Communications platform Discord is launching a new ad format called Arena Quests, which will allow brands to sponsor games and offer users rewards based on their length of time spent playing.
Per Discord, “With Arena Quests, brands can now sponsor real gaming moments on Discord by rewarding users for playing games within a curated selection of titles or themed bundles sponsored by the advertiser. As players participate in the Quest, they choose a game from a pre-curated list and play for a specified time. Once they have completed the Quest requirements, players earn rewards like Orbs or Discord avatar decorations. Brands naturally become part of the Quest experience by surrounding the gameplay in an authentic and engaging way.”
Along with Arena Quests, Discord currently offers two other Quests products: Video Quests and Play Quests. As of Thursday, Discord is also launching Video Quests on mobile devices, which will mark Discord’s first non-PC-based advertising product.
While Discord’s Video Quests are focused on driving awareness and consideration, a format Discord says is ideal for trailers, new season announcements, downloadable content (DLC) drops, and other video content, Play Quests, like Arena Quests, are designed to drive gameplay. Play Quests require users to play or stream a game to unlock rewards, getting players directly into the game.
Arena Quests are available in Alpha testing now with “limited slots available for select partners.”
According to an internal survey of approximately 1,000 Discord users, more than 50% of users who have seen or interacted with a Quest in the past month say that Quests improve their experience on Discord, with players proactively seeking out new Quests to complete.
“Our ad platform was only a year and a half old when I first got here; it was very early days,” Discord’s vice president of sales Adam Bauer told Variety. “And I think in the year and a half since, from a product standpoint, we have completely transformed what’s available to partners.”
Bauer says the Discord sales team took a cautious approach “because we really want to be sensitive about how we use data, how we apply data, really to protect not only the platform, but our partners as well.”
“We started lightly with just a lot of application of first-party data. Taking a look at what games do people like to play? Do they like to play action games? Do they like to play shooters, or play strategy games, which is very native to Discord. Then we launched a partnership with Kantar to measure brand lift earlier this year, really to measure favorability, intent and traditional brand lift metrics, and now we’re starting to move into deeper levels of measurement and attribution through integrations with MMPs, taking a look at third-party data partnership and things like that. A lot of what traditional studio advertisers are looking for is either in our immediate roadmap or in early 2026.”
On Thursday, Discord announced its partnering with Gamesight to provide server-to-server events API integration, and with AppsFlyer as its first mobile measurement platform (MMP) to provide advertisers with “trusted, privacy-safe” campaign measurement.
Per Discord, “Early results of the partnership demonstrate how the AppsFlyer integration can supercharge campaigns on Discord. Second Dinner recently ran two Video Quests on Mobile featuring fan favorites Venom, Thor, and Spider-Man facing off in a superhero battle. The second campaign leveraged AppsFlyer and Discord’s player-based mobile targeting and server-to-server MMP, driving a 30% performance lift over the first Quest.”
Source: Discord Launches ‘Arena Quests’ Ad Product Tied to Length of Time Spent Playing Sponsored Games (EXCLUSIVE)
Per Discord, “With Arena Quests, brands can now sponsor real gaming moments on Discord by rewarding users for playing games within a curated selection of titles or themed bundles sponsored by the advertiser. As players participate in the Quest, they choose a game from a pre-curated list and play for a specified time. Once they have completed the Quest requirements, players earn rewards like Orbs or Discord avatar decorations. Brands naturally become part of the Quest experience by surrounding the gameplay in an authentic and engaging way.”
Along with Arena Quests, Discord currently offers two other Quests products: Video Quests and Play Quests. As of Thursday, Discord is also launching Video Quests on mobile devices, which will mark Discord’s first non-PC-based advertising product.
While Discord’s Video Quests are focused on driving awareness and consideration, a format Discord says is ideal for trailers, new season announcements, downloadable content (DLC) drops, and other video content, Play Quests, like Arena Quests, are designed to drive gameplay. Play Quests require users to play or stream a game to unlock rewards, getting players directly into the game.
Arena Quests are available in Alpha testing now with “limited slots available for select partners.”
According to an internal survey of approximately 1,000 Discord users, more than 50% of users who have seen or interacted with a Quest in the past month say that Quests improve their experience on Discord, with players proactively seeking out new Quests to complete.
“Our ad platform was only a year and a half old when I first got here; it was very early days,” Discord’s vice president of sales Adam Bauer told Variety. “And I think in the year and a half since, from a product standpoint, we have completely transformed what’s available to partners.”
Bauer says the Discord sales team took a cautious approach “because we really want to be sensitive about how we use data, how we apply data, really to protect not only the platform, but our partners as well.”
“We started lightly with just a lot of application of first-party data. Taking a look at what games do people like to play? Do they like to play action games? Do they like to play shooters, or play strategy games, which is very native to Discord. Then we launched a partnership with Kantar to measure brand lift earlier this year, really to measure favorability, intent and traditional brand lift metrics, and now we’re starting to move into deeper levels of measurement and attribution through integrations with MMPs, taking a look at third-party data partnership and things like that. A lot of what traditional studio advertisers are looking for is either in our immediate roadmap or in early 2026.”
On Thursday, Discord announced its partnering with Gamesight to provide server-to-server events API integration, and with AppsFlyer as its first mobile measurement platform (MMP) to provide advertisers with “trusted, privacy-safe” campaign measurement.
Per Discord, “Early results of the partnership demonstrate how the AppsFlyer integration can supercharge campaigns on Discord. Second Dinner recently ran two Video Quests on Mobile featuring fan favorites Venom, Thor, and Spider-Man facing off in a superhero battle. The second campaign leveraged AppsFlyer and Discord’s player-based mobile targeting and server-to-server MMP, driving a 30% performance lift over the first Quest.”
Source: Discord Launches ‘Arena Quests’ Ad Product Tied to Length of Time Spent Playing Sponsored Games (EXCLUSIVE)
