Gaming influencers drive higher, deeper, cross-channel engagement than normal influencers.
Influencers now drive Gen Z purchase decisions more than celebrities (36% vs. 24%). And nearly half of Gen Z (44%) say they’ve bought something because of influencer marketing.
But how do you identify the right talent quickly? Especially when a smart influencer strategy can be the difference between a marketing flop and a campaign that resonates deeply with Gen Z.
By the end of this article, you’ll know exactly how to:
- Find and select the right gaming influencers to promote your brand.
- Build authentic campaigns that feel native to gaming culture.
- Measure influencer marketing success.
Let’s dive in. 👇
What is influencer marketing?
Influencer marketing is a form of social media marketing where brands collaborate with creators who have built trust and authority with specific audiences. These can range from casual creators to esports celebrities. Influencers often use their platforms to promote products in a way that feels authentic to their followers.
In 2025, influencer marketing is set to be a $33 billion global industry. Nearly 86% of consumers say they make a purchase based on influencer content at least once a year.
In gaming? That influence is even more powerful.
Why use gaming influencers?
Here are six reasons to include gaming creators in your marketing strategy:
1. Meet Gen Z where they are
Gen Z now spends more time on Fortnite and Roblox combined than YouTube and TikTok. Gaming is the cultural hub, and creators are the gatekeepers. Partnering with influencers allows you to get your brand in front of their audience in a non-disruptive way that builds brand loyalty. Gaming influencers allow brands to speak the language of gaming authentically, not as outsiders.
2. Gaming influencers have higher engagement
Gaming influencer audiences are more engaged than the average influencer’s audience. This is the case regardless of whether you’re talking about micro or mega influencers. It also remains true even when you look at different platforms, like Instagram or YouTube.
3. Gaming influencers have deeper, cross-channel touchpoints.
Beyond reach, gaming influencers offer deeper engagement. Their audiences connect with them across multiple platforms and content formats, creating more touchpoints and stronger loyalty than traditional influencers.
Take Gucci’s collaboration with Pokimane: she didn’t just mention the brand once. She live-streamed about it, shared behind-the-scenes moments on Instagram Stories, posted a branded image to her feed, and tweeted about the event.
Gaming influencers can turn one partnership into a multi-platform narrative.
4. Making your game go viral
From Twitch streams to free UGC posts on TikTok, gaming creators are the engine behind viral game success. Whether it’s UGC built in Fortnite or a Roblox experience launch, creators make your brand’s activation discoverable and culturally relevant.
5. Precise audience targeting
Gaming platforms are global, but influencers offer precision. Creators have niche, loyal communities. For example, want to reach Gen Z girls who love cozy sims like Animal Crossing? There’s a creator for that. Partnering with them would drive more qualified traffic to your brand’s activation or page, making your campaign more cost-effective.
6. Boost awareness, loyalty, and conversions
Gaming content is extremely popular, with three trillion TikTok views and 100 billion hours watched on YouTube annually. But creators unlock more than impressions. They unlock recall, conversions, and trust. In fact, 45% of Gen Z are more inclined to buy from influencers over celebrities or friends.
Types of gaming influencers
Gaming creators are more than just players. They’re hosts, athletes, entrepreneurs, even musicians. At GEEIQ, we like to break them into five types:
- Lifestyle gamers – Personality-led creators who blend gaming with fashion, fitness, or day-in-the-life content.
- Gaming influencers – Game-specific creators who are spokespeople for their communities.
- Pro gamers – Competitive professional gamers known for their skill, usually associated with an esports team.
- Virtual influencers – Computer-generated creators who are avatar-led. This is especially popular in Asia.
- UGC creators – Builders of user-generated games, items, and virtual goods on platforms like Roblox and Fortnite.
Quick tips for a successful gaming influencer campaign
It’s not a one-size-fits-all. But there are certain things you can do to boost your campaign’s success:
- Prioritize authenticity and audience alignment, not just follower count.
- Use clear but flexible briefs.
- Set measurable goals and KPIs.
- Choose influencers with the right platform and audience makeup.
Influencer marketing strategies to avoid
Don’t:
- Work with creators who don’t align with your brand values.
- Micromanage content creation or scripting.
- Focus on vanity metrics, like follower count.
- Skip briefing or give unclear deliverables.
What types of influencer collaborations are there?
Here are a few types of influencer collaborations brands often leverage:
- Event coverage – Livestreams or BTS (Behind The Scenes) from virtual activations.
- Gifting – Seeding product for organic shoutouts (e.g. Coach Tabby bags).
- Video – Sponsored tutorials, reviews, or Let’s Plays.
- Giveaways – To drive engagement and lead-gen.
- Takeovers – Letting a creator run your brand’s social for a day.
- Signal boosting – Reacting to or resharing branded content.
5 steps to finding great gaming influencers
Salma Diaz Gil, who has crafted virtual strategies for brands like L’Oréal Paris, Maybelline, and NYX, elaborates on how to find the best gaming influencers for your brand.
