Discord is a platform where you can create communities, chat with friends, release patch notes and more. It is a free chat app designed for games, allowing users to chat privately in groups that cannot be discovered through searches (Bernhardt 2020). In 2020 (game marketing genie 2020), Discord was at the center of the gaming universe and continues to be so. By allowing users to easily connect to other communities and giving them a platform that is simple to use, Discord has helped to form new gaming communities online (Bernhardt 2020).
With over 250 million users and 14 million daily visitors, this platform is used in millions of game communities (Pierce 2020). Its largest servers have millions of members.
Discord is now a social media for gamers. It acts as a semi-public forum where gamers create communities and join those of developers and gaming companies (game marketing genie 2020).
Accessing Twitch via Discord is quite simple (Curry 2020), in that links from one platform to another load at trophy speed. Aside from this, it is also an ideal application for sharing pre-release or beta game versions. Screenshots, programming, videos and related media can be shared about games. It is possible to fully embed YouTube videos, a variety of GIFs are able to be used natively (Bernhardt 2020).
Discord also allows gaming brands to clearly annotate roles with accounts of developers, managers, admins, and game testers. This helps companies to create constructive and productive communities that help spread the word about upcoming games.
As of 2020, Discord rebranded with the simple Tagline “Your Place to Talk” shedding its former identity (Andronico 2021) as an app designed mainly to help gamers communicate while competing in popular PC titles. According to the company (Andronico 2021), about 70% of active Discord users in 2020 reported that they use the platform for non-gaming purposes, or a mix of gaming and everyday use.
Key Discord Statistics
Four billion minutes of conversation happen on Discord each day.
Discord generates a revenue of USD $120 million.
Fortnite is the largest Discord server with 571,000 members.
Minecraft is the second largest server with 569,000 members.
850 million messages are sent every day, six billion each week, 25 billion every month
ANDRONICO, M., 2021. Discord is the one app you need to be using. Here’s what you need to know. [online]. CNN UNDERSCORED. [17/03/2021]. Available from:https://us.cnn.com/2021/01/28/cnn-underscored/discord-app
BERNHARDT, A., 2020. Discord’s Impact on Online Gaming Communities. [online]. COMMUNITIES AND ONLINE GAMING. [17/03/2021]. Available from:http://networkconference.netstudies.org/2020Curtin/2020/05/29/discords-impact-on-online-gaming-communities/
CURRY, D., 2020. Discord Revenue and Usage Statistics. [online]. BUSINESS OF APPS. [17/03/2021]. Available from:
GAME MARKETING GENIE., 2020. Should you consider discord for your game’s community. [online]. GMG. [17/03/2020]. Available from: https://www.gamemarketinggenie.com/blog/discord-for-your-community
PIERCE, D., 2020. How Discord invented the future of the internet. [online]. [17/03/2020]. Available from: https://www.protocol.com/discord
©Keren Obara Mar 2021
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