EA's Discord-Powered Community Engagement Strategy Drives Record-Breaking Results

I continue to feel that Discord is one of the richest untapped distribution channels. And they're building against that. Happy to see the platform leaning into its potential for combining social and discovery. People are already there talking about games, they should also be discovering them. They could also be playing games within Discord. I expect to see a lot more of this!

93% of game studios can't predict if their game will succeed. Even with ALL the data. That's not a typo. FirstLook surveyed 250+ senior AA & AAA studio leaders across the US, UK, and EU - and the results are a wake-up call for every marketer in the games industry. Here's what's broken: Studios are tracking more metrics than ever - wishlists, trailer views, social engagement. Yet 76% thought they had a hit on their hands pre-launch... only to watch it flop. And 83% feared a game looked weak before launch - only for it to blow past expectations. Visibility ≠ Demand. That distinction is costing studios millions. So what actually predicts success? When players go hands-on, these are the metrics that matter: ✅ Hours played - cited by 41% of studios ✅ Replay rate - 30% ✅ Day 1 / Day 7 retention - 29% Behavioral signals beat passive impressions. Every. Single. Time. The sleeper hit signal nobody's talking about? Discord community growth. For games that exceeded expectations, Discord was the #1 unseen success factor - cited by 48% of studios. More than YouTube views, press coverage, wishlists, or social buzz. Joining a Discord takes effort. That effort signals intent. Intent signals revenue. Yet only 40% of studios actively track their Discord in a structured way. That's a massive opportunity sitting in plain sight. The hard truth: Eden Chen, CEO of FirstLook, put it perfectly: "The teams that win aren't chasing vanity metrics. They measure commitment. Hours played. Retention. Community depth. That's what drives revenue." The game industry doesn't have a data problem. It has a wrong data problem. If you're building, publishing, or marketing games in 2026 - stop optimizing for impressions. Start measuring player intent. More Details: https://lnkd.in/gR6PnTAb 💬 Which metric do YOU trust most before launch? Drop it in the comments 👇 ♻️ Repost if this changed how you think about pre-launch signals. #GameDev #GameMarketing #MobileGaming #GamingIndustry #UserAcquisition #GameLaunch #PCGaming #ConsoleGaming #GamingInsights #ProductMarketing

Most conversations about games right now focus on building communities around new IP. But there’s a different question worth asking: What about the communities that already exist? Listening to the recent The Game Business episode with Scopely, it was interesting to hear how central community is to long term success. But many games already have deeply engaged audiences, they’ve just been left behind by technology. A lot of older titles still carry strong emotional connections and shared memories. The challenge is that those communities have been fragmented over time, often because the games themselves are no longer easily accessible. What’s starting to change is how technology can bring those players back together. With our cloud infrastructure and new layers like shared challenges and competitive features, older games don’t have to be static or purely nostalgic, they can become active again. Not just revisited, but re-engaged with. At Antstream, we’re seeing how these “dormant” communities can be reactivated when access is unlocked and new ways to play are introduced. Because it’s not just about making games playable again, it’s about making sure they can still be experienced, understood and shared with the next generation. What games community from times past were you a part of?

Discord: From a niche gaming app to the world’s #1 calling platform. 📈 I’ve been fascinated by Discord's growth lately. It was such a blast researching their journey and seeing how they dominate the market today. In December, I released a deep-dive video where I shared all the interesting facts and data I found during my research. If you’re into tech trends and platform evolution, this one is definitely worth a look! 🎥 Link available in the first comment below! Which do you prefer for calls: Discord, Zoom, or something else? Let’s discuss! #Networking #Discord #TechInsights #ContentCreation #MarketResearch

EXCLUSIVE: Discord launches updates to help games acquire players, increase engagement and grow revenue -- an exclusive interview with GamesBeat The latest update from Discord adds new social #engagement features, such as the expanded Discord Social Commerce solution, which will allow game developers to earn revenue from engaged players and sell in-game items directly on Discord. In this exclusive interview, Stan Vishnevskiy, Discord CTO, told GamesBeat, "We really like what Discord has become in the game industry. We realized we can also help game developers — actually both the consumer and the developer side — because, the #gameindustry is really facing various challenges right now." Read the full story from Dean Takahashi here: https://lnkd.in/g7JxcYhD