1. Define your audience and goals
Start by locking in who you want to reach. Age, gender, geography, preferred platform, tone of voice – all of it matters. You want to reach the right audience and avoid wasting spend on unqualified traffic.
Brands like Coach and Walmart use precise influencer filtering tools, like GEEIQ’s Influencer Planner, to filter by brand affinity, language spoken, and gaming focus.
It’s also worth deciding whether your goal is to drive engagement, awareness, or conversion. These considerations will impact the CTAs your influencer leverages and what type of influencer you should work with. For example, if you want to increase brand awareness, your influencer content should focus on driving visits to a Roblox activation, not on driving them to a website.
2. Qualify gaming influencers using data (not just vibes)
Once you’ve filtered by your target audience, dig deeper to fully understand your influencer shortlist. Make sure to consider details like:
- Engagement rate
- Brand affinity
- Previous brand collaborations
- Brand safety
For example, using GEEIQ’s Influencer Planner, NASCAR running a Fortnite campaign might filter for:
- English-speaking creators
- 500K+ followers
- US-based, aged 18-24
- High female ratio
- Child-friendly
Leveraging gaming influencer data platforms, you can make sure you find the right gaming influencers for your campaign.
3. Create clear briefs for authenticity
One of the biggest drivers of campaign success is how well the brand fits into the creator’s existing content and community. That means doing your homework: review the creator’s past work, understand the games they play, and think about how your brand can genuinely add value to their audience.
Ben Jeffries, CEO of Influencer, explains it well:
“It’s about being authentic in terms of this is a product I would use, this is a product I’d want my followers to use.”
Authenticity is only possible if your brief is clear and flexible.
Your brief should provide structure, not control. Here are a few tips to remember:
- Provide clear deliverables
- Establish goals as early as possible
- Outline the creative vision
- Provide key messaging
- Provide context around the campaign
- Make the brief bespoke
- Provide dos and dont’s
- Keep it simple
- Allow creative freedom
Remember: your brand must add value to the creator’s audience. Simply showing up on a channel isn’t enough. You need to show up in a way that feels native, valuable, and worth sharing.
4. Set a budget, goals, and KPIs
The best brands treat influencer marketing like a performance channel. Plan to:
- Test formats (e.g. TikTok vs YouTube Shorts).
- Set baseline metrics (Reach, CTR, engagement, CPA).
- Track and refine your strategy by creator and content type.
You should also have a rough idea of how much you want to spend across the campaign. A few example costs might be:
- Nano: $100–250
- Micro: $500–5k
- Macro: $5k–10k
- Mega: $10k+
5. Combine organic and paid
Gaming influencer strategy is most effective when organic reach is supported by paid media. The winning formula:
- Organic brand content builds credibility.
- Influencer engagement builds attention.
- Paid retargeting drives conversion.
3 brands winning with gaming influencers
1. Walmart on Roblox
In April 2024, GEEIQ partner Walmart became the first brand to ever sell real-world products on Roblox. The brand launched three different items, each created by a popular UGC creator. This included:
- Radiant Headphones by MD17_RBLX
- Fantastical Flower Bag by Sarabxlla
- Sparkly Golden Tumbler by Junozy
Walmart Discovered now has 35m visits on Roblox since it was launched in September 2023. It’s the most visited Retail experience on the platform of all time.
Much of that success comes down to the brand’s collaboration with platform-native UGC creators. After all, 30% of Roblox players want to see brand collaborations with native community creators.
2. Coach on Roblox and ZEPETO
Leveraging the GEEIQ platform, Coach identified and collaborated with iconic Roblox influencers, like iBella and Lana’s Life. Creators received free Tabby bags and comp cards that featured their avatars. The brand paired this with Tabby bag giveaways, linking virtual and physical brand engagement. A sentiment analysis from the GEEIQ team found that 100% of social media sentiment surrounding the activation was positive or neutral.
3. E.L.F. Beauty x Loserfruit
E.L.F. took a long-term approach to gaming influencer marketing by partnering with Loserfruit, one of Australia’s top gaming creators. Since 2020, the collaboration has included channel hosting, product launches, and a variety of sponsored content, from ‘Get Ready With Me’ videos to giveaways. This consistent, authentic presence has helped E.L.F. build real community rapport, especially with Loserfruit’s highly relevant audience: 65% Gen Z and 16% female.
Key takeaways
Gaming influencer marketing works, but only when it’s strategic. Here’s what matters most:
- There’s no one-size-fits-all creator – Your ideal influencer depends on your audience, goals, and platform. Make sure to tailor your campaign around that.
- Audience alignment beats follower count – Choosing creators whose followers match your target demo drives better engagement and avoids wasted spend.
- Clear briefs lead to better content. Giving creators structure and freedom results in more authentic, higher-performing posts.
- Data should guide every decision. Metrics like engagement rate, audience breakdown, and brand safety are key to finding the right fit.
- Organic + paid = performance. The most effective campaigns combine influencer trust with paid amplification to drive conversions.
