The best friend of games or the worst enemy?

YouTube influencers form the game industry in unexpected ways, and New study In the magazine Marketing science It discovers the amazing truth: Although the influencers can lead a tremendous association with video games, they may also assign gaming developers millions of lost sales.

The study provides, “The effects of YouTube effects: the effects of purchase and use in the video game industry”, the first causal guide on how to influence the influencing games on games. The researchers have found that although YouTube games content increases the time of play, it may also inhibit the purchases-especially for the narration-based games that viewers can experience the full story by watching Playthroughs.

More views, more playing time – but fewer sales?

Using comprehensive data from STEAM, the largest PC game platform in the world, researchers discovered a double -border sword: YouTube influencers pay more participation with YouTube and longer playing time, but their content can already harm the game sales.

“The content of YouTube games is a blessing and curse,” says Nan Lee, the main author of the University of Tongji. “The game can turn into a viral feeling, but for some games, especially the story -based games, people may choose to watch instead of buying. This is a big challenge to developers.”

Adpocalypse effect

The researchers took advantage of a unique event in the history of YouTube – known as Adpocalypse – who forced him to advertising policies in YouTube influencing the delay of their downloads. This researchers gave a rare opportunity to study the causal effect of the effect of influential, free from the usual biases.

“Most of the influencing studies can be separated from the cause and the result,” says Affiri Haviev, a professor at Simon Business College at Rochester University. “But this moment in the history of YouTube gave us a natural experience to measure the real effect of gaming videos on sales and sharing. The results were open.”

What does this mean for the game industry

The results explain why companies divide into influential marketing. Although the long -term participation games (such as Minecraft or Fortnite) benefit from YouTube, individual purchase games (for example, the story -based RPG) may actually lose revenue when the effects share full gameplay.

“It is clear that the marketing that suits everyone is no longer working in games,” tells me. “For games that earn money from in -game purchases, influencing exposure is a free advertisement. But for games with a single purchase, developers must think twice in their strategies.”

With YouTube games that make up a third of all YouTube traffic, and the effects of games that lead billions of views, this research offers a critical message: strong influential marketing, but it is not always profitable. “For game developers, the question is not whether the influencers are important – whether they are helping or harming the end result,” says Mitch Loft, a professor at Simon Business College at Rochester University. “The answer depends entirely on the business model.”