How Does Discord Make Money

Discord’s core features are free to use and it enables Discord to sign up users rapidly. One of the main income sources of Discord is its Nitro subscription packages. Other key income sources of Discard are server boosting, server fees, game store fees, merchandise store, cosmetic items, brand sponsorship, etc.    

Key Takeaways

• Discord is a very popular communication app with more than 300 million registered users
• Discord allows its users to talk over voice, video, and text
• The discord app is available on Android, iPhone, Mac, Xbox, PlayStation, and PC devices
• Discord allows a user to join a maximum of 100 servers and there are two types of servers, public and private
• There are also 6.7 million active servers on Discord
• Discord makes money from game subscription services, game stores, Discord merchandise stores, server boosting, etc.

What Is Discord?

Discord is a messaging app and it is specially designed for video game players to support communication via text, voice chat, and video calls. In Discord, players can organize themselves in communities and it is known as Discord servers. Here, gamers can discuss various topics related to their games and can make friends. Discord allows a user to join a maximum of 100 servers and there are two types of servers, public and private. The public servers can be accessed via a link but you can’t access the private servers without invitation and approval. A server can have a maximum of 500 channels. 

Moreover, a gamer can directly chat with other gamers which is very convenient. You can also integrate discord with other platforms like YouTube, Spotify, or GIPHY. Discord is not limited to gamers only, Non-gamers can also use Discord for communication. Anyone can use Discord to discuss any topic and organize upcoming events. According to Discord, there are more than 100 million active users on this platform who spend around 4 billion minutes communicating. There are also 6.7 million active servers on Discord.

Discord App Features

Here are the main features of the Discord app:

100% free communication

IP & DDoS Protection

Convenience for PC or mobile use

Friends List

Minimal CPU usage

Low latency

Smart push notifications

Permissions

Custom hotkeys

In-game overlay

Multiple channels

Modern text chat

Direct messaging

Important Statistics About Discord

According to WSJ, Discord has generated $130 million in revenue in 2020 and it is a 188% increase year-on-year. The majority of Discord’s income comes from its Nitro which is a premium enhancement bundle. In 2021, Discord is worth $7 billion which is doubled from the previous year.

Overview Of Discord

Launch date	13 May 2015
Headquarter	San Francisco, California
People	Jason Citron (co-founder, CEO), Stanislav Vishnevskiy (CTO)
Industry	Communication
Business type	Private

Revenue Of Discord

Year	Total Revenue
2016	$5 million
2017	$10 million
2018	$30 million
2019	$45 million
2020	$130 million

Discord Monthly Active Users        

Year	Total Users
2017	10 million
2018	45 million
2019	56 million
2020	100 million
2021	140 million

Discord Valuation

Year	Valuation
2017	$1.6 billion
2018	$2 billion
2020	$3.5 billion
2021	$7 billion

How Discoed Makes Money

Just like any other company Discord has a revenue model to generate profit. Discord uses the following strategies to earn money – 

1. Game Subscription Service – Discord Nitro

2. Game Store – Distribution Fees

3. Discord Merchandise Store

4. Server Boosting

5. Cosmetic Items

6. Funds and Investments

Game Subscription Service – Discord Nitro

Discord Nitro is a premium subscription package from Discord and its fees are $9.99 per month or 99.99 per year. The cheaper subscription package is known as Nitro Classic and its fees are $4.99 per month or $49.99 per year. You can use the Discord Nitro free of charge for the first 30 days and you can cancel the subscription anytime you want. This is a voluntary program from Discord to support the app. Under this subscription, a user can access a vast number of games, premium features, and enjoy other benefits, including:

1. Personal profile with an animated avatar and custom tags

2. Special Nitro profile badge

3. Create your own custom emojis

4. Two server boosts and a discount of 30%

5. Can upload files up to 100MB where the free limit is only 6 MB

6. Can enjoy high-resolution videos, screen sharing, and Discord Go live streaming

Game Store – Distribution Fees

Discord launched its own game store in 2018 and its main purpose was to allow game developers to sell their games. Moreover, with the game store, Discords wanted to compete against the likes of Steam. This store enables the nitro subscriber to get access to Discord-exclusive games. Discord also generates profit from the store. Developers can sell their games on the discord store and they will receive 90% of the revenue from the sale. The remaining 10% is the discord’s income from the game sales. The 90/10 revenue split is a win-win situation for both the developers and Discord.

