Games on Reddit and Discord: why communities are betting on them

Why are community platforms investing in games?

Reddit and Discord live on conversation. Their challenge is to give people reasons to come back and stay beyond the topic that brought them in. A shared game brings a community three things:

• a common topic, the same for everyone at the same time, which feeds comments and comparisons;
• a reason to return, especially when the game refreshes every day;
• a creator ecosystem, since both platforms open their tools to outside developers instead of building everything in-house.

The same move is happening on professional networks, covered in LinkedIn and daily games, and among media and content platforms, covered in games on Netflix, Apple and news sites.

Reddit: games built by and for communities

Reddit opened its Developer Platform (also called Devvit) so outside developers can create apps and games that live inside posts and communities. In April 2024, Reddit's chief product officer encouraged developers to build there without pay for now, while saying that could change in the future (TechCrunch, April 2024).

A year later, Reddit shared its first usage figure. On the Q1 2025 earnings call, CEO Steve Huffman said: "We also have 400,000 people playing games and other interactive experiences built on our developer platform in Q1," adding that this showed interactive experiences can thrive on Reddit (Investing.com, May 2025).

That is still small next to the 108 million daily users reported on the same call. It is a start, not mass adoption.

Reddit then made the games easier to find. In October 2025, they became reachable from the desktop sidebar and a dedicated menu in the mobile app, with a full-screen launcher and an r/GamesOnReddit community. Featured titles include Pixelary, Syllo, Honk and Jump Cat, according to GamingonPhone, a mobile gaming outlet relaying the announcement.

What sets Reddit apart is that the game sits inside a post. Players comment right below it, share scores and vote, as with any other content. The game becomes a conversation.

Discord: Activities, games inside voice calls

Discord launched Activities in 2022. They are web games and apps, rendered in an iframe, that open directly inside a voice or video call (Android Police, September 2024). Discord describes them as a way to instantly enjoy shared experiences with friends, launched from the rocket button in a call (Discord, 2024).

In September 2024, the platform opened them to every developer, with a dedicated SDK and, for developers in the US, UK and EU, the option to sell in-app purchases on desktop. Android Police counted roughly 45 Activities at the time.

Discord's announcement included several figures (Discord, September 2024):

• over 90% of its 200 million monthly users play video games, adding up to more than 1.5 billion hours of play a month;
• its app ecosystem is used by over 25% of its monthly active users;
• the game Death by AI drew nearly 7 million players and more than 1 million hours of play within weeks.

Discord now reports more than 90 million daily users, based on internal Q4 2025 data (Discord). For a platform born around video games, Activities extend an existing habit: instead of leaving the call to play, you play inside it.

One technical detail is worth a publisher's attention: Activities are web apps rendered in an iframe. That is the same technology a news site uses to embed a game on its pages. Discord chose web standards over a proprietary format, which lowers the barrier to entry for developers and means the same game can, in principle, live in many places.

What do Reddit and Discord have in common?

In both cases the game is not a separate destination. It sits where the community already is, and it reinforces what the community already does: talk.

How should you read these figures?

Three caveats apply.

• They are platform figures. They come from executive statements or company blog posts, with no published method. Reddit's 400,000 players also cover "interactive experiences" that are not all games.
• They measure usage, not impact. Neither Reddit nor Discord publishes the effect of games on user retention.
• The business models are still young. Reddit was not yet paying developers in 2024, and Discord's in-app purchases were limited to some countries and to desktop at launch.

What can a publisher or brand take from this?

The main lesson is that games work better when they are shared. A reader playing a generic game alone has little reason to talk about it. A reader playing the same puzzle as colleagues or fellow readers can compare, comment and come back tomorrow.

For a publisher, that translates into a few concrete choices:

• one puzzle for everyone, refreshed daily;
• leaderboards or leagues between readers, friends or colleagues;
• easy sharing of results without spoiling the solution;
• a discussion space, if the title already has one.

SIWA applies these principles for publishers: one daily puzzle, the same for everyone, leaderboards and leagues you can switch on or off for your space, and the option to let readers play without creating a SIWA account by relying on your own login system. Integration details are in the integration guide and on the SIWA for business page.