YouTube influencers: Gaming’s best friend or worst enemy?

YouTube influencers are shaping the gaming trade in surprising methods, and a brand new examine within the journal Advertising and marketing Science uncovers the stunning reality: Though influencers can drive huge engagement with video video games, they could even be costing sport builders hundreds of thousands in misplaced gross sales.

The examine, “Opposing Influences of YouTube Influencers: Buy and Utilization Results within the Video Recreation Trade,” gives the primary causal proof of how influencer advertising and marketing impacts gaming. Researchers discovered that though YouTube gaming content material will increase playtime, it might additionally discourage purchases—significantly for narrative-driven video games during which viewers can expertise the complete storyline by watching playthroughs.

Extra views, extra playtime—however fewer gross sales?

Utilizing intensive knowledge from Steam, the world’s largest PC gaming platform, the researchers uncovered a double-edged sword: YouTube influencers drive extra engagement with the YouTube influencers and longer playtime, however their content material can truly damage sport gross sales.

“YouTube gaming content material is a blessing and a curse,” says Nan Li, the examine’s lead creator and professor at Tongji College. “It might probably flip a sport right into a viral sensation, however for some video games, particularly story-driven ones, folks might select to look at as a substitute of purchase. That is a significant problem for builders.”

The Adpocalypse impact

The researchers took benefit of a novel occasion in YouTube’s historical past—often called the Adpocalypse—during which a sudden change in YouTube’s promoting insurance policies pressured influencers to delay their uploads. This gave researchers a uncommon alternative to check the causal impression of influencer content material, free from the same old biases.

“Most influencer research cannot separate trigger and impact,” says Avery Haviv, a professor within the Simon Enterprise College, College of Rochester. “However this second in YouTube’s historical past gave us a pure experiment to measure the actual impression of gaming movies on gross sales and engagement. The outcomes had been eye-opening.”

What this implies for the gaming trade

The findings clarify why firms have been divided on influencer advertising and marketing. Though video games that depend on long-term engagement (like Minecraft or Fortnite) profit from YouTube’s attain, single buy video games (e.g., story-driven RPGs) may very well lose income when influencers share full playthroughs.

“It is clear that one-size-fits-all advertising and marketing not works in gaming,” says Li. “For video games that earn cash from in-game purchases, influencer publicity is free promoting. However for single-purchase video games, builders should assume twice about their methods.”

With YouTube gaming content material making up one-third of all YouTube visitors, and gaming influencers driving billions of views, this analysis delivers a crucial message: influencer advertising and marketing is highly effective, however it’s not all the time worthwhile. “For sport builders, the query is not whether or not influencers matter—it is whether or not they assist or damage the underside line,” says Mitch Lovett, a professor within the Simon Enterprise College, College of Rochester. “The reply relies upon solely on the enterprise mannequin.”