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YouTube bloggers are changing the gaming industry in unexpected ways. A new study in the journal Marketing Science reveals an interesting situation: while they can significantly increase engagement with video games, developers can lose millions of dollars due to lower sales.
The study «Opposing Influences of YouTube Influencers: Effects on Purchase and Usage in the Video Game Industry» is the first to provide causal evidence of the impact of influencer marketing on the gaming industry. The researchers found that while video game content on YouTube increases play time, it can also reduce sales — especially for story-driven games. The point is that viewers can fully experience the story by simply watching a walkthrough. We are talking about the term «play through a game on YouTube»
After analyzing a huge amount of data from Steam, researchers found a double effect: YouTube vloggers contribute to increased play time and engagement, but at the same time, their content can negatively impact sales.
«YouTube content about video games is both a blessing and a curse,» says Nan Li, lead author of the study and a professor at Tongji University. «It can make a game a viral sensation, but in some cases, especially with story-driven games, people prefer to just watch the walkthrough rather than buy it. This is a serious challenge for developers.»
The researchers took advantage of a unique moment in YouTube’s history, the so-called Adpocalypse, when sudden changes in the platform’s advertising policy forced vloggers to postpone publishing their videos. This gave the researchers a rare opportunity to assess the impact of influencer content on sales and engagement without the typical factors that could distort the results.
«Most studies of influencers cannot clearly distinguish between cause and effect,» says Avery Haviv, a professor at the University of Rochester’s Simon School of Business. «But this period in YouTube’s history created a natural experiment that allowed us to really assess the impact of gaming videos. The results were very unexpected.»
The study’s findings explain why companies still can’t agree on influencer marketing. Games that are designed for long-term engagement (such as Minecraft or Fortnite) benefit from YouTube popularity. However, games that involve one-time purchases (e.g., story-driven RPGs) may lose revenue if bloggers post full walkthroughs.
«It’s clear that the one-size-fits-all approach to marketing no longer works in the gaming industry,» Li says. «For games that make money from in-game purchases, influencer content — is free advertising. But for one-time purchases, developers should think carefully about their strategy.»
Given that video game content accounts for one-third of all YouTube traffic and gaming influencers generate billions of views, the study draws an important conclusion: influencer marketing is a powerful tool, but it is not always profitable.
Source: techxplore