If brands want to reach the shoppers of the future, they’ll need to meet them where they already are: playing video games.
For this youngest generation, the coolest places to hang out aren’t the local mall or park but inside virtual worlds. While millennials had Sega Mega Drive and Mario Kart, and Gen Z grew up on The Sims and Angry Birds, Gen Alpha—born between 2010 and 2024 and still younger than 17—is coming of age in a world even more seamlessly integrated with technology. Gaming is no longer fringe culture; it’s where they socialize.
Analysts at investment bank UBS recently found that while older generations still spend about two more hours per week on social platforms than on games, Gen Alpha splits their time evenly between the two. Their engagement with digital platforms goes far beyond passive scrolling. For them, gaming is a medium for creativity and self-expression. If Gen Z and millennials were the social generations—raised on MySpace, Facebook, and Instagram—Gen Alpha is the gaming generation.
Now, brands are stepping further into these virtual spaces. Just today, Roblox announced it’s opening its Commerce APIs to eligible creators and brands, with Shopify as the first integrated partner. That means Shopify merchants can now sell physical goods directly within their Roblox experiences. It also works the other way. Through Roblox’s new Approved Merchandiser Program, users can buy physical items in the real world that unlock digital content in-game.
Among popular gaming platforms, Roblox reaches one of the youngest audiences, with 60% of its users under the age of 16. “These digital worlds have replaced group chats and casual hangouts with avatars serving as extensions of personality and style,” Liv Burke, associate director of social at social media agency Superdigital, recently wrote in an op-ed for Variety. In these spaces, Gen Alpha is building and personalizing virtual worlds with limited-edition skins and viral emotes—and inviting their friends to join.
For a generation that grew up with iPads in hand, their entertainment ecosystems exist largely beyond the reach of traditional advertising. As a result, advertisers’ investment in gaming is projected to nearly double over the next five years, according to Futurescape. After all, this generation already accounts for an estimated $50 billion in annual spending—a figure expected to reach $5.5 trillion by 2029.
For brands looking to connect with the next wave of consumers, it’s game on.
