By Jon Scarr
Discord is rolling out a new commerce system that lets users browse, buy, and gift in-game items directly inside the platform. The feature launches first with Marvel Rivals, the breakout hero shooter that quickly built one of the largest gaming communities on Discord.
Marvel Rivals is a fitting first partner. The game hit 10 million users in its first 72 hours and generated over $100 million in its first month. Its Discord community now sits at over 4 million members, giving Discord a massive testbed for these new tools.
Users can check out digital items from the official Marvel Rivals server, browse bundles and cosmetics, build Wishlists, and even gift items to friends. What makes gifting interesting is that you don’t need to play Marvel Rivals yourself to send someone a cosmetic they want. Purchased items appear instantly in-game through account linking.
Stanislav Vishnevskiy, Discord’s CTO and co-founder, says the team has learned a lot from running its own Shop. Almost 20 percent of Shop purchases are sent as gifts. That number climbs during seasonal events, so extending gifting to in-game items felt like a natural fit for the platform.
For players, this means more ways to share what you like and support friends in your favourite communities. For developers, it opens another revenue stream tied directly to Discord’s social engagement. Developers can reach users who may not play the game yet, extend in-game economies into their official Discord servers, and take advantage of gifting habits that already exist on the platform.
This new commerce phase launches in time for Marvel Rivals’ first anniversary and the holiday season. It will initially support USD purchases on the Discord desktop client for users in the US, Canada, UK, Ireland and Oceania. Discord says more regions and platform support will be explored in the future.