Most gaming influencer marketing advice stops at "work with micro-influencers" and "be authentic". We wanted to see what the biggest gaming brands actually do, so we pulled the 50 most recent sponsored posts for each of the most-searched gaming brands in the US and looked at who posted, how each deal was disclosed, and which posts took off.

Here's why gaming brands work with creators, the commonalities in their strategy, and a step-by-step way to run your own campaign.

Why gaming brands use influencer marketing

Creators do a few things for gaming brands that ads and product pages can't:

• Players want to see it played first. Gamers watch someone play before they download or update. A Fortnite creator with 31k followers walked through the new season's map and items and got 3.5M plays.
• Games reach people who never watch gaming. A creator from outside gaming can bring a game to a whole new audience. A nail artist's Minecraft nail set got 4.0M plays and 646k likes.
• Athletes bring their fans with them. Sports fans follow athletes into games they'd never search for. NBA star Giannis Antetokounmpo's posts as a PlayStation Playmaker got up to 3.7M plays.
• Fans buy more than the game. Merch, collabs and limited editions give fans more to buy between releases. A creator's post on the Pokémon x Target collab got 253k plays.

Top gaming brands using influencer marketing

These are the most-searched gaming brands in the US, according to Ahrefs. Deal types show how each post was disclosed (for example, with a paid partnership label or an ambassador hashtag). Creator tiers: micro 10k–50k followers, mid-tier 50k–500k, macro 500k+.

1. Minecraft: parents who play with their kids

10 of Minecraft's last 50 sponsored posts come from parents, from a mom's game night with her kids to creators explaining tools that keep children safe online, and 4 of those are family days at the Minecraft Experience in London. Others come from far outside gaming, like a nail artist and a baker promoting its Chase the Skies drop. Its creators are based in the US (20) and the UK (9), the posts go back to April 2025, and only one includes a code.

• Creators: @dadsocial (6.0M), @cathypedrayes (340k) and @lifewiththeswinneys (322k) are among the creators who've posted for Minecraft.
• How posts were disclosed: 44 paid partnership, 4 gifted, 2 unspecified

What to take from it: Show who plays together, not just the game. A mom with 322k followers filmed a game night with her kids and called Minecraft "just one of the little ways we hangout together", and it got 5.0M plays, Minecraft's most-viewed post.

2. Fortnite: every update, every creator size

Fortnite's last 50 sponsored posts follow its update calendar, from the Chapter 7 Season 2 launch in March to its Star Wars games and islands in May (19 posts mention Star Wars). 37 carry #EpicPartner, and 5 include a creator's own Item Shop code, like GREENSKULL. Its creators range from 3k to 8.4M followers, 20 are based in the US, and 49 posts were disclosed as paid partnerships.

• Creators: @alysaxliu (8.4M), @happypoweryt (177k) and @coastergoober (3k) are among the creators who've posted for Fortnite.
• How posts were disclosed: 49 paid partnership, 1 gifted

What to take from it: Spread a launch across creators of every size. A creator with 3k followers posted the Chapter 7 Season 2 launch and got 10.5M plays and 70k likes, Fortnite's most-viewed post.

3. Xbox: one outlet on every launch

14 of Xbox's last 50 sponsored posts come from gaming outlet @dexerto, and most of the rest follow two launches: Forza Horizon 6 (12 posts) and Halo: Campaign Evolved (12), which also came to PlayStation. Another 7 promote a Fanta x Xbox can promotion. Its creators are based in Australia (10), with 3 each in the US, the UK, Canada and Singapore, and 45 posts were disclosed as paid partnerships.

• Creators: @insertrichie (1.6M), @crayator (348k) and @jimmynicholson (126k) are among the creators who've posted for Xbox.
• How posts were disclosed: 45 paid partnership, 4 gifted, 1 unspecified

What to take from it: Write the game into a story people recognize. A creator with 126k followers joked about sneaking off to play Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024, and the post got 2.1M plays, Xbox's most-viewed.

4. Pokémon: collectors and merch, not games

Pokémon's last 50 sponsored posts are mostly about merch, not games: 17 promote the Pokémon Center store, from plushies to bean bag chairs, and 23 were labeled as gifted. 8 come from the new Pokémon Fossil Museum at Chicago's Field Museum, often with free access to the event. Only 27 creators made the 50 posts, 20 of them in the US, and none use a code.

• Creators: @lamineyamal (44.8M), @realbreakingnate (111k) and @leonhart (244k) are among the creators who've posted for Pokémon.
• How posts were disclosed: 27 paid partnership, 23 gifted

What to take from it: Let creators have fun with the oddest product in the range. @leonhart's post about ordering a "chair" from Pokémon got 990k plays and 69k likes, Pokémon's most-viewed post.

