At present, there are so many communications platforms that offer users to chat with others and also allow them to communicate via voice and video calls. But none of these is specially developed, keeping the gamer’s community in mind. Even after having many efficient communications platforms, none of these can provide superior call quality, high security, and optimized group chat functionalities that the gamers need.
Two gamers Jason Citron and Stanislav Vishnevskiy spotted these problems in other messing applications, and they together developed a communication platform mainly for gamers. Today, this communication medium is the most popular and secure for gamers, known as Discord.
So, Discord is a platform specially built for gamers by gamers. It offers users unlimited voice and video calls along with all sorts of chatting features. Discord is lag-free, highly optimized, and more organized than any other type of similar platform. It is free and does not irritate its user by showing ads while communicating with other playmates.
As Discord is free and does not earn revenue from ad marketing, then a question may arise in your mind how does Discord make money? Let’s find out.
How Does Discord Work?
Discord is a communicating and streaming platform specially focused on the gamers out there. This application allows users to stream live gameplay and communicate with their playmates via texts, voice, and video calls. Web and application versions of Discord are available for all operating systems such as MAC, IOS, Android, Windows, XBOX, and PlayStation.
The users of Discord organize themselves in different communities, and these communities are called Discord servers. These servers are more like groups of other platforms, but they are far better for being more secure, lag-free, and user-friendly. Most of the channels off Discord are private, and anyone can create a channel and invite people. Only some of the big channels are public, and anyone can join those. These servers are distributed in many different channels, which are used to discuss different topics.
Though Discord is mainly for gamers, that does not mean that other communities cannot use this, from book clubs to language clubs that can use this platform to communicate with their teammates. Discord makes sharing easy and hassle-free and allows users to discuss any topic, make plans, and much more.
The core app and basic features of Discord are free, which attracts more people to join. More than 315 million messages are sent in a day through Discord; it has 250 million+ active users, and more than 14 million people use Discord every day. From these figures, it is easy to guess the growth and popularity of Discord easily.
How Does Discord Make Money?
Discord has a huge user base and is able to attract these people because this platform offers many premium features without costing even a single penny from its users. One of the best features of Discord is that even though it is free, it does not show any type of ad. Most of us hate when we use an application, and we have to see ad pop-ups at every step. Discord does not earn by ads, but there are some other ways from those Discord earns. These are-
Nitro package
Even though the core app is free, there are some features that are limited to the versions. For accessing those features at their full potential, Discord introduces its Nitro package. This is a premium subscription package of Discord which costs 9.99/month and 99.99/year. There is a lite version of this package known as the Nitro Classic, which costs 4.99/month or 49.99/year. The premium features are-
- Own tag and animated profile avatar
- Allows to create custom emojis
- Two server bots
- High-resolution screen share
- Better audio quality
- 50MB upload limit, which is 6MB for free users
Before buying the premium package, one can enjoy the package for 30 days without any charge. These packages can unsubscribe at any time at the user’s will.
Discord Merchandise Store
Discord has a creative design team that designs stylish and modern quality merchandise. They have a physical store that sells various merchandise such as t-shirts, hoodies, caps, and many more items.
The revenue they earn from these merchandises is not significant. Mostly, they sell these for the fans of Discord and those who want to support Discord manage operating expenses.
Cosmetic Items
Several things do not affect gameplay, such as sound packs, sticker packs, and skins, but it enhances the overall user experience. These things are not free of cost, and Discord costs a little its users for accessing these things as the user base is enormous, so they earn a decent amount of money from these services.
Game Sales
In 2018 Discord opened its game store where they sell some exclusive games. But after a year they phased out. After that, Discord started a partnership with game developers. Now it promotes the game Discord, and on each sale, Discord gets a 10% commission. For example, if someone purchases a game spending 10$ from that money, Discord will get 1$.
Server boosting
Server boosting allows users to boost the functionalities and performance of a particular community. There are three levels of this boosting feature. The features of these levels are-
For boosting the server, the users have to pay $4.99/month, and those who are using the nitro package will get a 30% discount on server boosting. For a level one subscription, at least two users have to take the service; for level two, 15 users, and for level three, 30 users. All of the users on a server can enjoy these features even if they are not paying.
How Much Is Discord Worth?
Discord is a growing streaming platform that is till now the best platform for gamers. Here is a report of the Revenue of Discord from 2016 to 2020-
Discord Revenue:
| Year | Revenue |
| 2016 | 5 Million |
| 2017 |
10 Million |
|
2018 |
30 Million |
| 2019 |
45 Million |
| 2020 |
130 Million |
Discord Revenue Chart
Who Owns Discord?
Discord is a privately owned company funded by multiple investors. The major shareholder of Discord is the chief executive officer Jason Citron and the chief technical officer Stanislav Vishnevskiy of Discord. Microsoft wants to acquire Discord, and The tech giant is in talks with Discord. Microsoft wants to buy Discord, and they are ready to spend $ 10 billion.
Conclusion
Discord is a streaming and communication platform for gamers. It is free and does not show any annoying ads. So, a question remains: how does Discord make money then? Discord sells premium services, and they have a merchandise store through which they earn money. They also earn from investors and game sales on Discord.