Video gaming is a global industry expected to reach a record US$282.30bln by the end of this year and will grow until 2027 with an annual growth of 8.76%. At the same time, it has gone far beyond solutions for PlayStation and Xbox and now, also covers the Web3 industry. Below, we, the Coinband experts, will tell you about the most outstanding influencers who cover the gaming industry.
Top Gaming Influencers by the End of 2024
Let’s check top gaming influencers whose content attracts millions of viewers around the world.
#1. PewDiePie – Biggest Gamer
This YouTuber, whose original name is Felix Kjellberg, became famous for demonstrating gameplay of Amnesia: The Dark Descent, Minecraft, and various indie games. The content of this Let's Plays’ pioneer is generously flavored with humor – this is actually why the audience loves him. He humorously comments on each of his sessions, shares memes, and generally actively interacts with his audience. Currently, this biggest gamer influencer has more than 111 million subscribers, and some of his videos have gained tens of billions of views.
Other social media: Instagram, X.
# 2. Ninja – Gamer Influencer
Ninja (Tyler Blevins) is a popular Twitch streamer with more than 19 million subscribers who became famous for demonstrating gameplay of Battle Royale games, in particular – Fortnite. This influencer has a fairly short history of popularity (since 2018), but during this time, he has already managed to successfully monetize his online activities through donations and merch. This video game influencer is especially popular among celebrities who love video games, and they occasionally offer him to organize joint streams. Thanks to this, Ninja managed to sign an exclusive agreement with Microsoft for the Mixer platform.
Other social media: YouTube, Instagram.
#3. Pokimane – Game Influencer
Imane Anys, registered on Twitch under the nickname Pokimane, is one of the most famous female streamers. The two main types of content that she creates are game streams and "Just Chatting". She, like Ninja, loves to play Fortnite, but also dilutes her content with League of Legends and Among Us streams. Currently, this gamer influencer has more than 9 million subscribers and several prestigious awards for achievements in the gaming industry (as an influencer). Overall, this girl was one of the first gaming content creators to show that video games are loved not only by guys.
Other social media: X, Instagram.
#4. Dr DisRespect
Dr DisRespect moved to YouTube from the Twitch platform, taking his multi-million audience from there. His content is mainly focused on demonstrating streams in Call of Duty, PUBG, Apex Legends, and Rogue Company. This is a rather scandalous character in the field of gaming blogging who uses rather harsh and sometimes black humor in his streams. His influencer gaming content is also distinguished by a high level of production, a large number of creative inserts, and, of course, top gaming skills.
Other social media: X.
#5. Shroud
Michael Grzesiek, also known as Shroud, has been supporting the popularity of FPS shooters Counter-Strike: Global Offensive and PUBG on Twitch and YouTube for several years now. This influencer gamer has excellent gaming experience and every time surprises his multi-million audience with his outstanding shooting skills. This is not surprising, because Shroud is a former professional gamer who decided to go into influencing. By the way, he is another of the few streamers who managed to get a contract with Mixer.
Other social media: Instagram, X.
#6. Markiplier
Markiplier (Mark Fischbach) is an ardent fan of all kinds of indie and horror games, who focused his blogging activities on YouTube. Viewers love him for his emotional reactions to the gameplay, as well as for his overall creative approach to creating entertaining content. However, not only these things have brought him a multi-million fan base: Markiplier regularly takes part in all kinds of charity events, and also actively interacts with his viewers. By the way, this blogger took part in the creation of the interactive series A Heist with Markiplier.
Other social media: Instagram, X.
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#7. Jacksepticeye
Seán McLoughlin, a YouTube influencer under the name Jacksepticeye, has become known for creating Let’s Play-style content. He currently has over 30 million subscribers, and in addition to monetizing YouTube, he also earns income from his eponymous coffee shops. His voiceover is always seasoned with a large dose of humor and satire, which is why he is such a sought-after person for collaborations between new indie games and large gaming projects with multi-million dollar budgets. Just like Markiplier, Jacksepticeye often takes part in charity streams.
Other social media: X, Instagram.
#8. DanTDM
Daniel Middleton, also known as DanTDM, has gained fans around the world (over 27 million) thanks to his Minecraft gaming content. Indeed, thanks to his diverse Minecraft-dedicated content, covering both plot elements and mod reviews, as well as the process of creating custom buildings, he has become an idol for the younger generation of gamers. This earned him a prestigious YouTube prize called the Kids' Choice Awards and allowed him to release a best-selling book.
Other social media: X, Instagram.
#9. Sykkuno
If you are looking for a gaming influencer with a dynamically developing career, you should definitely pay attention to Sykkuno. His activities are divided between Twitch and YouTube (he has multi-million audiences on both) and are aimed at demonstrating gameplay of Among Us, Valorant, and League of Legends. This game influencer is one of the few sincere and friendly bloggers who never conflict with their audience and are generally attractive to joint broadcasts.
Other social media: Instagram, X.
#10. Valkyrae
This attractive girl, whose real name is Rachell Hofstetter, began her gaming activity on the Twitch platform, covering gameplays of such popular video games as Among Us, Fortnite, and Valorant. Over time, she also managed to get an exclusive deal with YouTube, which made her the first woman on the list of the most popular streamers on the platform. She often interacts with fans and has a number of feminist initiatives. She is also a member of the 100 Thieves content creative team and often takes part in esports events. Moreover, in 2020, Valkyrae received the prestigious The Game Awards 2020 as the best content creator of the year.
Other social media: Instagram, X.
