There are many types of gaming and even more types of gamer. But one clear hub has emerged for games and gamers of every kind: as the industry seeks new avenues for potential growth, there's a huge opportunity on Discord.

According to the founder of this massively popular community platform, over 90% of Discord’s monthly active users play games - and spend 1.5 billion hours playing every month. It's the hub for millions of gamers who love to chat about what they're playing and get hyped about what's coming next - and as Discord evolves, it’s set to become even more central to the gaming experience.

Meanwhile, after a few tough years, the gaming industry is looking to 2025 as a reset. Here's how Discord will be a key part of any strategy for gaming companies seeking deeper engagement, player loyalty and revenue opportunities.

Discord' s massively expanding user base

Discord’s user base is projected to reach nearly 689 million this year. This ever-growing platform plugs developers directly into an exploding global audience. A majority of these members are gamers in some form, leading Forbes to describe Discord as “a central platform for diverse groups to create safe spaces for social interaction."

Online communities foster deeper player engagement and long-term loyalty. Smart gaming companies will build dedicated spaces where players can connect, share experiences and form lasting relationships, giving players a deep sense of belonging that enhances the overall gaming experience - and keeps them coming back.

Gaming in Discord itself

From Discord’s foundations as a messaging app, it's evolved into an even more wide-ranging and versatile meeting point for audiences. Discord offers video and voice chat, content sharing, powerful security and moderation features, in-depth data analytics and automation - and now, gaming within Discord itself. Which means your members can socialise and play in the same place.

The new gaming features are called Discord Activities. You can build games, launch them, get discovered by members, and even monetise your games. Gaming companies and other brands can tap into a ready-made audience of fans and offer them a streamlined and immersive social gaming experience, fostering a more engaged community (without any need for external downloads).

And it’s worth knowing for brands in any vertical: as well as games, Activities can be music experiences, consumer apps or really any kind of interactive experience.

There's an SDK, you can monetise in-app purchases and your game is promoted through Discord’s social discovery to spread the word through viral word-of-mouth across many servers. On top of that, because the game and the conversation about the game is in the same place, developers can gather user feedback directly on Discord - and innovate accordingly.

To show what's possible, Discord highlights the story of Playroom's multiplayer game Death by AI. Talking to players directly, the studio quickly learned which features and fixes to prioritise, optimised the game in requested languages, introduced new prompt packs and implemented in-app purchases. The game hooked nearly 7 million players and scored over 1 million hours of gameplay in weeks.

Discord's new advertising opportunities

Discord offers a choice of innovative advertising formats for gaming companies. Known as Game Quests and Video Quests, these promotional formats are a huge leap ahead of traditional advertising. With trailers, video ads and online advertising, players watch (or skip) and then move on. But Discord’s interactive Game Quests and Video Quests have an element of ‘playability’ in themselves.

They incentivise engagement by rewarding members with bonuses like in-game skins and profile enhancements in return for watching ads or trying out new games.

You can target campaigns by age, geography, and the games a member has played. Quests are a smart way of reaching gamers without harming their user experience: digitally savvy gamers can smell fakeness, but are receptive to advertising and branding that's integrated into the gaming ecosystem in a non-intrusive manner.

Activision Blizzard and Epic Games are among the companies launching Quests on Discord for huge titles including World of Warcraft and Fortnite. They've seen the potential for driving revenue and boosting game adoption in a way that gamers embrace.

Personalised experiences with AI

The integration of AI within Discord is already taking members way beyond chat conversations. Discord is the home for much-talked-about AI image generator Midjourney, and AI apps allow members to do things like learning new languages by having conversations with an AI bot right there in Discord.

For gaming companies, a big use case for AI is the ability to deliver personalised user experiences for each player, based on their gameplay and preferences. Bots and NPCs can chat to each player in natural language, and AI can instantly analyse a member’s data to offer customised content, support and recommendations. Each and every player enjoys their own dynamic and unique experience.

Cross-platform integration

Discord’s support across PC, mobile and consoles means that gaming companies can connect with players anywhere, anytime. It's more than just chatting about games before and after playing: features like voice chat and streaming are integrated with major platforms including PlayStation and Xbox, while Twitch streamers can chat and stream with subscribers in Discord. According to Discord founder Jason Citron, 80% of players on Discord communicate over voice while gaming, with 31% of those players streaming games to others.

That adds up to over 12.5 million hours streamed and over 15.8M hours of viewed streams every month. Players are part of the conversation even while they're busy playing - no matter where and how they play.

Don't get lost in Discord noise

Gaming developers, studios and brands can tap into Discord’s exploding user base, integrated games, innovative advertising and cross-platform features to build stronger communities, and drive long-term success.

At Levellr, we work with a range of clients, helping you drive tangible marketing ROI and monetisation value through meaningful emotional connection with fans. Levellr’s AI-driven platform helps executives turn fragmented community conversations into actionable insights, enabling teams to identify trends, track sentiment, and make data-backed decisions faster.

Contact Levellr today to discover how you can tap into the Discord opportunity to foster fan engagement, drive ROI and strengthen player loyalty.