The gaming creator economy in 2026 looks very little like 2022. The platforms have re-stratified, the audiences have moved, and a lot of agency playbooks are still running on assumptions from three years ago. Here's where the money is actually moving, based on the 60+ gaming campaigns we ran in the last 18 months.
Twitch: consolidation at the top
Twitch is healthier than it looks from the outside, but the audience has consolidated around a smaller cohort of top-tier streamers. The mid-tier (5k–50k average viewers) has thinned. For most brand campaigns, that means either paying for a top-100 streamer or going broad with the long tail.
YouTube: quietly winning long-form
If a game release wants critical depth, YouTube is now the primary channel. Long-form review and analysis content (20+ min) drives more searchable, durable audience commitment than any other format we measure. We've doubled YouTube spend year-over-year on every gaming brand we work with.
TikTok: the discovery layer
Nearly every game release we touched in 2025–2026 had TikTok as the top-of-funnel layer. The conversion does not happen there — but the awareness almost always starts there. Brands that skipped TikTok seeding saw cold launches.
- Twitch: deep loyalty, but concentrated. Use for community building.
- YouTube: durable, searchable, long-tail. Use for depth and review.
- TikTok: top-of-funnel discovery. Use early in the launch cycle.
