2023 YouTube Gaming Industry Influencer Marketing Report Latin America Soars, RPG Goes Global, Saudi Arabia Loves Gaming Videos, Vietnam Gamers Have High Stickiness

2023 YouTube Gaming Industry Influencer Marketing Report highlights Latin America growth, global expansion for RPG, popularity of gaming videos in Saudi Arabia, and high engagement from Vietnamese gamers

In 2022, the global gaming market experienced an unprecedented winter, with the revenue scale of the global gaming market showing a decline for the first time. As the cost of buying traffic continues to rise, internet celebrity marketing has caught the eye of game brands going global.

As one of the major platforms for gaming internet celebrity marketing, how has the number of gaming internet celebrities at various levels on YouTube changed in 2022? What trends are emerging in various types of gaming video data? Will YouTube gaming internet celebrity marketing still be worth looking forward to in 2023?

With the advantage of its data on 18 million YouTube internet celebrities, professional overseas internet celebrity marketing cloud Nox conducted statistical analysis on a sample of 10,000 game business data, and launched the “2023 YouTube Gaming Industry Internet Celebrity Marketing Report” focusing on the global gaming market, gaming internet celebrity marketing, YouTube gaming KOL, YouTube gaming key regions, and YouTube gaming rankings, to help global game brands gain insights into industry marketing trends and achieve better marketing results.

01. Insight into the global gaming market in 2022

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In 2022, the revenue scale of the global gaming market showed a decline for the first time, with a year-on-year decrease of 6.96%, about RMB 1,110.76 billion. Among them, the actual sales revenue of Chinese games in overseas markets decreased by 3.7% year-on-year, about USD 173.46. In terms of the regional distribution of the global gaming market, although the market share of traditional developed markets such as the United States, Japan, South Korea, Eastern Europe, and Western Europe have all declined, the United States, Japan, and South Korea are still the preferred regions for Chinese game companies going global in 2022. Southeast Asia and Latin America showed huge growth potential in 2022, especially in Latin America, where the market share increased by 83% year-on-year.

Focus on the global game export market, RPG will become the mainstream game worldwide in 2022. According to the analysis of data from over 10,000 game developers by Nox JuXing, RPG is a popular category for game exports in 2022, loved by gamers around the world in regions including the United States, Japan, Korea and Southeast Asia.

02. Insights into the 2022 game internet celebrity marketing

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According to data on game developer preferences sampled by Nox JuXing, the preferences of European and American users have basically formed in 2022, and the market has basically stabilized, with slow growth. Due to its huge user base, Southeast Asia has remained strong in terms of growth. Latin America and the Middle East, as emerging markets with low maturity and low competition, have become the preferred choice for more small and medium-sized enterprises to test the waters in the export market.

Facing the continuous increase in the cost of global game purchases, reducing costs and increasing efficiency has become the main trend for game exporters. An increasing number of advertisers are starting to focus on increasing the proportion of paying users as a marketing optimization priority, and are more inclined to “put their eggs in multiple baskets.”

Against this background, internet celebrity marketing has become a standard for game exports. Localized KOL materials have a much higher return on investment than ordinary advertising materials. By combining localized KOL materials with large-scale media distribution, the influence of high-quality content can be greatly amplified, thereby helping advertisers achieve higher ROI.

From the perspective of CPM for internet celebrity collaborations in different regions, the internet celebrity market in Japan and Korea is large-scale, with a higher overall CPM. In Malaysia, due to the large proportion of Chinese bloggers, CPM ranks first in Southeast Asia. It should be noted that CPM for different levels of internet celebrities varies greatly, and different levels of internet celebrities should be matched according to the promotion strategy to maintain overall CPM at a high cost-effective level.

According to the analysis of actual game publishers, the rule of binary division has become the most commonly used promotion strategy for internet celebrities for game advertisers in 2022. In 2022, game-related internet celebrity marketing focuses more on user positioning and phased promotional objectives, and based on this, specific details such as the selection of internet celebrity types and platforms are determined, and vertical delivery runs through the entire lifecycle of the game, and internet celebrity marketing is gradually becoming more refined.

03. 2022 YouTube Gaming KOL Trends

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Focusing on the changes in YouTube internet celebrities in 2022, Nox Ju Xing platform has compiled data from 18 million YouTube internet celebrities to analyze and summarize the growth of internet celebrities in various levels of game-related fields in 2022. Through the data, it can be seen that the overall number of game-related internet celebrities is showing an upward trend in 2022, and except for entry-level internet celebrities, the proportion of other level internet celebrities has increased.

It is particularly noteworthy that the number of small and medium-sized internet celebrities has grown rapidly, while the growth of entry-level internet celebrities has slowed down, indicating that entry-level internet celebrities achieved a surge in growth in 2021, with increases in the number of fans. Thus, it can be seen that YouTube gaming internet celebrity marketing has grown significantly in 2022.

Furthermore, the diversity of fans of gaming internet celebrities at different levels also varies, with different communication characteristics, and different levels of internet celebrities correspond to different marketing purposes.

04. 2022 YouTube Gaming Focus Region Trends

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Based on data from 18 million YouTube internet celebrities, Nox Ju Xing has analyzed and compiled data on the number of internet celebrity video releases, the average number of views of game-related videos, the average number of subscriptions to game-related channels, the viewing-to-subscription ratio, and the growth rate of various indicators. Among them, the performance of various data in Indonesia and Vietnam is particularly eye-catching. In terms of the number of video releases, internet celebrity video releases in the United States have been the highest for two consecutive years, and video growth in Japan is the fastest; Saudi Arabia, Vietnam, and Turkey lead in the average number of views of game-related videos, and the number of views of game-related videos in the United Arab Emirates is showing a downward trend. For more trends in the average number of YouTube gaming channel subscriptions and fan stickiness, please see the report details. In 2022, the number of game-related YouTube videos released in Indonesia reached 901,187, and the average number of views of game-related videos increased by 58.01% compared to the previous year, the average number of subscriptions increased by 30.9%, and the viewing-to-subscription ratio also increased by 21.7% compared to the previous year. All data fully prove that Indonesia’s electronic gaming industry is in a period of vigorous development.

Aside from Indonesia, the data from the Vietnamese region is also surprisingly impressive. In 2022, Vietnam’s various indicators are on par with developed regions, with a subscription-to-view ratio as high as 275.94, ranking first in the Southeast Asian region.

05.2022 YouTube Game Rankings

In order to better understand the marketing trends of various gaming internet celebrities, Nox Star, based on platform brand functions, insight into the 2022 gaming brand internet celebrity marketing trends, and summarized the YouTube game rankings of the 30 games most concerned by 2022 YouTube anchors, the 30 games with the highest views on YouTube in 2022, and the 30 games with the highest exposure efficiency on YouTube. This helps advertisers understand which types of games are receiving attention from internet celebrities and their fans, and which types of games have higher exposure rates. (Swipe left and right to view more)

From the 30 games most concerned by 2022 YouTube anchors, we can see that internet celebrities tend to prefer Sandbox, Action, MOBA, Battle Royale, Survival Horror and other game types.

**** (Swipe left and right to view more) From the 30 games with the highest views on YouTube in 2022, we can see that the games with high audience views are basically the same as the game types preferred by internet celebrities, and the two are mutually reinforcing. (Swipe left and right to view more)

From the YouTube exposure efficiency rankings in 2022, we can see that Puzzle Games, Casual Games, and other game types have higher exposure rates, and Sandbox games are more popular among internet celebrities and their fans.

It can also be seen from the list that high-exposure games are mostly mobile games, and casual puzzle games are an important part of mobile games.

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