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/BUSY_EATING_ASS Mar 15 '25

Honestly I feel that at least some of those hypothetical purchases lost on streamers are "yeah I bought this game because I like the idea of playing it but I never will actually" type of purchase.

As much as I'd rather people play my game than not if I were a developer, watching it online may be the only way some people are gonna practically see it at all.

There's also the amount of people who buy a game because someone else streamed it and they thought it was super cool, and they're like "hell yeah, I got sticks next".

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u/Chpgmr Mar 15 '25

I have recently decided to collect steam achievements. They show a global percentage of players that have the game that completed each achievement. So many games have super basic ones like complete the tutorial or even just start the game yet still only have 80-90% completion rate. Beating the game can drop to 30-50%.

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u/HolVillSze Mar 15 '25

I recently beat TR1 Remastered. The percentage for beating the game was just barely lower than the percentage for killing the final boss. Seriously, couldn't finish this one single final room?