We’ve all heard of gamers promoting gaming-related brands—from companies that sell computers and gaming accessories to actual video games. And it only makes sense for them to do so because they’re speaking to a niche audience of people who are also interested in gaming.
But over the years, there’s been a growing trend of non-gaming brands tapping into the engaged follower base of gamers on Twitch.
In this post, I share some insight into how non-endemic brands are betting on Twitch marketing and gaming influencers to reach the platform’s engaged audiences. Let’s get right into it.
The Myth of the "Niche": Why Gaming is Now Mass Culture
Gamers reviewing a new gaming mouse while streaming on Twitch? Makes sense. Streamers doing live walk-throughs to promote a new video game? Makes even more sense. But a gaming influencer promoting a clothing brand or a banking app on Twitch? It’s much less common (though not unheard of).
Yet non-gaming brands are starting to recognize the goldmine that is Twitch because the platform draws in millions of users who are engaged for hours.
Nike even signed on its first Twitch streamer in 2024, when the brand officially endorsed Kai Cenat. With over 20 million followers and hundreds of thousands of views per stream, the streamer is in a unique position to strengthen his audience’s affinity for the brand.
But Nike isn’t the first (or last) non-endemic brand to partner with influential streamers on Twitch. We can expect to see a lot more food, finance, and lifestyle brands entering the space.
At the end of the day, gamers aren’t just gaming. They still need to eat, dress, and bank. In short, gamers still have a regular life outside of their interest in video games. That’s why Twitch marketing drives impact for brands across different industries.
Uber Eats, Wendy’s, and McDonald’s are some of the leading brands using Twitch to market their non-gaming products/services.
These companies have run multiple campaigns with prominent streamers on the platform across multiple languages and markets. For instance, Uber Eats sponsored the popular “Disaster Chef” TV show and streamed it on Ibai Llanos’s channel.
The gaming streamer and esports commentator has a massive Twitch audience of over 19 million followers. So the streaming event got plenty of visibility, helping Uber Eats entertain and engage new audiences on the platform.
Meanwhile, McDonald’s has run a paid ad featuring popular Twitch streamers and even became the official partner of LAFC Gaming, the Los Angeles Football Club’s esports division. As a result of these marketing initiatives, the brand generated a lot of chatter on Twitch chat, ending up with 325k total mentions in June of 2021.
The ad itself wasn’t a big hit with the gaming community, with many viewers considering it forced and unnatural because they’re already familiar with the streamers’ personalities. Even though I’m not familiar with them myself, I still have to agree because the promotion didn’t feel authentic to me.
Nevertheless, the number of conversations it generated tells you something about the mass culture influence of Twitch gamers and live-stream advertising. And with the right execution, gaming influencers could deliver real business outcomes for brands across multiple segments.
The Twitch Marketing Impact for Non-Gaming Brands: Case Studies
So what business outcomes have non-gaming brands experienced from working with gamers on Twitch? Let’s look at a few case studies.
Wendy’s x Uber Eats: Never Stop Gaming
Wendy’s is one of the pioneers in non-gaming Twitch promotions. The brand partnered with Uber Eats to run a five-day promotion with five top streamers on the platform.
The Never Stop Gaming campaign involved signature menus that people could order exclusively on Uber Eats. Customers got a scratch card for every order, with prizes ranging from Uber Eats gift cards to campaign swag.
Meanwhile, streamers like itsHafu, Myth, FLIGHT, TFUE, and xChocoBars streamed a game of their choosing and gave their fans a chance to win exclusive Wendy’s promo codes.
- These streams saw over 343 million impressions and 38 million minutes watched.
- Two of the streamers even hit 100k+ concurrent views throughout the streaming event.
But that’s not all, the gaming influencers drove real business outcomes for Wendy’s.
During the promotional period, Wendy’s saw a 9% increase in total orders. There was also a 15% incremental increase in new eaters to Wendy’s.
Pringles Breaks the Fourth Wall
When Pringles wanted to position itself as an everyday snack, Twitch offered a prime opportunity to engage audiences who were already snacking while participating in their favorite activity (read: gamers).
The brand’s marketing agency, Carat, found that 71% of gamers snack regularly while playing. And their top snack of choice? Chips (or crisps).
Knowing that gamers are more ad averse than most audience groups, the agency decided to take a less traditional approach to engaging them. So they developed Frank, a zombie cowboy who loves Pringles, and brought him out from the “West of Dead” game into the real world.
Pringles sponsored popular Twitch streamer, Leahviathan, to help promote the character through a mini drama. It started out as a normal streaming session interrupted by Frank, who broke out of the game into Leah’s room to grab her Pringles.
Frank also visited seven other streamers across Europe and starred in Twitch Premium ads. The campaign saw an overwhelmingly positive response from the gaming community, with Frank’s stream becoming one of the most-watched Twitch streams. People were even creating fan art of the character, showing the campaign’s deep audience engagement.
Most importantly, Pringles saw real business impact from the campaign:
- Pringles became the snack of choice for 42% of Twitch’s audience.
- The brand saw an 8% increase in sales (despite being outspent by competitors).
DoorDash: DashPass for Students
In May 2022, DoorDash launched a DashPass for Students campaign that promoted a $5/month plan for students across the United States. The campaign involved nine sponsored streams with Twitch influencers, including Jillyfish.
Her stream alone generated 43.2k hours watched with just under 20k peak viewers. And 2.6k chats were sent during the stream, amounting to a 12.3% engagement rate.
