{"id":68866,"date":"2025-03-19T07:20:00","date_gmt":"2025-03-18T23:20:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.upgrademag.com\/web\/?p=68866"},"modified":"2025-03-18T12:22:06","modified_gmt":"2025-03-18T04:22:06","slug":"youtube-influencers-gamings-best-friend-or-worst-enemy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.upgrademag.com\/web\/2025\/03\/19\/youtube-influencers-gamings-best-friend-or-worst-enemy\/","title":{"rendered":"YouTube influencers: gaming\u2019s best friend or worst enemy?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

YouTube influencers are shaping the gaming industry in unexpected ways, and a new study in the INFORMS journal\u00a0Marketing Science<\/em>\u00a0uncovers the surprising truth: Although influencers can drive massive engagement with video games, they might also be costing game developers millions in lost sales.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The study, \u201cOpposing Influences of YouTube Influencers: Purchase and Usage Effects in the Video Game Industry,\u201d provides the first causal evidence of how influencer marketing affects gaming. Researchers found that although YouTube gaming content increases playtime, it may also discourage purchases \u2013 particularly for narrative-driven games in which viewers can experience the full storyline by watching playthroughs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

More Views, More Playtime \u2013 But Fewer Sales?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Using extensive data from Steam, the world\u2019s largest PC gaming platform, the researchers uncovered a double-edged sword: YouTube influencers drive more engagement with the YouTube influencers and longer playtime, but their content can actually hurt game sales.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cYouTube gaming content is a blessing and a curse,\u201d says Nan Li, the study\u2019s lead author and professor at Tongji University. \u201cIt can turn a game into a viral sensation, but for some games, especially story-driven ones, people may choose to watch instead of buy. That\u2019s a major challenge for developers.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The \u201cAdpocalypse\u201d Effect: A Game-Changer for Research<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The researchers took advantage of a unique event in YouTube\u2019s history \u2013 known as the Adpocalypse \u2013 in which a sudden change in YouTube\u2019s advertising policies forced influencers to delay their uploads. This gave researchers a rare opportunity to study the causal impact of influencer content, free from the usual biases.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cMost influencer studies can\u2019t separate cause and effect,\u201d says Avery Haviv, a professor in the Simon Business School, University of Rochester. \u201cBut this moment in YouTube\u2019s history gave us a natural experiment to measure the real impact of gaming videos on sales and engagement. The results were eye-opening.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What This Means for the Gaming Industry<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The findings explain why companies have been divided on influencer marketing. Although games that rely on long-term engagement (like Minecraft or Fortnite) benefit from YouTube\u2019s reach, single purchase games (e.g., story-driven RPGs) may actually lose revenue when influencers share full playthroughs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt\u2019s clear that one-size-fits-all marketing no longer works in gaming,\u201d says Li. \u201cFor games that make money from in-game purchases, influencer exposure is free advertising. But for single-purchase games, developers must think twice about their strategies.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Bottom Line: Friend or Foe?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

With YouTube gaming content making up one-third of all YouTube traffic, and gaming influencers driving billions of views, this research delivers a critical message: influencer marketing is powerful, but it\u2019s not always profitable. \u201cFor game developers, the question isn\u2019t whether influencers matter \u2013 it\u2019s whether they help or hurt the bottom line,\u201d says Mitch Lovett, a professor in the Simon Business School, University of Rochester. \u201cThe answer depends entirely on the business model.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Although YouTube gaming content increases playtime, it may also discourage purchases \u2013 particularly for narrative-driven games in which viewers can experience the full storyline by watching playthroughs.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":50448,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[34],"class_list":["post-68866","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-gaming","tag-gaming-2"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.upgrademag.com\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/68866","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.upgrademag.com\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.upgrademag.com\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.upgrademag.com\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.upgrademag.com\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=68866"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/www.upgrademag.com\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/68866\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":68867,"href":"http:\/\/www.upgrademag.com\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/68866\/revisions\/68867"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.upgrademag.com\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/50448"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.upgrademag.com\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=68866"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.upgrademag.com\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=68866"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.upgrademag.com\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=68866"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}