discordMar 30, 2025

Checkpoint 2: Our First Year With Discord Quests (opens in new tab)

Discord’s first year with Quests shows how rewarded advertising can connect players, developers, and brands without interrupting gameplay. By placing campaigns in Discord’s gaming communities, Quests give users rewards while helping advertisers reach engaged audiences authentically. After 70+ campaigns, Discord reports strong repeat participation from users and returning advertisers. ## Quests as Player-Centered Advertising - Quests reward users for engaging with games or entertainment content. - More than 200 million monthly active users spend a combined 1.5 billion hours playing over 8,000 PC titles each month. - Users who accept a targeted Quest are three times more likely to accept another. - More than half of Quests partners have returned for a second campaign. - Campaigns have included franchises such as *Diablo*, *Street Fighter*, *World of Warcraft*, *Genshin Impact*, and *Dune: Prophecy*. ## Campaign Results - **Genshin Impact:** A Play Quest promoting a major update attracted millions of participants and increased playtime by 80% during the campaign week. - **Dune: Prophecy:** Max’s first Video Quest featured a 2-minute, 38-second trailer that achieved an 85% completion rate among users who engaged with it. ## Why Discord Reaches Players Effectively - Gaming audiences often reject traditional advertising, especially when it feels disruptive or inauthentic. - Discord reaches players in the “digital living rooms” where they already socialize with friends. - Campaigns can build on existing behaviors rather than interrupting gameplay. - Users are especially engaged socially: gameplay increases sevenfold when they play with at least one friend. ## Two Quest Formats - **Video Quests:** Designed to build awareness through trailers, season announcements, DLC promotions, and other video content. - **Play Quests:** Require users to play or stream a game to unlock rewards, directly encouraging gameplay. - Discord is expanding Video Quests to mobile to increase campaign reach and create additional advertising opportunities. Discord’s results suggest that rewarded, community-based advertising can be more effective than interruption-based formats for gaming audiences. Brands seeking to reach players should focus on authentic engagement and incentives that complement, rather than disrupt, the gaming experience.

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discordMar 16, 2025

Announcing Discord’s Social SDK, Helping Power Your Game’s Social Experiences (opens in new tab)

Discord has launched the Discord Social SDK, a free toolkit that allows game developers to integrate Discord's social infrastructure directly into their titles to drive player engagement and discovery. The SDK enables features like friends lists and messaging for all players, regardless of whether they have a Discord account, while offering deeper integration for those who choose to link their profiles. By tapping into Discord’s ecosystem of over 200 million monthly active users, the tool aims to help developers overcome discovery challenges in a market where a small number of franchises dominate total playtime. **Solving Discovery Through Social Connectivity** * With 20,000 games launching annually, Discord aims to leverage the fact that 50% of its users discover a new game on the platform every month. * Internal data suggests that playing with at least one friend increases gameplay session lengths sevenfold. * The SDK facilitates "friend-to-friend influence," where 28% of users launch a game within an hour of watching a friend stream it on the platform. **Core SDK Integration Features** * **Unified Friends List:** Synchronizes in-game and Discord friends lists, allowing players to maintain connections both inside and outside the game environment. * **Deep-linked Game Invites:** Enables players to send invites from their in-game list that allow Discord friends to join a specific party, lobby, or session with a single click. * **Rich Presence:** Displays real-time gaming activity on Discord profiles across PC, console, and mobile, serving as a passive discovery tool for a player's social circle. * **Flexible Account Requirements:** Developers can provide a unified social experience to all players without requiring a Discord login, though account linking unlocks more persistent social features. **Advanced Communication Tools in Beta** * **Cross-Platform Messaging:** A closed beta feature that allows players to continue game-related conversations across desktop, console, and mobile devices. * **Linked Channels:** Enables developers to sync in-game chat with specific Discord server channels, providing persistent messaging for guilds and squads. * **Integrated Voice Chat:** Grants developers access to Discord’s proprietary high-quality audio technology to power in-game voice communications. **Technical Specifications and Partnerships** * The SDK is currently available for C++, Unreal Engine, and Unity developers. * Initial support covers Windows 11+ and macOS, with console and mobile support listed as coming soon. * Early adoption partners include major studios such as Theorycraft Games, Facepunch Studios, 1047 Games, and Scopely. By providing these social tools for free, Discord is positioning itself as the foundational social layer for the gaming industry. Developers looking to capitalize on existing social graphs and improve player retention should consider integrating the SDK to bridge the gap between their game and the "digital living rooms" where players already spend their time.

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