5. PlayStation: one weekend at the Champions League final

25 of PlayStation's last 50 sponsored posts come from the Champions League finals, where PlayStation brought footballers, freestylers and creators to a PlayStation House in Budapest. Another 10 cover early hands-on time with Marvel's Wolverine, and NBA star Giannis Antetokounmpo posted 4 times. Its creators are based in the UK (6), the US (6), Canada (3) and Brazil (3), and none of the posts use a code.

• Creators: @giannis_an34 (16.1M), @tyramills_ (384k) and @gnabrii (144k) are among the creators who've posted for PlayStation.
• How posts were disclosed: 46 paid partnership, 2 unspecified, 2 gifted

What to take from it: Give creators something they can only film at your event. A creator with 144k followers asked followers to rate his shot during PlayStation's Champions League weekend, and it got 1.2M plays and 49k likes.

What the top gaming brands have in common

Looking across all 250 posts, four patterns stand out:

• Nobody signs ambassadors. None of the 250 posts were labeled as ambassador posts, and 211 were disclosed as paid partnerships.
• Smaller creators get more out of their audience. Across 212 posts with visible likes, creators under 50k followers got a median of 2.2% of their followers liking the post. For creators above 50k, it was 0.7%.
• Codes are creator codes, not discounts. Only 6 of the 250 posts include a code, and 5 of those are Fortnite creators asking followers to use their own code in the Item Shop.
• They rebook more than most. 42 of the 175 creators posted more than once.

How to run a gaming influencer marketing campaign

Here's how to run a campaign step by step, using what the top gaming brands do at each stage.

1. Pick one goal and one metric

Decide what the campaign is for before you pick a single creator, because the goal changes who you book, how you pay them and what you ask them to post. The top gaming brands' posts show both goals at work. PlayStation's Wolverine pre-order posts and Minecraft's holiday sale posts are built to drive sales. PlayStation's Champions League weekend and Fortnite's Star Wars islands are built for reach.

• Sales: track revenue per creator with a unique link and code.
• Awareness: track views, saves and reach per post.
• New players: if your game is free to play, like Fortnite: Save the World, give each creator a tracked link and count installs or new accounts per creator.

Pick one metric per campaign so you can compare creators fairly afterwards.

2. Find and vet creators who fit your brand

Follower count is the last thing to filter on. A car fan with 19k followers toured Xbox's Forza Horizon 6 launch festival, from the JDM cars to a Japanese driving test, and got 402k plays, about 20 times her following, because car culture is what Forza is about. Across all five brands, creators under 50k followers got about three times the likes relative to their audience.

Our survey found niche micro-creators are outperforming mega-influencers: nearly 60% of marketers said niche influencers performed better in 2025 than in 2024.

• Write down who plays your game (parents who play with their kids, competitive players, people who only play on their phone) and look for creators living that life.
• Search Modash's database of 380M+ creators and filter by audience demographics (age, gender, location), bio keywords, engagement rate and fake-follower checks.
• Or describe that creator in plain language, like "parents who play video games with their kids", and Modash's AI creator search surfaces matching creators on the platform you're searching.

• Check who else they've posted for. @insertrichie and @farzamplays both posted for Xbox and PlayStation. Modash shows which brands a creator has already posted sponsored content for.

You can also find gaming influencers for free, for example by searching the hashtags your buyers follow.

3. Choose the deal type

Gaming brands pay per post. Fortnite disclosed 49 of its last 50 posts as paid partnerships and PlayStation 46. Pokémon is the exception, with 23 posts labeled as gifted.

• Gifting works for collectors and fans who'll unbox merch or limited editions, like plushies or a special edition controller.
• Paid posts suit launch dates and live events, like a new season or a big final.
• Affiliate works for games and add-ons people can buy anytime, like expansions, in-game currency or controllers, through a creator's own link or code.
• Ambassador deals suit streamers who play your game every week. None of the top gaming brands use it, so it's an open lane.

Commission-only is getting harder to sell, though. Over 23% of marketers in our survey said creators would take performance pay only if a flat fee came with it. If you run tiers, the average commission tiers in our affiliate research were 10%, 14% and 19%, and brands with more than one tier had more active affiliates.

4. Brief the content formats that work in gaming

The captions from the top gaming brands point to three formats that carry most of their creator content:

• Early hands-on. PlayStation's creators played Marvel's Wolverine early, and Xbox's covered Halo: Campaign Evolved before release. Give creators early access and a date they can post.
• Event coverage. Half of PlayStation's posts come from its Champions League weekend, and Minecraft's creators took their kids to the Minecraft Experience. Invite creators somewhere worth filming.
• Collabs and unboxings. Fortnite's creators showed its Star Wars and Overwatch collabs, and Pokémon's unboxed plushies and merch. Pair each drop with creators who already love the franchise.

