Gaming: The Beauty Opportunity
WGSN: Insight
Explore how beauty brands are tapping into the immersive appeal of gaming and gamification to engage shoppers and reach new audiences.
Executive Summary
As gaming gains traction with over 3.24 billion gamers worldwide, beauty brands are leaning into the space to capture consumers where they’re spending time.
Analysis
As noted in Women and Gaming, more women than ever are playing video games, and they represent the full spectrum – from casual mobile gamers to hardcore esports aficionados. Of the 3.24 billion gamers worldwide, female gamers make up almost 50% of all players. In the US, 46% of gamers identify as female and 41% of PlayStation gamers worldwide are women. Representation from LGBTQIA+ communities is also on the rise, with 10% of all gamers identifying as part of the community, while 21% of workers in the UK games industry identify as LGBTQIA+ or queer.
According to GWI, 39% of all beauty fans play video games and 22% are fans of esports. This overlap of beauty lovers and gamers has encouraged beauty brands to flock to gaming-adjacent digital spaces such as Twitch and Discord, which were originally designed to service the needs of gamers, to launch new experiences and community building forums.
Look to brands such as Givenchy Beauty (France), which has embraced the direct-to-avatar economy with the launch of a Roblox experience and capsule collection that saw users experiment with make-up products on their avatars.
This report explores the ways that beauty brands are engaging with gamers by building branded digital worlds, leaning into the avatar economy and launching gamified loyalty schemes to lure players in.
Branded Digital Worlds
Over the last two years, brands have launched digital gamified playgrounds to experiment as stepping stones into the metaverse.
Building online Communities
Brands are increasingly leaning on online gaming communities to drive direct-to fan communication and improve engagement and loyalty.
Key Trends
Twitch Streaming Economy
Twitch has expanded in popularity, boasting 140 million monthly active users and an average of 103,000 live broadcasts at any time.
Mobile Gamers
There are 2.7 billion mobile gamers globally, generating $103.5bn in 2022. According to Uswitch, UK women are more likely to use a smartphone to play games compared to men (41% vs 33%), making casual games an ideal medium for beauty brands to reach their target audience.
The Avatar Economy
Online avatars are an important part of a gamer’s identity, creating big opportunities for brands to engage players via the D2A model.
Gamifying Loyalty
We’re tracking fierce competition among beauty brands amid what’s been dubbed an ‘attention recession’ (where there is too much content and too little time to engage with it post-pandemic), pushing loyalty strategies front and centre.