Publishers Level Up Gaming Content

In a year largely defined by high expectations and lackluster realities, the video game industry has proven the exception. As the stock of the gaming industry has risen, so too has the value of publishers devoted to covering it, leading to a glut of new entrants joining the field like Bloomberg Media and The Washington Post, and a redoubled investment from longtime devotees of the gaming universe like Kotaku and IGN. While there's always been big money in gaming-adjacent advertising, higher traffic peaks are leading to broader advertiser interest. “Video games now are literally the center of culture,” said Christopher Plante, the editor-in-chief of the Vox Media gaming title Polygon. “They are what music has been for the last few decades, which is the entry point in language to the rest of culture for young people.” Gaming growth Video game adoption has been steadily increasing for years, but the industry reached an inflection point in 2020 that fast-tracked its spread to non-gamers. As a result, the publishers catering to that demand have seen upticks in reader demand for reviews, reporting and guides, according to sources. At Bustle Digital Group title Inverse, traffic to its video game content has risen by 230% year over year, making it the second most-trafficked vertical on a site that attracts 20 million unique viewers per month, according to Josh Topolsky, the chief content officer of its Culture & Innovation portfolio. At G/O Media gaming property Kotaku traffic rose just last month by 70%, owing in part to a renewed focus on industry-related reporting and new leadership, now under the helm of Patricia Hernandez. ‘Real, Meaningful Revenue Driver’: BDG Beefs Up Culture & Innovation Portfolio And at Polygon, surging interest from games-adjacent advertisers has led to a slate of new hires and campaigns, such as a recent collaboration between musician Anderson .Paak and computer hardware company Alienware. A Polygon guide to help readers get better at popular free video game Animal Crossing is one of the single most-trafficked stories in the history of Vox Media, Plante said. The traction these somewhat niche publishers have seen in the last year has encouraged their more mainstream peers to stake a claim in the ballooning industry. Since 2019, Bloomberg Media, Wired and The Washington Post have all launched or relaunched gaming verticals in the hopes of riding its growth to new traffic highs and advertiser interest. Even some of these new entrants, such as The Washington Post’s gaming arm Launcher, have seen encouraging early adoption. On the Launcher YouTube channel, three of its most popular videos have generated an average of 1.1 million views. “At this point, pop culture is gaming culture,” Topolsky said, “and now we have a lot more people looking at gaming from a cultural lens. It’s a totally new form of storytelling that is just now coming into maturity.” Advertiser appeal Rising reader interest brings with it ad dollars, especially at portfolio properties like BDG, whose new Open World initiative aims to add more visibility to its gaming content and draw in audience from other BDG properties, where it has more than 45 million cumulative active gamers. And while advertisers like Coca-Cola and State Farm have retreated from sponsoring Activision Blizzard's Overwatch League amid harassment claims, publishers can offer secure environments to reach avid gamers. “Our partners continue to share with us that BDG is offering them something the endemic partners are not: a fresh and new approach on this sector,” said Jessica Jones Studholme, senior vice president of sales at BDG. Likewise, at Polygon, inbound sponsorship requests have led the publisher to make new hires to keep pace with demand, according to the publisher. While the title declined to name specific revenue figures, Plante said the number was “unprecedented.” “I call this the growing-up period, at Polygon,” Plante said. “We're becoming a publication that is set up to rival not just our peers in the game and entertainment space, but larger publications in the media landscape.”

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Publishers Level Up Gaming Content Spurred by Advertiser Interest

Traffic to Inverse gaming content has risen 230% in the last year

Mark Stenberg

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Mark Stenberg