(2024-03-27) How To Make Millions On Discord

Evan Armstrong: How to Make Millions on Discord. When I’m evaluating a tech company, one of my most important filters is distribution—the way a company grows. Does the founder have a novel, repeatable way to acquire customers?

This distribution advantage can present itself along the following variables:

• Size: Is the total addressable market large? (TAM)
• Product-distribution fit: Does the product, through its very usage, have distribution built in? (cf Four Fits)
• Propensity to spend
• Competitive density

You can justify building a product if just one of these questions has a strongly positive answer.

The idea I’m proposing is so good it ticks all four boxes. I’m talking about a $20 million opportunity called Discord Activities.

To supplement the service, over the last year Discord has been adding activities for users to engage in during voice chats. There are mini-golf games like Putt Party.

Eight days ago, Discord began enabling outside developers to build activities. Developers can monetize these activities by upselling customers, and early adopters are already selling cosmetic purchases, like hats for your avatar. The apps can be played on text channels, voice chats, or in individual servers—virality is built in. There are currently only 19 apps available for selection on the accounts we tested.

To return to my concerns around distribution, Discord Activities solve for all four variables.

The launch of Discord Activities bears a striking resemblance to that of Zynga's Farmville on Facebook back in 2009. Just as Farmville capitalized on Facebook's massive user base and built-in social features, Discord Activities are poised to leverage Discord's 180 million-plus users and inherent virality.

Of course, there are some caveats. The SDK is brand new and not yet fully built out. The early restrictions on developers are onerous, limiting the activities to servers of a maximum of 25 users, and the company hasn't yet turned on in-app monetization. Discord also lacks the sophisticated user advertising and attribution system that mobile gaming platforms like Android and iOS offer—i.e., you can’t run ads to grow. Companies that build activities will need to rely on non-paid acquisition methods.

Sept'2024: they have monetization now.

Oct'2025: Apps and Activities are different.