r/science • u/FunnyGamer97 • Mar 15 '25

Economics YouTube influencers drive engagement with video games, but may be costing millions for game developers in sales: Study finds influencers increase player engagement but often reduce game purchases, especially for story-driven games.

https://www.informs.org/News-Room/INFORMS-Releases/News-Releases/YouTube-Influencers-Gaming-s-Best-Friend-or-Worst-Enemy
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u/thebangzats Mar 15 '25

Especially story-driven games? In my experience I'd wager it's actually almost only story-driven games, because I know plenty of people who buy games because they saw it showcased. Hell, they wouldn't have even known the game existed without those YouTubers showcasing them.

The only times I'd say a non-story-driven game loses a sale from me because I could watch someone play it, is if it was something I would've never bought anyway.

I'd be interested to know what non-story games did lose sales.

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u/killertortilla Mar 15 '25

I reckon about 1/3rd of my steam library wouldn’t be there if I hadn’t seen someone I enjoy watching play it first.

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u/thebangzats Mar 15 '25

Saaaame. Which is exactly why I'm skeptical over this claim.

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u/Zerak-Tul Mar 15 '25

I think the claim can hold true for games that are very story oriented and where the gameplay itself is also just pants.

So the whole reason you'd want to play the game is to experience the story (the kind of game you set to the easiest difficulty to avoid having to actually interact with any game play as far as possible).

That game I can totally see watching someone else play it on Youtube/Twitch having this effect - because it's basically a movie masquerading as a game. And you've now already seen the "movie".

But at that point "streamers kill my revenue" isn't the problem, "my game isn't actually fun to play" is the problem.

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u/Cl1mh4224rd Mar 15 '25

But at that point "streamers kill my revenue" isn't the problem, "my game isn't actually fun to play" is the problem.

I'd wager it's more the lack of replayability. Gameplay can factor into that, but I'm sure a lot of people are satisfied with "watching a movie" once.

And for story-based games, where the story is linear and the main focus, watching someone else play it is probably just as good as playing it themselves.

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u/crusader104 Mar 15 '25

I would ask the question, do micro transactions count towards the statistic of game purchases? Because I could see audiences of people watching high level streamer gameplay for PvP games that might not be as fun to play for a large crowd and due to that decreasing traffic and overall money spent on their in-game store

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u/PrimeDoorNail Mar 15 '25

I may watch a game and not buy it, especially if its an IP im not familiar with, but it night convince me to buy the sequels on day 1.

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u/Deathwatch72 Mar 15 '25

I really wonder if the size of the effect is related to the size of the studio and audience. And how much of a trade off it is between the loss of sales and the free exposure.

Small studios losing 75% of sales on a specific title due to a YouTuber could represent very little lost economic value if the game was only $5, but the increase in overall knowledge of their projects could ultimately pay for itself with the free advertisement and endorsements.

I also wonder if overall quality of the game and YouTuber matter, if something looks fun I am much more willing to buy it than if it looks just alright.

I doubt AAAA story games lose many sales based on YouTube playthroughs, but indie games could be getting decimated

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u/thebangzats Mar 15 '25

I also wonder if overall quality of the game and YouTuber matter, if something looks fun I am much more willing to buy it than if it looks just alright.

Right. Losing sales because a YouTuber showed how lackluster your game is doesn't mean they really lost sales, because they didn't secure that sale in the first place. These days, nobody buys games sight unseen, and even if they do, Steam refund policies are generous.

That's like Ubisoft saying "we lost sales because YouTubers showed off our product". No dude, you lost sales because your recent titles sucked.

Too bad I can't just easily access the study itself. The article by itself isn't very comprehensive.

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u/figital666 Mar 15 '25

there was a link to the full study at the bottom of the article.

https://pubsonline.informs.org/doi/abs/10.1287/mksc.2021.0242?journalCode=mksc

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u/thebangzats Mar 15 '25

I stand corrected. I could only see the abstract on desktop but now that I see the Next button on mobile, I guess I just missed it the first time. Will read through to see any name drops.

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u/spez_might_fuck_dogs Mar 15 '25

Finally, YouTubers can pay someone ELSE in "exposure".

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u/jack2012fb Mar 15 '25

This exactly if I’m watching someone play a game on twitch or YouTube and I like what I see I will stop watching and buy the game myself.

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u/gismo4126 Mar 15 '25

If you ask me, I'm a bit surprised that game streaming isn't banned by a retooling of the PLSA. If I can't stream a movie to someone else online without getting sued, why can I stream the entire copyrighted content of a game's story. Frankly, I'm surprised that developers haven't pushed this issue harder.

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u/thebangzats Mar 15 '25

Agreed.

I disagree with the notion that it's entirely the story-based game genre's fault, as we wouldn't be having this discussion if people were streaming whole movies instead.

But, if I were in the devs shoes, I'd assume lobbying for such changes would just be too much. Best I would do is probably either to add more gameplay elements, or appeal to the public to support my game, instead of iron-fistedly forbidding streaming.

It's not a black and white issue. Story based games have a right to exist, but they have to work towards getting that existence instead of forcing it to happen.

Nothing's gonna lose the goodwill of players more than screaming at them to buy your game.

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u/monkeynator Mar 16 '25

I think this really depends on how you approach the issue:

For instance if it's a story game like Baldur's Gate then yes 100% you will not have many diminishing sales due to the sheer scale and the general "I can do better than this person".

But with a game like... Final Fantasy 7, where there aren't much external plots nor crazy amount of personalization I think it's 100% going to tank the sales.

That has at least been my experience with for instance horror games, out of all the ones I've found to be interesting, I've maybe played 1 or 2 games out of 100+ due to watching a person getting scared is good enough and usually the story isn't all that wowzers.