Discord opens its ad business to smaller brands, Ars Technica reports

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Discord is opening its advertising business to companies of any size, as Scharon Harding reported for Ars Technica.

The chat app has launched Discord Ads Manager, a tool for planning, buying and tracking ad campaigns in one place, it said on Tuesday. Select advertisers can use it now. Full self-serve access is due in early 2027.

Until now, most brands needed a direct sales deal with Discord to run ads. The new tool is meant for smaller game studios and marketers.

Watch a video, get a reward

Discord is also expanding Video Quests, short ads that users watch in exchange for in-game rewards. The new version is built for phones and asks users to watch for about 15 seconds.

Brands can buy these through Ads Manager. A premium version, Video Quests Reserve, is sold directly for big brand campaigns.

Discord says the changes will let advertisers target users more widely. More ad formats are coming, its advertising chief, Adam Bauer, told GamesBeat.

Discord, which says it has more than 90 million daily users, only began showing ads in 2024. It filed confidentially for a stock market listing in January, Bloomberg reported at the time.

Users are wary

Not everyone is pleased. Some users fear that ads, along with new age checks and AI moderation, could change the platform for the worse, Ars reported.

Discord’s co-founder and chief technology officer, Stanislav Vishnevskiy, has said he shares that worry.

“I’m definitely the one who’s constantly bringing up enshittification,” he told Engadget last year.

For now, Discord’s ads are fairly low-key. They appear as small pop-ups and sidebar cards that only open when tapped.

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