The New Face Of The Gaming Influencer

As is often said, the 2020s is like living through a ‘digital gold rush.’ Prospectors have swapped their shovels for laptops and webcams, and are making serious money through building and monetizing online communities. According to the VC firm SignalFire, as many as 50 million people consider themselves ‘creators’ within the passion economy, and many of these are making six-figure sums just by doing what they love and documenting it.

Breaking through in the creator economy is certainly easier in some sectors than others. But gaming, an industry that grew quickly during the pandemic and now has its own middle class made up of creators, keeps getting "better". And as gaming has grown, so too have its adjacent creator and influencer markets, turbocharged by social media and streaming platforms like Twitch and YouTube.

But isn’t this bad news? Gaming has a controversial reputation at the best of times; it’s famously anonymous, rife with misogyny and hatred, and often caught overlapping with the darker corners of the internet. Maybe the fact more money is flowing into the pockets of gaming influencers isn’t cause for celebration?

Possibly. Even though they are being looked at more closely, gaming influencers are changing, and the people who make them don't always look like the stereotype of a gamer.

Elle Dwight is the CEO and cofounder of Role, a tech platform that allows people to play TTRPGs (table-top role-playing games) through online, video-centric software. The role-playing vertical within gaming has grown quickly in the last few years, helped in part by the re-popularization of Dungeons and Dragons (D&D).

As this kind of gaming has increased in popularity, so too have the number of creators in the space. Hit podcasts such as Critical Role are the trailblazers here—live recordings of people playing D&D together that people can listen along to. There are hundreds, if not thousands, of other smaller shows doing the same thing—recording themselves role playing together, bringing people along on their adventures, and then monetizing that intellectual property through the promotion of relevant games and products.

Dwight and her team use these creators to market their product. After all, what better way to show how Role works? But what’s especially interesting is that their company only works with creators from marginalized backgrounds, collaborating exclusively with shows made by members of the LGBTQ+ and BIPOC communities.

"Role playing games are unique in the ways they empower players and storytellers to create the worlds and characters that they want to see. For us, that has always meant putting underrepresented voices at the forefront of every game, campaign, and partnership we work on,” Dwight says. “Role playing is all about live content creation with people you trust, and that provides both an implicit safety and a possibility space that many other gaming mediums often lack. Especially for LGBTQ+ and BIPOC communities, this is a medium where every group can live in an adventure that speaks to their lived experience. We think that's really special, and perhaps the most valuable aspect of this form of play."

As a trans woman herself, with a BIMPOC Filipino co-founder and majority-POC & LGBTQ+ team of 10 people, inclusivity is at the core of everything Dwight’s company does. This might be a rarity for the creator economy in gaming, or it might well be the future.

Another, perhaps surprising, development is geographical. Typically the United States and Europe have dominated the gaming sector, consequently meaning that creators from those parts of the world have built the biggest online followings. But this locational dominance is starting to shift.

According to a report from market researchers Newzoo, in collaboration with mobile games publisher Carry1st, the African continent is set to become the fastest-growing region for gamers. In the next ten years, the number of gamers in Sub-Saharan Africa will increase by 275%. And with such rapid user growth, of course, comes creator growth.

Cordel Robbin-Coker, CEO and cofounder of Carry1st, comments “I would often meet folks and be asked the same odd question, ‘Do Africans play games?’ And, in short, the answer is of course. Play and social connection are universal needs which video games satisfy in unique ways. We’re seeing dramatic growth on the continent, especially on mobile as the smartphone and free-to-play model have democratized access to gaming. A number of the big global publishers are waking up to the opportunity in the region.”

With studios looking to Africa, so too are investors. Earlier this year Carry1st raised capital from a number of high profile backers, including a16z, Google, Konvoy Ventures, and even the rapper Nas. As gaming infrastructure increases in Africa, so too does the demand for local Twitch streamers and influencers.

And the final trend worth noting is the rise of the ‘microinfluencer.’ Robin Åström is the CEO and cofounder of Wehype, an influencer marketing platform and agency that connects brands with gamers, working with companies like EA, Microsoft and Ubisoft. The team at Wehype find that collaborations leveraging groups of smaller influencers can actually be as, if not more, impactful than just securing major profiles for a campaign.

“The key to a successful campaign for your game is not all about having the biggest names promoting your product,” Åström says. “It’s about understanding your audience and tailoring content to be relevant. That’s where micro and mid-tier influencers come in. They often have more dedicated audiences, which brands can tap into. This means there are many opportunities out there for Twitch and YouTube creators with smaller, but still significant and committed, followings. We’re seeing this segment grow by around 25% year-on-year and it’s these people that are making up the creator economy middle class in gaming.”

This will have a significant effect on the next generation of gaming influencers, spreading revenue more evenly and ensuring more people can live off gaming as a hobby. If more people are able to do this, there will be a greater diversity of background, age, gender, and location amongst gaming creators.

It’s hard to underestimate how life-changing this can be for people. Talking to Christopher Alesund, a Forbes 30 Under 30 lister and Counter-Strike player with username GeT_RiGhT and a huge following online, he comments, “Gaming, and sharing that experience with my following, has been transformative. It has felt like a rocket ship at times, in terms of how quick the follower growth has been. It’s a truly amazing feeling.”

The landscape is clearly changing. This kind of stratospheric growth is becoming more inclusive, borderless, and influence is trickling down from the biggest names and into the hands of microinfluencers. For an industry that is sometimes maligned, the face of gaming is starting to change. And its creators are leading the way.