- The gaming industry is a global powerhouse, generating more than $100 billion in annual revenue. Viewers also spend billions of hours watching gaming content on YouTube and Twitch each year.
- As gaming becomes an essential part of pop culture, the top gaming influencers have become the curators, and brands are willing to pay millions to reach their dedicated audiences.
- Business Insider asked some of the gaming industry's top talent managers for their advice to brands looking to hire influencers for deals and the common mistakes they should avoid.
- Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.
Gaming has become a vital part of pop culture and a $109-billion industry reaching international audiences in ways that rival film, music, and television.
Brands are eager to reach the millions of viewers watching video game content on platforms like YouTube and Twitch, and the world's top professional gamers are earning millions as the curators of an emerging culture.
Business Insider spoke to some of the gaming industry's top talent managers and asked how companies looking to hire gaming influencers can find the right partner and avoid common mistakes as they enter the industry.
Loaded CEO Brandon Freytag's firm manages Tyler "Ninja" Blevins and Michael "Shroud" Grzesiek, two of the most popular gaming influencers who announced multimillion-dollar exclusivity deals with Microsoft's Mixer last year. Freytag said that while a handful of stereotypes about gaming still persist, brands are no longer afraid to embrace gamers as a positive advertising force.
"The power of gaming is largely speaking for itself and most of the negative sentiments which surrounded gaming in its earlier days are fading fast," Freytag said. "Nearly everyone is a gamer today."
With more people playing games than ever, streaming platforms like YouTube and Twitch provide social spaces for gamers to connect over their shared hobby. The top gaming influencers are more than just skilled players - they're entertainers, hosts, and curators.
Brands should let gaming influencers use their direct, interactive connection with their fans as an advantage.
Sue Lee, a Twitch Partner manager who helps execute platform-wide brand deals and works with dozens of creators, said that the relationship between streamers and their audience is an essential part of the product. Potential sponsors can benefit from that interactive connection, rather than just delivering a standard video ad.
"Twitch isn't just about live video," Lee said. "It is a place where fans gather to interact around their favorite creator and become part of dynamic communities that just don't exist elsewhere. The resulting engagement is extraordinary."
And YouTube Partner Manager Jeffrey Greller said gaming influencers won't choose partnerships that could alienate their audience, regardless of the how much the deal offers to pay.
"I have seen creators pass on opportunities that will massively benefit them financially if they sense that it will have a negative impact on their community," Greller said. "That's how important their fan base is to them."
Top Twitch streamer Pokimane has turned down millions on multiple occasions.
In January 2020, Imane "Pokimane" Anys, one of the top streamers on Twitch, said she turned down a $3 million sponsorship - more money than she had in her bank account - simply because it didn't feel genuine.
"I don't have $3 million in my bank account and that's why I'm saying no," Pokimane said on the TeaTime with Reckful podcast. "I said no because I'm doing fine in life, I'm doing well enough to not want to do things for money that I don't naturally want to do, even if it's $3 million."
In March, Pokimane announced that her livestream would remain exclusively on Twitch, and that she'd turned down another large offer to stream on a different platform. Prior to the announcement, she was presumed to be the target of a bidding war between YouTube, Twitch, and Mixer. (Ninja and Shroud will reportedly earn as much as $20 or $30 million from their multi-year exclusivity deals with Mixer.)
Pokimane said her 6-year history with Twitch helped convince her to stay, and she couldn't imagine streaming without Twitch's chat feature, which offers more interactivity than its competitors.
"Gaming creators also differ in that they livestream many hours of their lives and develop very high-touch, personal connections to their fans," said Hana Tjia, who represents Pokimane for UTA. "They have a lot of creative control over the content they provide and much of their work happens in the comfort of their own homes, on their own schedules."
Tija also said understanding industry lingo is a key to connecting with gaming talent.
Don't chase big names - brands should look for gaming influencers with a style that matches their own.
The managers recommended that sponsors and advertisers prioritize influencers who match their brand, rather than pursuing the biggest names.
Many of the gaming industry's top creators are self producing dozens of hours of video a week, and their audiences still demand authenticity from their sponsored content. Rumble Gaming President Evan Kubes represents some of North America's largest esports names and works to help brands enter the industry, but acknowledged that gaming fans can be defensive with incoming sponsors.
"Esports is very much gate kept, and by that I mean it's very protective against outsiders," Kubes said. "That's why you see a lot of brands come into the space inauthentically and get absolutely destroyed by the community. They're very protective and it really makes it easy, from a vetting perspective, to see which brands are successful and which ones aren't."
