Bringing In-Game Commerce to Discord Communities

Over the past few years, we've been exploring ways that Discord can help connect game developers with their most dedicated players and help fuel the success of their games. In 2024, we launched our Quests ad format to help developers break through to highly engaged player audiences. At GDC 2025, we introduced the Discord Social SDK, with social layer integration and account linking capabilities that can deepen player connections and increase engagement, resulting in up to 48% longer playtimes. 

Now, we’re excited to share the next step in the journey: Discord is introducing commerce capabilities that let players find, buy, and gift in-game items from chat, friends’ Wishlists, and directly within official game servers on Discord. We’re debuting the initial phase of this new commerce experience with Marvel Rivals, which not only has been a breakout hit, hitting 10 million players in its first 72 hours, it also has one of the largest and most active communities on Discord with over 4 million members.

Starting today, players in the Marvel Rivals official Discord server can browse, buy, and gift in-game items right where they already hang out with their friends.

Building on What We've Learned

We’ve learned a lot from building our own commerce experiences on Discord. Over the past two years, we've seen strong momentum with the Discord Shop, where players have shown us they want to celebrate the things they care about in the spaces where they already spend their time. Players have also shown a strong affinity for sharing the love with their friends: nearly 20% of Shop purchases are gifted, and that number jumps to nearly 30% during the holidays and seasonal moments. 

Our teams have continued to innovate on how to make these social commerce experiences natural and seamless for players by introducing new features such as Wishlists and Nameplates. By bringing commerce directly to official game communities, we're giving game developers the opportunity to benefit from these dynamics, creating incremental revenue that complements their existing storefronts. 

Developers can tap directly into their game’s community, where their most engaged and valuable players hang out, and monetize players even in the moments when they’re not playing. Even more exciting: because of the naturally social dynamics of Discord, it gives them a way to reach far beyond members of their own server to players’ friends, significantly expanding their pool of potential buyers. 

That means anyone can see Gambit’s new Thieves Guildmaster costume on the Wishlist of their Marvel Rivals-obsessed friend, and gift it to them without having to pick up the game themselves. The gift will pop up the next time their friend jumps into the game, letting them know they got a new outfit for their favorite character from their Discord friend.

Discord has always been where players hang out and discover games with friends, and this just makes things easier for everyone - the people who play games and the people who build them.

Meeting Players Where They Hang Out: Marvel Rivals Levels Up

Over 80% of Marvel Rivals players are already on Discord every day, making the game a natural fit for this experience. Additionally, Marvel Rivals has joined other games such as Battlefield 6 and ARC Raiders in fully integrating Discord-powered social features. The integration allows players to link their Discord accounts, keeping them connected both inside and outside of the game, even after playtime is over. Partners who have integrated have seen incredible results - up to 36% more game days for linked players. 

Timed perfectly for the game's first anniversary and the holiday gifting season, players in the official Marvel Rivals Discord server are now able to:

• Browse and buy in-game cosmetics, including bundles, for items like Costumes, Emotes, Emojis, MVPs, Nameplates, and Sprays right inside the official Marvel Rivals Discord server
• Create Wishlists and view friends' Wishlists on their profiles.
• Gift in-game items through DMs. No need to play Marvel Rivals to send a gift to someone who does
• Instantly access purchased items within Marvel Rivals through Discord's secure account linking system

Through wishlisting and gifting, players have another way to share what they play, what they like, and what they want, transforming everyday interactions into moments of generosity and celebration. 

Curious to check it out? See it for yourself in the Marvel Rivals server.

What's Next: Building for Developers and Players

Discord is home to every type of gaming community, from indie developers building alongside their most passionate fans to the world's largest franchises supporting millions of players. While we feel uniquely placed to help game developers succeed, our goal is to build solutions that serve game developers and players alike, enhancing connection and engagement around the games people love.

We’re approaching this initial phase as a learning opportunity: we'll gather feedback from players and developers, refine the experience, explore how this might integrate with other parts of Discord's economy in the future, and how we can support additional regions and platforms.

By building commerce directly into the spaces where Discord communities live, we aim to give developers new revenue channels and monetization paths while also creating a more rewarding and engaging experience for players to find, talk about, and champion their favorite games. And not just for Marvel Rivals, but for the ever-evolving games industry as a whole.

And, if you're a developer interested in learning more about bringing commerce to your server or exploring how Discord can help you reach and engage your community, connect with our business development team:

If you're a Marvel Rivals player, head to the official server and check out all the latest cosmetics! There’s never been a better time to gift something special to a friend.

Stan

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