Background
This Ruling forms part of a wider piece of work on misleading gameplay in ads for mobile games, identified for investigation following intelligence gathered by the ASA. See also related rulings published on 4 November 2026.
Ad description
A paid-for Facebook ad and an app store listing for Idle Zombie Miner: Gold Tycoon, a mobile game, seen on 28 April 2026.
a. The paid-for Facebook ad featured the caption, “Dig Mines Merge Zombies Gather Gold”.
The ad included a video which showed a cartoon zombie driving a bulldozer to gather resources and then selling the resources to earn coins. The zombie used the coins to unlock a door, which opened a new area. A counter in the top right of the screen showed how many coins had been earned. At the end of the video, the camera panned over a large, continuous map, followed by on-screen text which stated, “ZOMBIE MINER Choose the next Level!” and showed several windows of gameplay.
b. The app store listing, seen on Google Play, featured an image carousel. The images featured bulldozers collecting coins, with numbers on the floor and barriers. Each image featured a heads-up display, which displayed information about the current state of the game.
Issue
The ASA challenged whether ads (a) and (b) misleadingly gave the impression that they showed, or were representative of, gameplay in Idle Zombie Miner: Gold Tycoon.
Response
Vistrex Ltd said that Idle Zombie Miner: Gold Tycoon was an idle merge-and-mine tycoon game in which players broke rocks to collect resources, merged zombies, upgraded mining stations, converted resources into coins and unlocked new mines. They said the game also included a mandatory bonus stage, “Goliath the Destroyer”, in which players drove an excavator to collect crystals for rewards. They said that stage launched automatically after completion of a mine and could not be skipped.
They said the ads were stylised rather than literal gameplay footage, but each element shown reflected a genuine in-game mechanic. They said the claim “Dig Mines / Merge Zombies / Gather Gold”, the vehicle collecting resources, the coin counter and the opening of new areas all corresponded to features in the game, including the mandatory bonus stage and the progression mechanic for opening new mines. They therefore believed the ads did not depict gameplay that differed materially from the actual game, and that any differences were limited to visual presentation rather than the underlying gameplay.
They provided a recording of the “Goliath the Destroyer” bonus stage.
Assessment
Upheld
Ad (a) featured a video of a zombie character driving an excavator around an open area containing representations of different materials, in order to harvest resources, before selling them to unlock new areas or instantly upgrade the vehicle, increasing its size and harvesting abilities. The video zoomed out to show a large open-world map with various unlockable areas. The ad featured a coin counter as a heads-up display (HUD) element. We considered those features, particularly the gameplay mechanics and interface, presented the content as gameplay rather than merely thematic or cinematic material.
Ad (b) was an app store listing and featured screenshots of gameplay similar to that shown in ad (a). They included a zombie driving an excavator and zones on the floor to deposit materials and coins. The images featured a detailed HUD, which included the text “MINE 1”. We considered the gameplay-style presentation would lead consumers to understand those images as depicting gameplay available in the game.
We considered that the ads presented Idle Zombie Miner: Gold Tycoon as a resource gathering game centred on direct control of a main character. The gameplay shown in the ads centred on directly controlling and upgrading the excavator, collecting resources and unlocking new areas. The gameplay in ad (a) gave the impression of a large open-world map to unlock.
We understood that the actual gameplay footage did not match the footage in the ads. We understood that Idle Zombie Miner: Gold Tycoon was an idle game, in which players clicked to assign zombies to break rocks in the mine, extracting coins, ore, and other resources. Those zombies could be merged, and mining stations could be upgraded. When a mine was completed, a new mine was opened. We understood that the “Goliath the Destroyer” bonus stage was a minigame in which players drove an excavator to collect crystals for rewards, and that this minigame was started automatically at the completion of mines four through to seven, and could not be skipped. Although we acknowledged there were some broad similarities between the bonus stage and the gameplay shown in the ads, the minigame did not feature content shown in the ads, such as upgrading the excavator and a large open-world map. Further, the movement and speed of the excavator were significantly different between ad (a) and the gameplay footage provided. Although the minigame was played by all players who progressed far enough in the game, we understood that the minigame lasted 60 seconds, was available on completion of four of 194 mines, and was not part of the core gameplay experience.
Because consumers were likely to understand that the ads depicted gameplay in Idle Zombie Miner: Gold Tycoon, and because the playing experience differed materially from the gameplay depicted, we concluded that the ads were misleading.
The ads breached CAP Code (Edition 12) rules 3.1 (Misleading advertising) and 3.7 (Substantiation).
Action
The ads must not appear again in the form complained of. We told Vistrex Ltd to ensure their ads did not misleadingly give the impression that they showed, or were representative of, gameplay in Idle Zombie Miner: Gold Tycoon, when that was not the case.
