The embodiment of the invention discloses an advertisement picture playing method and a mobile terminal. The method comprises the steps that: the mobile terminal firstly obtains the history play pictures of N subscription channels of a screen lock magazine application of the mobile terminal in a preset time period, a subscription channel to which a largest number of history play pictures belongs is determined as the association channel of an advertisement picture, and an advertisement software development kit (SDK) association channel is notified to send an advertisement picture inquiry request to the SDK when a condition that the first picture play bit of the screen lock magazine application is the play bit before a preset advertisement play bit is detected; the advertisement picture information with the channel type of the association channel sent by the advertisement SDK is obtained; When a condition that the second picture play bit of the screen lock magazine application is the preset advertisement play bit is detected, a target advertisement picture is played according to the advertisement picture information. According to the embodiment of the invention, the accuracy of obtaining an advertisement picture and the association of a user requirement of the screen lock magazine application of the mobile terminal are improved, and a user experience is improved.