A lot of depends from the project. Now gaming NFT projects attract a lot of attention and their airdrops are very popular. Just see the results of this airdrop
https://twitter.com/spacegrime/status/1396545308809601025 and you can see how popular gaming airdrops and how many users they have.
I agree that airdrops are actively used is gaming industry to unite the community and attract a lot of users. That is why gaming NFT projects actively use airdrops for promotion and the airdrops attract a lot of users. Just see how popular are airdrops of gaming products.
The popularity of CryptoKitties attracted a lot of gamers to the cryptocurrency. NFT are so popular in gaming industry because they allow not only spend money but also earn money too.