Over 80% of players using creator codes are new to the platform; influence overwhelmingly concentrated on top creators.
Game codes distributed by content creators to their community have been found to drive substantial additional revenue for game storefronts, as per recent research conducted by Tebex. The study analyzed over 1.5 million creator-backed transactions by 635,000 players across a little over two years, revealing that 80.4% of players using creator codes did so on their initial purchase, with half completing the purchase on the same day they joined the platform. Tebex asserts that this demonstrates creators' direct impact on generating new business rather than diverting sales that would have occurred anyway.
The research also highlighted that creator-issued codes led to significantly higher spending, with the average mobile webstore basket value increasing by 93% when a creator code was applied, rising from $27 to $52. However, this impact was primarily driven by top-tier creators. The top 100 creators, representing just 1.6% of the total creator count, accounted for 75.9% of the total gross merchandise value (GMV) of all the games examined. The study challenged the notion that numerous micro-influencers could surpass a few larger ones, emphasizing the dominance of smaller 'long-tail' creators in specific geographic markets, offering benefits like community engagement and localized content for game operators.
The study also revealed that 87.4% of players exclusively used one creator's code, indicating a strong sense of loyalty and support rather than a focus on discounts to drive sales. Additionally, half of the codes analyzed did not provide any discount, further supporting the idea of codes as a way for players to show allegiance to a creator. The report noted that the creator ecosystem was most advanced in Minecraft, where creators contributed to almost 30% of the total GMV on the platform. In contrast, the GTA 5 roleplay platform FiveM, owned by Rockstar, presented a significant opportunity gap, with creators responsible for only 3.9% of the total GMV of $366.9M. FiveM was identified as a prominent, high-value opportunity in the current gaming landscape.
