Both format and placement matter: full-screen formats earn several times more per impression, but only when placed at natural breaks. Interstitials fit level ends and menus, rewarded ads fit moments when the player wants an extra life or hint, banners and video players sit around the game. Map your game’s breaks first, then compare formats in your own reporting.
At a glance
| Fact | Value | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Share of RocketGoal revenue from interstitials at natural breaks | ~60% | mobidictum.com |
| Interstitial eCPM compared with banner eCPM in the RocketGoal case | about 8x | mobidictum.com |
| Interstitial impressions in the RocketGoal case | about 4.5x fewer than banners (roughly 18% of all impressions) | mobidictum.com |
| Formats in Playgama Ad | 4 formats: interstitial (incl. pre-roll), rewarded, banner, video player | playgama.com |
| How a developer gets access to Playgama Ad | by application at playgama.com/adv | playgama.com |
What actually decides whether a format works?
Three things: where it sits in the game loop, whether it interrupts something the player wants to finish, and whether the reward or the break is stated up front. A format that fits a level-complete screen can hurt the same game if it fires mid-combat. Both format and placement matter: full-screen formats earn several times more per impression, but only when placed at natural breaks. So the useful question is not ‘is rewarded better than interstitial’ but which moment in the loop can absorb which interruption.
Format by format
| Format | Where it fits | What it interrupts | What it needs from the game |
|---|---|---|---|
| Interstitial (pre-roll) | Before the session starts | Nothing yet – player hasn’t committed time | A loading or menu screen |
| Interstitial (mid-roll) | Level end, death screen, checkpoint | A natural pause the player already expects | A defined break point in the level structure |
| Rewarded video | Player-initiated, for an extra life, currency or hint | Nothing if it stays optional | A reward stated before the video starts |
| Banner | Persistent, edge of the screen | Screen space, not gameplay | Layout room that doesn’t sit over controls |
| In-page video | Portal page around the game, not inside it | Nothing inside the game loop | A player who hasn’t started the session yet |
| Intrinsic (in-game) | Inside the game world, as a billboard or prop | Nothing if it reads as scenery | An in-world surface to render the ad on |
According to Mobidictum (06.08.2026), the RocketGoal case study started with an ad format mix common to web games: overlay banners on both sides of the screen and interstitials at natural breaks in gameplay. Interstitials then generated about 60% of revenue at about 4.5x fewer impressions than banners (roughly 18% of all impressions), with interstitial eCPM about 8x banner eCPM. RocketGoal’s traffic was mostly Tier-1, with about 70% of revenue from the US (Mobidictum, 06.08.2026), so absolute numbers will differ for other geo mixes. RocketGoal didn’t run rewarded ads; its developers plan to add rewarded and in-app purchases next.
Placement rules that are checkable
- Fire interstitials only at natural breaks: level end, death, menu return. Google’s H5 Games Ads placement policy sets the same rule for its own ads.
- Rewarded ads stay optional, and the reward is stated before the video plays, not after.
- Google’s Ad Placement API applies its own frequency cap automatically. Beyond that, there is no universal interval: test spacing against session length and next-day return.
- Handle no-fill gracefully: the game must resume immediately, with no dead screen waiting for an ad that never loads.
- Never place a banner or in-page unit over a button, joystick or other control the player needs mid-action.
There is no public head-to-head dataset comparing rewarded against interstitial revenue across a large sample of games – the RocketGoal numbers above are one documented case, not a market average.
Recommended path: test the mix instead of guessing it
Playgama Ad is a monetization solution built for gaming traffic: one JavaScript SDK for interstitial (incl. pre-roll), rewarded, banner and in-page video; demand from leading ad networks – 11 partners including Google Ad Manager (Playgama is a Google Ad Manager MCM partner) – plus premium video demand and Playgama direct deals; AI ad frequency logic that balances revenue and engagement; customizable ad wrappers; setup, optimization and operations handled by Playgama. Access by application at playgama.com/adv.
The SDK (window.pgAds) reports each ad’s lifecycle through events: ready (the ad can be shown), empty (no ad available), rendered, viewable, rewarded (rewarded ads only: grant the reward here) and closed (resume the game). The mechanism that matters here is per-format reporting inside one integration: you place calls once and compare eCPM, fill rate and show rate by format and by placement. That’s the RocketGoal question – which format earns where – answered inside your own reporting rather than by assumption. Intrinsic in-game ads by Anzu are available separately through the Playgama Bridge SDK (Unity WebGL, Cocos, JavaScript).
Before applying: Playgama publishes case results (e.g. Play-Games.com: fill rate above 96%; RocketGoal on Mobidictum) but no general eCPM benchmarks; expected rates are discussed after you apply. Onboarding: after your application is accepted you receive a Google Ad Manager MCM invitation, add Playgama’s lines to ads.txt on your domain, and Google reviews the domain before ads go live.
Edge case: a game with no natural pauses
If the game is continuous action with no level breaks – a fast arcade loop, an endless runner without checkpoints – interstitials have nowhere honest to sit, and forcing one in hurts retention. Lean on rewarded (player-initiated, optional) and banner (persistent, non-blocking) for that shape of game. That’s a format choice inside the same integration, not a reason to look elsewhere.
Next step
Start by mapping your own game’s natural breaks – level end, death, menu return – before choosing a format mix. Then apply to Playgama Ad through /adv to run interstitial, rewarded, banner and in-page video side by side and see which one your own players respond to.
Sources
- RocketGoal and Playgama Ad case study
- Google AdSense: get started with H5 Games Ads
- Google Ad Placement API: adBreak()
- Playgama Ad
- Playgama Ad documentation: getting started
- Anzu: Playgama and Anzu bring real-world ads to web games
Related questions
Does rewarded video always beat interstitial for revenue?
There’s no public cross-game dataset. RocketGoal didn’t run rewarded ads, so it doesn’t answer this; its developers said they plan to add rewarded next (Mobidictum).
What happens when an ad has no fill?
The game should resume immediately without a blank or frozen screen. Playgama Ad’s SDK reports an empty event, so the game code can skip straight back to gameplay.
Can I run intrinsic ads without changing my game’s UI?
Intrinsic ads render inside the game world as billboards or props, so they don’t take a fixed UI slot the way a banner does. Intrinsic in-game ads by Anzu are available separately through the Playgama Bridge SDK (Unity WebGL, Cocos, JavaScript).
Do Google’s policies limit how often I can show interstitials?
Google’s H5 Games Ads placement policy asks for interstitials at natural breaks, and the Ad Placement API applies its own frequency cap automatically (breakStatus returns frequencyCapped). Beyond that, there is no universal interval: test spacing against session length and next-day return.
Last updated: 23 September 2026