How Gaming Influencers Impact the Industry

A debate is raging about YouTube influencers in gaming: Are they friends or enemies of the games they’re promoting? At first glance, it seems preposterous that an influencer would negatively impact the gaming industry. Upon closer examination, several points come into sharp focus. 

First and foremost, it’s clear that gaming influencers draw tremendous interest in the games they promote. As a consequence, influencers shape the industry in a big way. Yet, despite this, there is a hidden cost that game developers are paying because of these influencers.

This insight comes from a compelling Marketing Science study titled “Opposing Influences of YouTube Influencers.” At first glance, it sounds paradoxical—but the research presents strong evidence that gaming influencers can sometimes harm game sales. 

While these YouTube stars increase player engagement and boost playtime, their content may reduce purchases, downloads, and deeper immersion, particularly for story-driven titles. 

The researchers arrived at these findings by analyzing large-scale behavioral data from Steam, the world’s largest PC gaming distribution platform, which provides a rich player activity dataset.

The Double-Edged Sword of Gaming Influencers

Here's the lowdown: YouTube influencers are great for engagement, which bodes well for increased playtime. However, the content provided by these gaming icons tends to impact game sales negatively. It’s a curse and a blessing. While the game can instantly go from dormant to viral, story-driven games tend to fall by the wayside. 

Of course, this has no impact whatsoever on numbers games, particularly those requiring tactical and strategic play, as in solitaire games. In these online strategy games, players must be able to recognize patterns, work quickly, beat the clock, and move on to the next level to score rewards. Every game is different but equally challenging. 

Strategy Games Like Solitaire Thrive Outside the Hype

According to Tongji University Professor Li, the problem is that many people prefer to watch the YouTube influencer rather than go out and buy the game. This was made possible during the YouTube Apocalypse. 

Due to advertising policies, YouTube influencers paused their uploads. Researchers used this hiatus to study the cause and effect of influencer content without any of the typical biases factoring into the equation. It’s typically tough to understand cause/effect with influencer studies. 

Many games like Fortnite and Minecraft rely heavily on influencers. But once-off purchase games do not fare so well. Why? With a story-driven game, much of the suspense is not knowing what’s going to happen in the story. 

In these influencer videos, everything is revealed, and this drops the desire to purchase. Despite all of this, influencer marketing and the effect of these marketing superstores are undeniable. 

The World’s Most Influential Gaming Influencers

The gaming world is exploding, and these top 20 influencers are at the heart of the action. From Fortnite prodigies and cozy corner creators to Minecraft legends and FPS icons, they dominate YouTube, Twitch, and Instagram with millions of fans. 

Whether you're scouting talent for brand deals or want to know who's reshaping digital entertainment, this list highlights the must-watch personalities and their favorite games. This curated list pays tribute to the top 20, in no particular order. We salute their impact on the gaming realm.  

Influencers drive a multi-billion-dollar industry to new heights, and they are responsible for eliciting billions of views on social media platforms like YouTube, Instagram, X, Twitch, and the like. Therefore, it’s a powerful marketing medium, but it’s not necessarily an effective one for certain types of games. Their star power in gaming is undoubtedly food for thought.