Whatever the format, give creators the launch date and platform ("exclusively on PS5 on September 15"), plus any island or creator code followers need to join in.

5. Launch with tracked links and time-limited codes

The top gaming brands send people to a launch, a free download or a pre-order, not a discount code. Minecraft's creators linked to a 25% off holiday sale, and PlayStation's asked followers to pre-order Marvel's Wolverine.

Codes also leak. In our affiliate marketing research, 47.6% of marketers said they struggle with code poaching, where a creator's code ends up on coupon sites.

• Give every creator a tracked link for everyday posts, and add a code only for launches and sales.
• Put an end date in the caption so followers know the offer won't last.
• If creators use "comment for the link", make sure the link they send by DM is their tracked link.

In Modash, each creator gets a tracked link and a code tied to your Shopify data, so sales from DMs, bios and stories all count toward the right person. Commission is calculated on net revenue after refunds and returns.

6. Rebook your best creators

The top gaming brands keep coming back to the same people: PlayStation rebooked 11 of its 33 creators and Pokémon 10 of its 27. Games change with every update and season, so a creator who already plays has a reason to post every time something new drops.

Most marketers want to do more of this. In our influencer marketing trends survey, over 60% said they plan to invest more in long-term partnerships, but only 54% actually ran more of them last year.

• Start new creators on a single post, then offer a longer deal to the ones who hit your metric from step 1.
• Use revenue per creator, not likes, to decide who gets rebooked. Modash's campaign dashboard shows revenue, orders and ROAS for each creator.
• Give rebooked creators something new each time, like a new season, an update or a collab to show, so their posts don't repeat.

Where gaming creator programs go wrong

The top brands avoid a few mistakes that trip up smaller programs:

• Breaking the embargo. Early access only works if posts go live when you want them to. Put the embargo date and time in the brief, and spell out what creators can and can't show before launch.
• Offering commission-only deals to established creators. In our survey, 63% of marketers said influencers were open to becoming affiliates in 2024. In 2025 that fell to 26%. When you reach out to established creators, offer a flat fee plus commission rather than commission alone.
• Running the affiliate program on autopilot. In our affiliate research, marketers who were "very involved" with their affiliates had 71.5% of them active. "Very hands-off" marketers had 10%. Affiliates post when you give them a reason to, so check in every month with something new to share. For gaming, that could be a new season, an update, or a collab drop to show.
• Sending affiliates old product. 93% of marketers gift products to affiliates, but almost 30% don't refresh them when something new launches. Send every new season, expansion or limited edition to your creators before launch day.
• Ignoring who watches the creator. Many gaming creators have young audiences, and promoting a mature-rated game or in-game purchases to kids can draw complaints. Check each creator's audience age before you book, and match it to your game's rating.

FAQ

How much does gaming influencer marketing cost?

It depends on platform, following and engagement. Micro-influencers often work for free product plus a fee in the low hundreds per post, or an affiliate commission. Larger creators charge more. Many brands start with gifting plus commission to test fit before committing to flat fees. To estimate what a specific creator is likely to charge, drop their handle into our free Instagram influencer pricing calculator.

Which platform is best for gaming influencer marketing?

Instagram carries most gaming creator work, and every sponsored post we analyzed for the five most-searched gaming brands ran there. TikTok is worth testing too: in our survey, marketers rated TikTok videos the highest-performing deliverable (53.2%).

Which gaming brands use influencer marketing?

Minecraft, Fortnite, Xbox, Pokémon and PlayStation are the most-searched gaming brands in the US, and all of them run active creator programs. See the breakdown above for who each one works with.

Should gaming brands work with micro or macro influencers?

It depends on your goal. A launch chasing awareness leans bigger, a conversion play leans smaller and more trusted. In the gaming posts we analyzed, creators under 50k followers got about three times the likes relative to their audience size, so most brands should build their base with micro-influencers (10k–50k followers) and add bigger names for launches.

How do I measure gaming influencer marketing?

Track sales per creator with unique links and codes, then compare revenue against what you paid (fees, product and commission). Our engagement rate calculator and fake follower checker help you vet creators before you spend, and our guide to influencer marketing ROI covers the full calculation.

Start your gaming creator program

Find creators, manage relationships, pay them in 180+ countries and 36 currencies, and track every sale through Shopify – all in one place, with no fees taken out of creators' pay. Try Modash free, no credit card required – or browse the top gaming influencers to see who's already out there.