Gaijin: 10,000+ new War Thunder players from YouTube integrations.

The approach

Gaijin wanted new players for War Thunder, not just impressions. So instead of dedicated gameplay videos, we placed the game inside creators' own uploads as mid-roll segments, where the audience is already watching and the host's voice carries the recommendation.

The line-up deliberately mixed endemic gaming channels with commentary channels. Gaming audiences already know the genre and convert quickly, while commentary and video-essay audiences see game advertising far less often and gave the campaign volume that gaming placements alone would not have produced. Every placement carried its own tracked link, so each contribution was measured separately rather than pooled.

The results

The integrations drew 2.1M views and brought more than 10,000 new players into the game, at a measured cost per player rather than an estimated one. Mixing endemic and non-endemic channels is now how we plan reach for game launches and seasonal re-engagement pushes.