August 29th, 2022, Kineree Shah
Latest data from YouGov Global Profiles reveals the pervasiveness of celebrity endorsements and influencer marketing among American and British gamers. In this piece, we define gamers as adults who spend more than an hour a week playing video games on consoles or PC.
A plurality of American gamers (45%) enjoys watching advertisements featuring their favourite celebrities in comparison to only a third of American adults overall (30%). When it comes to celebrity endorsements and trust in influencers, two in five American gamers (38% each) say celebrity recommendations have an impact on their purchase decisions and that they trust the products recommended by them. Comparing the data with the total US adults, only about one in five (21% and 22%) agree with those statements, respectively.
In Britain, more than a quarter of gamers (27%) take an interest in watching ads with their favourite celebrities, in comparison to a fifth of GB adults (21%). About one in five gamers (21%) say celebrity endorsements influence their buying habits. Nearly the same percentage responded that they trust products endorsed by celebrities or influencers. When we compared this to GB adults, a little over a tenth (12% and 13%) agreed with the same. This analysis perhaps indicates that celebrities and influencers have a stronger influence on the US and British gamers compared to the rest of the population.
Looking into the data of gamers by gender, American males enjoy watching ads with their favourite celebs more than females (46% vs 42%). Celebrity endorsement influence (41% vs 32%) and trust in influencer-recommended products (42% vs 32%) score higher among males than female gamers.
In Britain, the stats are reversed. Female gamers enjoy celebrity-featured ads (28% vs 26%), get influenced by endorsements (22% vs 20%) and trust influencers more than their male counterparts (18% vs 17%).
Discover more gaming and esports content here
Want to run your own research? Start building a survey now
Methodology
YouGov Global Profiles is a globally consistent audience dataset with 1000+ questions across 43 markets. The data is based on continuously collected data from adults aged 18+ years. The sample sizes for YouGov Global Profiles will fluctuate over time, however the minimum sample size is always c.1000. Learn more about Global Profiles.