Discord Merchandise Store

Discord has a merchandise store and it offers great varieties of merchandise like branded T-shirts, hoodies, caps, socks, etc. This is an excellent source of income for discord. Moreover, Discord also earns money through its effective marketing and promotional strategies. Discord asks its users to grow the company by purchasing their merchandise and cosmetic items.

Server Boosting

Server boosting is also a great source of discord’s income. Server boosting allows the community of a server to increase the functionality and performance of their Discord Server. A discord user can boost the server to three different levels. They are:

Level 1	Level 2	Level 3
+50 Emoji Slots (for a total of 100 emojis)	Quality +50 Emoji Slots (for a total of 150 emojis)	+100 Emoji Slots (for a total of 250 emojis)
128 Kbps Audio Quality	256 Kbps Audio	384Kbps Audio Quality
Go Live streams boosted to 720P 60FPS	Go Live streams boosted to 1080P 60FPS	100MB Upload Limit for all members (server only)
Custom Server	Server Banner	Vanity URL
Invite Background	50MB Upload Limit for all members (server only)	+ everything from Level 1 and 2
Animated Server Icon	+ everything from Level 1

Cosmetic Items

Discord also sells various cosmetic items and generates handsome revenue. Discord sells various cosmetic items including sound packs, sticker packs, customer emojis, and skins. There are no additional benefits that the gamers will have from these cosmetic items. However, these cosmetic items can enhance the user experience and vanity purposes.

Funds And Investments

There are many big companies available that provide support to Discord by funding and investments. Discord uses the funding for international growth and improves the Discord platform. Statistics showed Discord has raised a total of $ 560 million in funding and now discord is worth $7 billion in valuation.

FAQs About Discord

What Is The largest Discord Server?

Genshin is the largest discord server and recently they overtook Minecraft. Genshin’s server currently has 733,911 members and is comfortably ahead of Fortnite’s 620,399 and Minecraft’s 647,619.

What Is A Poker Pass In Discord?

Discord has a Texas hold ’em style game named poker night where up to 8 players can play right within a Discord voice channel. So poker pass is a one-time purchase in the poker night game that allows you to access themes and customizations for your Poker experience. This subscription has a 30-day period then you have to buy the pack again.

What Is The Message Short Key List In Discord?

Discord has several dedicated shortcut keys to make your messaging experience with discord smoother. You can use the following shortcuts while messaging:

Key	Action
Q	Quote Message
+	Add a Reaction
R	Reply to Message
E	Edit
Backspace	Delete message
P	Pin message
Ctrl + C (Windows)Cmd + C (Mac)	Copy message content
Alt+ Enter	Mark unread
Escape	Move back to the Textbox/Chatbar

What Country Uses Discord The Most?

Discord is very popular across the world and the top 5 countries that use Discord the most are:

1. United States: 29.79%

2. Canada: 5.69% 

3. United Kingdom: 4.28%

4. France: 4.13% 

5. Germany: 3.87%     

What Is The Most Popular Discord Bot?

Discord has quite a few popular bots, they are:

1. MEE6

2. Dank Memer

3. Helper.gg

4. Octave

5. IdleRPG

6. Arcane

7. MedalBot

8. Xenon

9. Apollo

10. tip.cc     

What Are Some Common Community Guidelines In Discord?

According to the discord community guidelines – 

1. Do not organize, participate in, or encourage harassment of others

2. Do not organize, promote, or coordinate servers around hate speech

3. Do not make threats of violence or threaten to harm others

4. Do not evade user blocks or server bans

5. Do not send others viruses or malware

6. You may not sell your account or your server

7. You may not use self-bots or user-bots to access Discord

8. You may not share content that violates anyone’s intellectual property or other rights

9. You may not spam Discord

10. You may not sexualize minors in any way

11. You may not share sexually explicit content of other people without their consent

12. You may not share content that glorifies or promotes suicide or self-harm

13. You may not share images of sadistic gore or animal cruelty

14. You should not promote, encourage or engage in any illegal behavior 

References:
1. https://finty.com/us/business-models/discord/
2. https://www.cbinsights.com/research/report/how-discord-makes-money/

Last Updated on October 30, 2022 by Magalie D.