Discord plans to start showing gaming ads from next week, called Sponsored Quests and offering rewards for in-game tasks; users can turn them off in settings
The chat platform, which has long avoided advertising, is latest tech company to lean into paid promotions
Wall Street Journal
Context & Ripple Effects
Discord had previously emphasized subscriptions rather than advertising while it was still unprofitable, making Sponsored Quests a meaningful change in its revenue approach. The format also fits the platform’s earlier move into shared games and media through Activities and its App Directory.
The later rollout of mobile Video Quests and an in-app reward currency shows this initial ad unit became the basis for a broader reward-led promotion system, rather than a one-off display-ad experiment.
First-order effects
Discord gains a new paid promotion format aimed at game marketers, while users receive rewards for completing participating in-game tasks.
Users retain a settings-based opt-out, limiting immediate exposure for people who do not want promotional Quests.
Second-order effects
Game publishers can test Discord as a performance-oriented community-marketing channel, where rewards may tie campaign engagement more directly to game activity than conventional impressions.
The opt-out makes Quest design and reward quality central: Discord and advertisers must make participation valuable enough that users choose in rather than disable promotions.
Third-order effects
If reward-based ads scale, Discord’s monetization can shift from a subscription-only emphasis toward a hybrid model in which commercial activity is embedded in user participation.
The pattern points to community platforms treating virtual rewards as advertising infrastructure, with user control becoming an important constraint on how far those systems can expand.
The trend: Sponsored Quests are an early example of workflow-native monetization, where platforms turn actions users already take into opt-in, reward-funded ad inventory.
Discord will start displaying ads from videogame makers in the coming week, but users can turn them off within their settings. These ads offer gifts in exchange for completing in-game tasks. The company has long dismissed the need for ads. https://www.wsj.com/...
Discord will start displaying ads from videogame makers in the coming week, but users can turn them off within their settings. These ads offer gifts in exchange for completing in-game tasks. The company has long dismissed the need for ads. — www.wsj.com/tech/discord...
Social-media startup Discord plans to start showing advertisements on its free platform in the coming week after long dismissing them, becoming the latest tech company to turn to ads to try to boost revenue https://www.wsj.com/... https://www.wsj.com/...
Discord will start displaying ads from videogame makers in the coming week, but users can turn them off within their settings. These ads offer gifts in exchange for completing in-game tasks. The company has long dismissed the need for ads. https://www.wsj.com/...
Social-media startup Discord plans to start showing advertisements on its free platform in the coming week after long dismissing them, becoming the latest tech company to turn to ads to try to boost revenue https://www.wsj.com/...
I hope the rumors of Discord getting ads is false, especially for nitro subscribers. It's been an amazingly good product for gamers for years. I pay nitro not because I use nitro features, but because I think the crew working on it deserves some value from me.