#11. Alex Becker – Video Game Influencer Marketing
Alex Becker is a popular YouTube analyst of GameFi and Play-to-Earn games, who also shares valuable recommendations on investing in blockchain projects. This gaming influencer has a strong voice in the world of blockchain and cryptocurrency thanks to his detailed reviews of promising blockchain games and their tokenomics, as well as expert advice on investments. It is worth noting that this internet personality lowered the entry threshold to the Web 3.0 gaming space for beginners, so his contribution here cannot be overestimated.
Other social media: Instagram.
#12. Kieran Warwick
Kieran Warwick, the co-founder of the blockchain game Illuvium, focuses his influencer activity on Twitter, Medium, and Podcasts. Even though many of his publications are dedicated to his influencer game, this does not prevent him from actively promoting the Play-to-Earn concept in general and, thus, attracting people around the world to projects created on its basis. Kieran regularly speaks at crypto conferences, promoting the ideas of GameFi and highlighting the possibilities of forming a better balance between income opportunities and exciting gameplay in blockchain games.
Other social media: Instagram.
#13. Brycent
Bryce Johnson, whose activity is located on streaming platforms YouTube and Twitch, actively promotes new gaming content on blockchain games, as well as the Play-to-Earn format. The bulk of his streams are dedicated to Axie Infinity, one of the leading games in the Play-to-Earn ecosystem. However, quite often he also creates educational content on other blockchain games, opening up new opportunities for his viewers to earn money.
Other social media: YouTube, Instagram, X.
Ranking of the Biggest Gamers
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How Do Influencers Promote New Games?
In almost any business industry aimed at a wide audience reach, collabs with influencers can be useful – this thesis applies to the gaming industry in particular. For example, as for its separate direction, GameFi, here, they can bring the following benefits to Web 3.0 businesses:
- Create engaging content that will attract the target audience. Since video game influencers are people who built their business on the fact that they understood how and what to attract viewers, they can easily come up with engaging content to promote your Web 3.0 solution as well.
- Visually demonstrate the specifics of your GameFi project. Often, the content created by gaming influencers is aimed at demonstrating to a wide audience the gameplay of the overviewed projects and/or their unique mechanics. Thanks to this, your potential users will be able to evaluate the capabilities of your Web3 solution in practice.
- Tell about the earning opportunities for the target audience. Since the GameFi sector often offers its audiences opportunities to earn money through decentralized financial mechanisms along with entertainment, video games influencers can bring you significant benefits by telling their subscribers about how your project's tokenomics works.
- Attract real users through giveaways. Distribution of tokens is a fairly typical event for beginner GameFi projects. In turn, influencers can be the people who announce an upcoming giveaway (the prize of which will be, for example, early access to the game) and/or distribute in-game currency for free, as part of their advertising campaigns to encourage new audiences to the project.
- Bring new users to the community through interactive campaigns. Live broadcasts, which many gaming bloggers regularly resort to on Twitch, YouTube, and a number of decentralized streaming platforms, can launch a multiplayer game mode or demonstrate the gameplay that can be controlled by the viewers themselves (for example, for a donation). This will allow them to experience the game mechanics first-hand, thus, increasing their desire to play a specific game on their own after the public session.
- Organize AMA sessions with GameFi developers. Some bloggers specialize in the interview format, which can give GameFi projects a great chance to present themselves in a favorable light to the audience, as well as personally talk about the possibilities of in-game investments and the potential for their return on investment.
- Become a character in the Metaverse. If you managed to organize cooperation with gaming influencers on Instagram, Twitch, or YouTube with multi-million audiences, perhaps you can integrate them into your metaverse as game characters, and, thus, attract their fans to your project.
- Explain the possibilities of secondary markets. Finally, game influencers can demonstrate how to buy, sell, and trade in-game tokens on secondary markets, thus revealing the potential for financial gain for potential players.
Conclusion
We hope that our list of popular gaming creators will help you choose the right one to promote your GameFi project and determine what exactly your video game influencer marketing strategy will be. Also, if you want to gain access to a large pool of influencers and get the most out of every cent invested, contact Coinband, and we will offer you a comprehensive marketing plan for your project.
FAQs
Who is a game influencer?
A gaming influencer is a creator of video content, typically posted on video streaming platforms like Twitch, Instagram, or YouTube. The primary focus of gaming influencers is creating video game reviews, live streams, or discussions of gaming news and trends.
Who are the top gaming influencers right now?
If we were limited only to thirteen top gaming influencers, they would be PewDiePie, Ninja, Pokimane, Dr DisRespect, Shroud, Markiplier, Jacksepticeye, DanTDM, Sykkuno, Valkyrae, Alex Becker, Kieran Warwick, and Brycent.
What are the most popular platforms for gaming content creators?
The most popular platforms where video game content creators live are YouTube, Twitch, and Instagram. All of them have extensive monetization opportunities and, thus, allow influencers to turn the creation of video game content into their main source of income.
How can video game companies benefit from influencer marketing?
Nowadays, influencer marketing is considered one of the most effective types of marketing in general, not only in the Web3 space. Sometimes even its independent use, without other types of promotion, can bring excellent results, but for greater guarantees, it is still worth building a comprehensive marketing strategy.
What are the potential drawbacks of influencer marketing in the gaming industry?
Influencer marketing, despite its obvious effectiveness in the gaming industry, can have a number of disadvantages, such as reaching the wrong target audience, high cost, lack of genuine interest from influencers, reputational risks (associated with the low authority of the influencer himself), short-term attention span, and poor quality of marketing strategy implementation.
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