How creators serve as bridges to gaming communities

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This article is part of GamesBeat’s special issue, Gaming communities: Making connections and fighting toxicity.

Over the last decade, the live service model has changed the life cycle of games and franchises. Filled with infinite replayability, these games can only thrive when they have highly engaged audiences. It’s more vital than ever to build fandom.

The games that have successfully kept fans playing for years tend to be the ones that have fostered communities. While there are multiple strategies to support communities, all games can benefit from working with creators. 

Creators can solve a number of problems for game marketers, making them a valuable resource for publishers and developers.

While gaming is not exclusively for young consumers, the audience tends to skew towards Gen Z and Millennials, especially when compared to other forms of entertainment.  This makes gamers an ideal demographic for brands to target, but their consumption habits make them harder to reach.

A study from creator agency Whalar found that this demographic is curating their own media experience and actively avoiding ads in the process. 54% of Gen Z and Millennials in the U.S. watch 0 hours of ad supported TV per week. Moreover, two out of three viewers reported always skipping ads when possible. Traditional marketing is becoming less effect so brands — including game publishers — must build audiences through fans’ curated content.

Young consumers are actively selecting creators to follow and support. The study shows that U.S. fans overwhelmingly (70%) feel a sense of loyalty towards content creators. Part of it is because they