🚨 The #Board ecosystem just crossed a very important milestone! An updated Developer Terms of Use was released and with it, a major blocker for third-party developers has effectively been removed. For the past few months, many developers (myself included) have been building prototypes, games, tools, and workflows around Board, but were limited in what we could publicly share or distribute. 💯 That changes now. What this enables: • Developers can begin releasing and sharing their work publicly • Early tools and workflows can finally start reaching other builders • The ecosystem can begin to develop real momentum and discoverability For players, this is just as important: More third-party content → more reasons to engage → more long-term value from the platform. From my side, this unblocks a number of things I’ve been working on: • A Unity-based emulator for Board to improve iteration speed • A higher-level GDK to simplify development workflows • A third-party game index to help players discover what’s being built The goal with Board Enthusiasts (BE) is to support that middle layer of the ecosystem — making it easier to build, share, and discover. Now we’re in a position to start doing that more openly! If you’re a developer experimenting with Board, I’d strongly encourage you to start sharing and showcasing what you’re working on. This is the moment the ecosystem really starts to take shape! Follow along here if you’re interested in how this evolves: 👉 https://lnkd.in/ezd2PUXd #BoardEnthusiasts #Indie #IndeGameDev #IndieGames #Phygital #Unity

Discord has more than 90 million daily active users with over five billion hours of detected gameplay on PC between December 15th, 2025 and January 15th, 2026. Speaking at Pocket Gamer Connects Summit San Francisco 2026, Discord senior developer advocate Anthony T. discussed how developers can use the messaging platform to bring players to their game and foster a close relationship with them. Last year, Discord launched new monetisation features in the platform that allows Marvel Strike players to buy and gift skins. The feature is currently in limited access. Tešija told PocketGamer.biz that this feature is not just restricted to skins, but can be used to sell anything in-game, including a season pass and gems, for example. Players don’t need to be playing a game to buy these items for their friends, he added. Discord is also working on a new ad type set to release later this year that rewards players for in-game actions. Check out the full story for more details. https://lnkd.in/eZRH2yZn

【Report on Ichiro Lambe's Lecture: Mastering Steam: Why Discovery is Hard and How to Break Through the Noise】 In a market that is becoming a red ocean, how can you get players to find your amazing game? 1. Clearly define your positioning 2. "Select" your target audience rather than "narrowing" it 3. Study many other titles and refine your messaging For example, the abstract expression "unique" was used in 32,494 out of 85,000 titles he researched, appearing a total of 54,245 times. When you use the word "unique," it may be difficult for players to recognize your game as unique! He also runs a service! Check it out here: https://weloveit.io/ Reference https://lnkd.in/g9SdU7aP https://lnkd.in/gPvsHFph

Gaming communities don’t grow because you post more content. They grow because people feel like they belong. Lately I’ve been thinking and observing a lot about how physical spaces and local events can strengthen gaming communities in ways online spaces sometimes can’t. When players meet in real life, whether it’s through trivia nights, tournaments, or casual meetups the level of engagement changes completely. Community isn’t just an audience, it’s an ecosystem.

Steam Early Access is becoming easier to read. The games breaking through are polished, ambitious, easy to understand, easy to share, and easy to trust from the first session. Our latest analysis maps that pattern through an 8-signal framework covering demand, social traction, review quality, CCU and revenue proof, update cadence, price strategy, IP and brand equity, and launch readiness. One theme stands above the rest: clip-ability. Games that naturally generate moments people want to post, stream, and send to friends are compounding attention faster than games that rely on traditional polish alone. That helps explain why titles like Slay the Spire 2, Schedule I, R.E.P.O., Lethal Company, Phasmophobia, Palworld, Hades II, and Path of Exile 2 continue to sit at the top of the market. Those game are different genres but have the same underlying signals. The other shift is just as important: Early Access has become a trust test. Price matters, cadence matters, so do the first two hours. If the game feels unstable, unclear, or overpromised, the market responds immediately. The strongest performers are the ones building community before launch, communicating clearly, and improving fast in public. Early Access is as much as a development phase as it is a live product-market-fit testing in front of the entire market. If players want it, understand it, share it, and return to it, momentum builds quickly. If not, the signal shows up just as fast. #pcgames #earlyaccess #steam