Overall, the campaign garnered 154k total hours watched with 22.2k Twitch chat mentions. DoorDash became the second most-mentioned food delivery service on the platform for the month. This speaks for the effectiveness of live stream advertising and gamer partnerships even for non-gaming brands.
The "Live" Factor: Why Twitch Engagement Rates Crush Instagram
So what makes Twitch such a powerful platform for engaging audiences? The answer lies in the live streams.
Twitch is mainly designed to be a live streaming platform. While users can watch video on demand from past streams, the platform doesn’t let you upload pre-recorded videos. And that’s what differentiates it from other social media platforms.
It drives real-time interactions, with in-stream chat functionalities that allow viewers to send messages and interact with other users.
In other words, audiences are actively participating and engaging with influencer content on Twitch. But on platforms like Instagram, users are more likely to engage in passive scrolling. They don’t have to engage in real time, which drastically affects engagement.
That’s why average engagement on Instagram continues to dip below 1%, averaging at 0.48% in 2025.
Meanwhile, Twitch sees about 2 million concurrent viewers on average. And these viewers are hooked, spending about 1.4 million hours watching streams per month. They’re also actively engaging with the live streams, particularly through chat. The platform sees an average engagement rate of 7.2%, although this may vary based on audience size.
The real-time interactions combined with long hours spent on the platform make Twitch one of the best places to engage your target audience.
How to Partner with Gamers on Twitch
Marketing on Twitch allows you to tap into an engaged audience. But the platform brings unique challenges because it’s mostly used by gamers and Gen Zs: segments that are popularly known as ad-averse.
So you need to move away from traditional advertising and promotions and leverage creative Gen Z marketing strategies to capture them.
Here’s how you can partner with gamers on Twitch.
Align with the Right Lifestyle Gamers
The key to seamless activations is finding the right gamers to work with. If a streamer regularly games but also talks about food or fashion, for instance, they could be a natural fit. But if a gamer suddenly deviates from their mostly gaming content to start talking about food, it could look out of place.
That’s why you need to get really specific with your influencer search and narrow down gamers who also talk about topics related to your industry.
Platforms like Influencity let you run an influencer audience analysis, allowing you to see what types of users are following a specific gamer. You can use the audience interest filter to find influencers whose followers are interested in additional topics—be it food, fashion, sports, or anything else related to your brand.
Stream Hatcher found that Twitch users are already organically talking about brands in chat. And that includes non-gaming brands.
In April 2022, for instance, Nike was the most mentioned sportswear brand with 25k mentions in Twitch chat. The most interesting part is that there were no sponsored streams that month, which meant that all the mentions came organically.
A significant portion of the mentions came from xQcOW’s channel, where fans gave him recommendations for comfortable sweatpants when the streamer mentioned he was interested in buying them. So there’s an opportunity to discover gamers with a lifestyle overlap.
Tap into Streamers’ Authentic Personalities
In line with the above, authenticity is your best friend when you want to seamlessly weave in your brand promotion.
Twitch audiences spend hours watching live broadcasts of their favorite streamers. That means they spend enough time with them to know what they like and dislike, what their personality is like, whether they have any unique quirks, how they naturally speak, and so on.
In other words, they can instantly clock any deviation from the norm.
So forcing a script or expecting gamers to act a certain way just to promote your brand is not going to work. The McDonald’s ad I highlighted earlier is clear proof of that.
Let streamers be their authentic selves. Outline the approach, but give them the freedom to promote your brand in their own voice or share their honest opinions.
Encourage Real-Time Discourse
Twitch’s value lies in its ability to drive real-time engagement. This gives you the opportunity to get in front of audiences who are paying attention. And the real-time nature of the conversations leaves room for more authenticity.
Make the most of it by launching campaigns that encourage real-time discourse. McDonald’s learned from their past mistake and leaned into live and authentic discourse about their new chicken Big Mac.
The brand partnered with Kai Cenat, who hosted multiple live streams with celebrity guests like John Cena and Serena Williams. As these famous personalities shared their honest reactions, fans added to the debate on Twitch chat. This collaboration was a massive hit, generating over 9 billion earned media impressions and 5 million fan engagements across four platforms.
Opt for Creative and Immersive Activations
Remember that you’re trying to reach an ad-averse audience when you’re marketing on Twitch. That means you need to get creative with your influencer activations, leaning into Gen Z marketing strategies.
For example, you could take inspiration from the Pringles example and invest in immersive experiences that get your audience hooked. Gamified promotions are also a great way to engage the platform’s audience. After all, you’re trying to engage users who live for gaming.
Win the Marketing Game on Twitch
Twitch gives you a unique opportunity to reach audiences who are actively engaged with live streaming content. But the platform’s user attitudes and behaviors present a unique challenge that forces brands to level up their strategy. Use the ideas and best practices shared above to win the marketing game with gamers on Twitch.
Frequently Asked Questions
What do people stream on Twitch besides gaming?
Although Twitch is mainly used by the gaming community, people also stream arts and crafts, music, and IRL (in real life) categories.
Is Twitch only used for gaming?
No, Twitch is also used for podcasts, music, art, cooking, and educational streams.
What brands are on Twitch?
Elgato, Pepsico, and G Fuel are some of the brands using Twitch.
Which non-gaming brands have worked with gamers on Twitch?
McDonald’s, Wendy’s, DoorDash, Nike, and Uber Eats are some of the top non-gaming brands that have worked with gamers on Twitch.
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Gaming
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