How to monetise online games: subscriptions, ads, first-party data

What are the levers for monetising online games?

Daily games build a regular audience that comes back every day and stays a long time. That audience can be monetised in four ways, often combined:

The right mix depends on audience size, the title's business model and its maturity. Interest is growing: in its annual survey published in January 2025, the Reuters Institute found that more than a quarter of the media leaders it surveyed are actively thinking about or planning to launch new products around games.

Subscription: games-only or bundle?

Subscription remains publishers' top revenue focus: 77% of Reuters Institute respondents cite it, ahead of display advertising (69%). The same report notes that many new products, games included, are likely to be bundled into "all-access" subscriptions in a bid to reduce churn, and that The Times and The Telegraph already offer puzzle-only subscriptions in the UK.

The New York Times sells both options. In 2023, its games-only subscription cost $5 a month or $40 a year, and the paper claimed more than one million such subscriptions (Press Gazette, March 2023). But the end-of-2025 figures show the value gap between a single product and the bundle.

A games-only subscription is therefore mostly a stepping stone. Its real value lies in conversion to the full offer and in retaining that offer, two mechanics covered in the NYT Games case.

In France, La Revue des médias, published by INA, described several approaches in April 2024. Ouest-France encourages its loyal players to subscribe for "exclusive" access to more games. Le Nouvel Obs reserves extra puzzles, reached by QR code from the print magazine, for subscribers. Le Parisien keeps its games free "for now", to build a habit before asking for a subscription.

What is a games audience worth to advertisers?

Games offer advertisers an audience that returns every day, in a setting far from the news. That is The New York Times' pitch: "More than 10 million people give the Times their undivided attention every day while playing our games," said its global chief advertising officer, Joy Robins, in early 2024 (Adweek, February 2024). The paper had just introduced first-party targeting to ads in its games.

The formats follow the rhythm of the game rather than the article:

• the pre-game interstitial: since July 2023, the mobile web version of Wordle shows a video or display ad after the player clicks "Play" and before the game loads, sold directly rather than programmatically (AdExchanger, July 2023);
• the in-game ad: in Crossplay, its first two-player game, launched in January 2026, the paper runs ads inside a game for the first time, at the end of a turn after the word is submitted, skippable after six seconds (AdExchanger, March 2026).

In Crossplay, as in the paper's other free games, only players without a Games subscription see these ads, according to AdExchanger. Advertising and subscription work together: the free game funds the audience, and the subscription removes the ads.

The overall effect is hard to isolate. In the second quarter of 2026, the company's digital advertising revenue rose 20.7% year over year, driven, it said, by strong marketer demand and growth in advertising supply (release, August 2026). The release does not break out the share coming from games.

How do player accounts create value?

The player account is the least visible lever and often the most valuable. A player who signs up to keep their streak and stats becomes an identified reader: the publisher knows how often they visit, which games they prefer and when they play.

The New York Times made this an explicit goal in 2023: getting players to create accounts, in part so they could track their stats and streaks (Press Gazette, March 2023). That data then serves two purposes: targeting advertising, as the paper did in its games in 2024, and offering the right subscription at the right time. The link between streaks and sign-ups is covered in the resource on streaks and daily habits.

Sponsorship: tying a brand to the daily appointment

Sponsorship sells a brand's association with a daily ritual rather than a volume of impressions. When ads launched on Wordle, DoorDash, the launch sponsor, let its subscribers use the word of the day as a weekly promo code (AdExchanger, July 2023). In 2026, JPMorganChase was the launch partner for Crossplay, with a full campaign around the new game.

For a regional publisher, the same idea works locally: a daily puzzle "brought to you by" a local advertiser, or a themed game tied to a sponsored event.

Free first, paid later?

The most common sequence is to open games for free, build the habit, then reserve part of the offer for subscribers. The New York Times still follows it: in summer 2025 it moved the Mini Crossword behind its paywall, while saying several of its 10 games remain free for all (MediaPost, September 2025). Putting a popular game behind the paywall angered some fans: the move has a reputational cost.

The levers are not mutually exclusive. A free game funded by advertising, whose players create accounts and are then offered a subscription: that is the full chain. Audience retention is where it starts.

What SIWA supports today

SIWA provides 16 daily games in French, embedded by iframe under your brand. On the monetisation side, the platform offers player accounts, an external identity mode that recognises your logged-in subscribers, and campaign links to track your traffic sources. An optional ad module, off by default, can also be enabled on request. To discuss it, see the pro page.