Plug into #GamingTwitter: Tips and insights for brands
Twitter is home to an extensive and highly-engaged #Gamer community. There were over 2.4 billion gaming-related Tweets in 2021 – a 14% year-on-year increase, and 10X the number of Tweets in 2017.1 It’s clear the gaming industry on Twitter is growing and won’t be slowing down any time soon.
There are 70 #Gaming Tweets per second on Twitter.2 Yes, you read that right. And, Q4 of 2021 was the biggest quarter ever for gaming conversation on Twitter.3
How can your brand tap into this leaned-in audience and make sure it’s part of the conversation?
We’ve got insights into the #GamingTwitter audience, lots of tips to connect with this community, and best practices on how to launch a new game and promote your brand.
Who is the Twitter #Gamer audience?
The #Gaming community on Twitter is passionate, highly active, and playful. That last one is a pun, but it’s also true.
The #GamingTwitter audience is:4
72% male, 28% female
36% are aged 18-24
31% are aged 25-34
While the audience is predominantly male, 2021 saw a +31% increase in gaming Tweets from women.5 The countries Tweeting the most about #Gaming includes Japan, the US, South Korea, Brazil, Thailand, the Philippines, India, the UK, France, and Spain.6
What are they talking about?
The discussions and interests in the #Gamer community are diverse – which is great news for brands because it means there are countless opportunities to connect. Big themes in the #Gaming community on Twitter include:
Nostalgia and retro gaming
Gaming influencers and live streaming
Gaming news and launches
Gamers have high-affinity scores with other topics such as food, fashion, beauty, and TV.7
@GamerGlamCosmtx is a cosmetics brand that creates products inspired by video games, highlighting the affinity between gaming and beauty.
Make the most of this by collaborating with brands from these industries or leveraging an event or product from the same, to give your followers amplified experiences with your business.
How can gaming brands best use Twitter?
To connect to the conversation
Brands use Twitter to connect with what’s happening and build cultural relevance by doing so. We’ve found there’s a 73% correlation between a brand’s cultural relevance and its revenue8, so connecting to what’s happening isn’t something to take for granted.
@BulletVilleGame connects to Valentine’s Day while driving cultural relevance.
To listen to the community
Social listening is a highly valuable tool, and considering people flock to Twitter to take part in conversations and have their voices heard, there’s no better place for brands to listen.
What are people saying about your game specifically, or even about the genre of your game? Any feedback you hear on Twitter can be relayed back to your engineers to continuously improve and update your game.
To launch something new
People on Twitter like to be the first to try new things and are more likely to be the first to buy new products.9 That’s what makes it such a good place to launch something new. It doesn’t matter what you want to launch – Twitter can help you build awareness, drive conversation, and connect you with the right audience.
@AmongUsGame launches an update to their game and gets fans hyped about it.
Top tip: Twitter’s Trend Takeover and Trend Takeover+ products will ensure increased reach when launching a new game. These premium products put your ad alongside what’s trending and where conversations start – the Explore Tab. Takeovers help brands to connect with what’s happening by maximizing discovery, building relevance, and securing a place next to what you know will be trending that day.
To learn more about Twitter Takeover products, contact our Twitter Ads specialists.
Tips for a successful game launch on Twitter
To successfully launch a new game, app, or special promotion, take a look at our launch guidelines and best practices.
Below we’ve also got some game launch tips based on learnings from past brand campaigns:
Start your campaign at least two weeks prior to the launch
Tease your followers by releasing an image, short video snippet, or a release date to build anticipation and curiosity
Don’t make any campaign modifications during the learning period – within the first four days post-launch
Target numerous different audience segments for the launch so you can learn which segment is best-performing
- Run frequent ad creative refreshes – up to five refreshes up to 30 days post-launch
- Use a mix of ad formats throughout the campaign – we’ve found that using three or more ad formats increases campaign awareness by 20% and purchase intent by 7%.10
Tips for gaming brands on Twitter
Use video in your Tweets
The gaming world is inherently visual and graphics-focused, so incorporate the same in your Tweets. And based on our 2020 average, 71% of Twitter sessions now involve video.11 Create Video Ads or Carousel Ads with video assets to leverage this passion for video on Twitter.
@TokenLands uses video in their Tweet to explain a new function recently added to their game.
Introduce the world to your characters
Whether it’s part of a launch of a new game, or simply a way to recreate buzz, you can use Twitter to share your characters with the world.
@lostsailorsNFT introduces a character from their NFT-based game.
Top tip: Carousel Ads are a great way to introduce multiple characters because you can include a maximum of six images or videos all within a single ad.
Tweet reviews of your games
Retweet or Tweet reviews of your game to help build brand trust and affinity. Encourage your followers to engage with the reviews, and extend your reach outside your own followers by using hashtags like #GamingCommunity in your Tweets.
@PlanetofLana shares a review of their game by the gaming news site, Gameranx.
