your gaming site.

This is where your opportunity sits. Advertisers spending on CTV are often also buying digital inventory that matches their audience profile. Gaming audiences are engaged adult casual players, many of them heads of household, a demographic many CTV advertisers want to reach.

What This Means for Your Revenue

You will not see a line item in your reporting that says "CTV budget." The money arrives through standard programmatic channels: Google Ad Manager, Prebid, your SSP partners. But the budgets behind those bids are increasingly CTV-adjacent.

Here is an illustrative example of how the flow can work (the figures are hypothetical):

1. A brand (say, a mobile game developer) allocates $2M to a Q4 campaign
2. $1.2M goes to CTV for 15-second spots on streaming platforms
3. $500K goes to digital video (including outstream on publisher sites) for companion messaging
4. $300K goes to display for retargeting users who saw the CTV spot

Your gaming site can capture budget from pools 3 and 4. The key is having the right inventory in place.

How to Position Your Site for CTV-Adjacent Budgets

Include Video Ad Formats

This is the single most important step. CTV budgets are video budgets. When the companion spend flows to digital channels, it flows primarily to video formats: outstream, preroll, and rewarded.

If your site only runs display banners, you are invisible to the video-first buying strategies that accompany CTV campaigns. Adding outstream video to your content pages and rewarded video to your game play pages makes your inventory eligible for these budgets.

The CPM difference is not subtle. Standard display units typically clear in the $2–6 CPM range, while outstream video typically clears at $8–15 and rewarded video at $15–30. Illustrative US ranges from our experience; your rates depend on geography, format and season.

Highlight Lean-Back Engagement

CTV advertising works because of lean-back engagement: users are relaxed, attentive, and consuming content in a low-interruption environment. This is the opposite of the chaotic, scroll-fast social media feed.

Gaming sites offer a similar engagement pattern. Users on your site are focused, often staying for long sessions, engaged with a single piece of content (the game). This is closer to CTV attention quality than most web inventory.

When you work with SSPs or sell direct, frame your inventory in these terms:

• Average session duration (gaming sessions are often considerably longer than general web visits)
• Engagement depth (game plays per session, not just pageviews)
• Sound-on environments (games have audio, meaning users may have speakers or headphones active)
• Low multitasking (users are focused on the game, not browsing in a background tab)

These metrics align with what CTV advertisers value. Position your site accordingly.

Offer Cross-Screen Packages (For Direct Sales)

If you do any direct ad sales, build packages that explicitly reference cross-screen. An advertiser running a CTV campaign on Roku might buy a companion package on your gaming site that includes:

• Outstream video on game description pages (brand awareness)
• Rewarded video during gameplay (engagement)
• Display retargeting for users who saw the video units (conversion)

This is not CTV inventory; you are not serving ads on a TV. But it is positioned as a cross-screen complement to CTV, which aligns with how media buyers think about their budget allocation.

Ensure Your Tech Stack Supports Video Demand

CTV-adjacent video demand flows through specific channels. Make sure you have:

• Video-capable header bidding: Prebid.js with video modules enabled, or a server-side bidding solution that supports VAST
• SSPs with CTV relationships: Partners like Magnite (formed from the Rubicon Project and Telaria merger), PubMatic, and Index Exchange have strong CTV practices. Their digital video demand includes cross-screen companion budgets
• Google Ad Manager video line items: If you use GAM, ensure your video ad units are configured and your VAST tags are active
• VAST 4.x support: Use VAST 4.x with OMID for viewability measurement and SIMID for interactive elements (VPAID is deprecated). Buyers running CTV-adjacent campaigns expect both

The Budget Shift Is Real

The IAB projects 11% growth in US CTV ad spend for 2026, to $29.3 billion. Linear TV budgets are shifting to CTV, and CTV budgets are creating downstream demand for digital video inventory. Gaming sites sit at the intersection of two growing categories: gaming content and video advertising.

What This Does Not Mean

Here is what CTV convergence does not mean for you today:

• You are not a CTV publisher. Your ads run on phones, tablets, and desktops. Do not misrepresent your inventory.
• CTV CPMs do not apply to your site. Your digital video CPMs (typically $8–15 for outstream and $15–30 for rewarded) are downstream of CTV budgets. They benefit from increased demand, but they are not CTV rates.
• This is not an overnight revenue boost. The convergence creates favorable demand conditions. You capture the benefit by having video formats in place and being present in the right SSP auctions.

The opportunity is real but it is structural, not tactical. It means the market conditions for video advertising on gaming sites are improving because of how CTV budgets flow through the ecosystem.

The Timeline

Now: Ensure you have outstream and rewarded video formats live on your site. This is table stakes for capturing video demand from any source, including CTV-adjacent budgets.

Next 12 months: Monitor your video CPMs for upward trends, particularly in Q4 when CTV spending peaks. Work with your SSP partners to ensure you are included in cross-screen deal IDs.

Next 2–3 years: Watch for direct gaming distribution on smart TV platforms. If your games run in a browser, they may run on TV browsers. That could make some of your inventory genuinely CTV-eligible.

What to Do Next

The publishers who benefit from the CTV-gaming convergence are the ones who already have video infrastructure in place when the budgets arrive. If you are weighing which video formats to add first, our guide to preroll, outstream, and rewarded video walks through the trade-offs. You can also see publisher results from gaming sites we work with.