Over the last 2 years, video games have made it one of their core marketing strategies to integrate creators and artists into their games. One of the easiest ways they’ve done that is through skins. What is a skin? A skin is an in-game cosmetic item you can buy and use as your playable character. The games doing this right now are Fortnite, Call of Duty, and Fall Guys. The most recent skin, announced on Monday, was Kai Cenat’s new Fortnite skin, with Mafiathon right around the corner.
Fortnite’s Icon Skins
How Did We Get Here?
Celebrities, athletes, and musicians appearing in video games isn’t a new concept. We’ve seen people like Tony Hawk, Tiger Woods, and John Madden with their own video games, but when I saw Rob Dyrdek and Big Black in Skate, it was one of the first times I remember celebrities in a video game who weren’t the main character.
Rob Dyrdek in Skate
I think once players were able to start buying characters and freemium became the popular gaming model, where the games were free but you paid for in-game cosmetic items, everything began to shift. Counter-Strike: GO was a good example of a free-to-play game with a ton of cosmetic items, which then led to more free games adopting the model, like Minecraft, and ultimately Fortnite. Then we saw the Marshmello skin and concert, which led to him and Ninja winning the first Fortnite Pro-Am. After that, creators started getting their own skins in the games, like Ninja, MrBeast, LazarBeam, and Loserfruit.
Why Does This Matter
These creators reflect who the audience of these games sees as celebrities. It validates creators as cultural icons on par with musicians and athletes (LeBron James also has a skin in the game). It means even more when fans see their favorite creators, who play the game for a living, get their own skin in Fortnite.
What Does This Mean for Creators?
Having your own skin has become a big milestone for creators, especially those who grew up playing video games. Having your face on the cover of TIME magazine is a big deal, but I think it’s slowly taking a backseat to seeing yourself inside a popular video game. Nearly 70% of Gen Alpha is gaming each week, and as gaming continues to trend upward, the significance of creator skins is only going to increase.
Sabrina Carpenter in Fortnite
Fortnite has also created an interesting opportunity for older intellectual property to reimagine their characters in the game. Things that might not be popular with a 10-year-old today, but were shows or movies their parents watched (like Family Guy or Iron Man), are now finding new life in Fortnite. That can lead to kids asking who a character is, or it turns into a meme of “the guy from Fortnite.” Having Kai and other creators alongside Sabrina Carpenter and Peter Griffin shows the intersection of traditional and next-gen entertainment.
The Big Takeaway
Creator skins have become the new benchmark for cultural relevance in gaming. What began with the freemium model and in-game cosmetic purchases has grown into streamers and internet personalities standing alongside celebrities in gaming’s biggest titles. It also signals that gaming is not just entertainment, it’s where culture is defined.
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