Create a support page for your customers
Creating a dedicated customer support page is a great way to give your followers an easier, more streamlined customer experience. Just be sure the account is monitored well so that your followers are responded to in good time.
Interact with fans
There’s an active community of artists on Twitter who create fan-made art of their favorite games on a daily basis, so Liking, Quote Tweeting, and replying to them shows your followers that you value their fandom – which helps build brand loyalty.
@CompulsionGames shares fan art created for the third anniversary of one of their games.
Take a look at our 2022 Trends Report to read more insights about fan culture on Twitter and how brands can connect to this.
Host a Twitter Space
Twitter Spaces provides a space for people and brands to engage in real-time, audio conversations together. Spaces offers people the unique opportunity to interact with brands, industry leaders and experts, influencers, and celebrities – while also allowing brands to interact with their followers in an authentic way.
@reelsofchange hosts a Twitter Space to discuss gaming in the public blockchain platform, Solana.
Some ideas you could host your own Twitter Space for include:
- Before a big gaming event to leverage the excitement for it. Or, if it’s an event your brand is running, to build more buzz ahead of the big day.
- Discussions with industry professionals. Gaming fans would love to hear from and interact with professionals or employees from your brand. Think deep dives into topics that have been causing a lot of conversation in the community.
Professional game streamer, @KRNGStallion, asks his followers what they’d like to see in his recurring Twitter Space.
Here are some tips to make sure your Twitter Space is a success.
Run contests and promotions
Everyone enjoys the chance to win a prize, and it’s a great way to drive traffic to your account or website, increase your reach, and generate excitement for your followers.
@UniXGamingGuild runs a contest for their followers in collaboration with blockchain game @The_Delysium.
Harness the power of live streaming and influencers
Twitter is a complementary platform to most major streaming services, so brands can reach more gamers using Twitter alongside a streaming service than on a streaming service alone.
In a Sparkler survey, 73% of gamers admitted to checking Twitter while streaming esports and gaming12 – they use it as a way of seeing what others are saying about the latest gaming news.
Streamers are leading the charge on #GamingTwitter – they’re creating a buzz, and opening the door for others to join the conversation online. They can boost awareness of your brand. Twitter Live is the perfect way to collaborate with an influencer and live stream them playing your game.
These tips will help you plug in and connect to #GamingTwitter, so your brand can level up.
Launch your campaign today.
1. Source: Twitter Internal data Jan 1-December 15 2021. Retrieved December 2021.
2. Source: Twitter Internal data (semantic core) Tweet volume, June 20th 2020 - June 20 2021. Global.
3. Source: Twitter Internal data Jan 1-December 15 2021. Retrieved December 2021.
4. Source: Twitter internal data, global data. Time Frame: 1/1/21-1/1/22. Data retrieved February 2022.
5. Source: Twitter internal data, global, age and gender outputs based on statistical modeling (2021). Data from June 20, 2019 - June 20, 2020 compared to June 20, 2020 - June 20, 2021.
6. Source: Twitter Internal data Jan-June 2022. Global.
7. Source: Twitter Internal data (semantic core) Tweet volume, September 1st 2021 - March 1st 2022. Global. A high affinity score indicates that the audience over-indexes when it comes to their interest in a separate topic, such as sport, food, or fashion. Over-indexing signals how much more likely the audience is to exhibit a particular trait or behavior, such as engaging in conversations on those those topics. See https://gwihelpcenter.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/4404468207762
8. Source: Kantar & Twitter Brand Cultural Relevance Research, commissioned by Twitter, US, Nationally representative sample, 100 US brands tested, Dec 2019. Methodology: Twitter ran a correlation analysis to look at the relationship between the relative movement of spend on Twitter and cultural relevance (as scored by our survey). The model included the 100 brands tested. The output of that model was the correlation coefficient (which is a measure of strength of the relationship between the two sets of variables) of .73 (or 73%). The possible value ranges for a correlation coefficient are between -1.0 and 1.0.
9. Source: Kantar, “News Discovery & Influence on Twitter”, Global, December 2017. Monthly Twitter Global users (n=17,138), Online Global population (n= 34, 535). | How we know: Kantar News, Discovery & Influence on Twitter ; December 2017 ; US ; 787 Monthly Twitter US users & 1503 Online US population Source : Kantar Millward Brown, 2017
10. Source: Nielsen Brand Effect (US/UK/JP/CA), Q3 2015 - Q3 2018 Connect campaigns. Comparison is v. 1 ad format alone.
11. Twitter Internal, January 2021, Global. Data reflects 2020 yearly average.
12. Source: Sparkler, commissioned by Twitter, Premium Video Consumption Behaviors, January 2021, USA. Q28) Thinking about [PLATFORM] in relation to when you’re actively streaming/ watching content (i.e. watching a video), how much do you agree or disagree with the following statements? Statement: "Likely to check [platform] while streaming esports/gaming to see what other people are saying".
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