How does Discord make money? [Business Model Explained]

We all know how amazing Discord is and that almost every serious PC gamer has a Discord account.

I mean Discord is free and we all know the best price for anything is nothing.

As Discord is free and it is the go-to app for chatting during gaming sessions with friends, many people ask, how does Discord generate revenue?

This post exists solely for that reason, to explain how Discord makes money. I wish there was a short answer, but you need to read the full post to understand the business model.

I have researched extensively and have written all the factors that make Discord money, so please continue reading this post.

Also, check out our separate post on what does Idle mean Discord.

What does Discord Do?

Discord is mainly used for streaming. Discord makes Streaming extremely easy as you can link your Twitch account to Discord. Discord is mainly used for its easy-to-use interface that can be used to set the settings of a Twitch stream or other stream easily.

From Discord, you can customize settings like stream quality and you can select the stream quality to 1080p 60 fps if you are a Discord Nitro subscriber.

Even if you do not have a Discord Nitro subscription, you can stream your gameplay to your friends at 720p 30 fps, which does the job most of the time.

I personally used Discord to show real-time gameplay to my friends and to host watch parties where I watched movies with some of my friends during the pandemic.

So, in short, Discord is mainly used for Streaming.

Check out the easiest way to change Online Status Discord.

How does Discord generate revenue?

Discord generates revenue from services like Discord Nitro, distribution fees from servers, items sold on virtual events, merchandise sales and stickers. Most of the revenue comes from Discord Nitro, as it is the subscription service provided by Discord.

Here are the ways Discord generates revenue:

1. Discord Nitro

Discord Nitro is the premium subscription service provided by Discord. You might have seen many popular Streamers use Discord Nitro.

Discord Nitro costs $9.99 monthly or $99.99 per year.

When someone subscribes to Discord Nitro, they get special privileges like the ability to have a custom tag, animated GIFs as avatars, the ability to stream at 1080p 60 fps, a higher upload limit and many more.

You will also get a special Nitro badge that you can flex in front of your friends. Custom emojis are also part of the Nitro package.

Using Discord Nitro will also allow you to upload files up to 100MB.

So it is no surprise that there are many users worldwide that are using Discord Nitro.

Discord also provides a cheaper alternative to Discord Nitro named Nitro Classic. It costs $4.66 per month or $49.99 per year.

If you want to have a Discord Nitro account, just open the Discord app, click on the User Settings button and then click on Nitro.

See the options and choose the one you want.

Discord Nitro and Nitro Classic are not the only source of money for Discord, as there are many other sources of revenue.

Continue reading this post for the other reasons that make Discord money.

Find out how to delete Discord messages.

2. Sales from games and streaming

Games that are exclusive on Discord, provide a 10% commission on every game sold to Discord, you can say it is like Steam or the Epic games store.

So game sales are one of the prominent ways for Discord to earn money. Popular games like Dead Cells and Into the Breach are Discord exclusives.

Dead cells was a timed exclusive, meaning it was exclusive when it was initially released.

Even though Dead cells is now available on most gaming platforms, it initially helped Discord get some of that sweet cash.

The sad news is that the Discord game store was discontinued shortly after the store was available to the users.

Many streamers use Discord to stream their gameplay in high quality, which also brings a lot of recognition to Discord and Discord Nitro.

This is only the tip of the iceberg, as Discord makes money in other ways as well. Keep on reading to know the complete details.

Follow our guide step-by-step to change Font Discord.

3. Boosting Servers

Discord has another premium service where users can boost services and get special privileges.

Boosting servers increases the performance and functionality of a Discord server for an extra fee.

Boosting servers costs $4.99 per month. If you are a Discord Nitro user, you will get a 30% discount.

Users can unlock the first level by having two users paying the subscription fee and being members of the server.

Level 2 requires users to purchase 15 boosts and level 3 requires 30 boosts. Each user will get access to premium features, even if they are not paying the fee.

See the table below to understand the perks of each level.

You can visit the support page to learn more about Discord Server boosts. If you want to boost servers, click on the user settings button and then click on Server Boost.

Keep on reading to know the other ways Discord makes money.

Also read how to clear Discord chat.

4. Ticket sales from virtual events

Discord is planning on adding a feature where users can host virtual events on specific servers at a fee that is yet to be decided.

Discord was still deciding to add this feature in 2021, but they did not give any news on whether a feature like that will be added or not.

Discord also released the Stage Discovery feature in 2021 where users could find audio chat events and join them for a fee or donate to the host of the event.

Sadly, the Discovery Stage feature was discontinued later in 2021 and Discord released a statement where they said they needed more time to optimize the feature.

So there is still some hope that a feature will be released in the future where users can hold major virtual events on Discord servers.

5. Discord merchandise

Discord also has its own merchandise store. Items vary from things like clothes and toys to everyday items like keychains, towels and many more.

You can visit the Discord merchandise Store. There are many options, so have a blast  and you are bound to have a good time browsing the store if you are a Discord fan.

The website has a simple user interface, so it should be very easy for you to purchase available items.

So there is no doubt the revenue obtained from the sales of the merchandise is fully obtained by Discord.

Discord is not a massive corporation just for sales on their merchandise store. The other factors that enable them to be a mega corporation are written in this post below.

6. Cosmetic Items

Cosmetic items can be found in the Discord game store. You can purchase items of your choice by going to the Discord merchandise store.

Any purchase you make in the store is a contribution to Discord as your money is going to them. The same applies to other customers as well.

It can be safe to assume that there are many people worldwide that are purchasing items from the Discord merchandise store.

So it is also safe to assume that Discord is generating a good amount of revenue from the  merchandise store.

Keep reading this post if you want to know more about how Discord makes money and stays  afloat.

Discord Funding, Valuation & Revenue

Discord has a net worth of 15 Billion USD. Discord has also collected over $482 million in total funding.

So in terms of revenue, Discord is looking good and the same can be said for the investors investing in Discord.

Investors for Discord include big organizations such as Tencent, Index Ventures, Benchmark, Accel and General Catalyst, to name a few.

The future looks bright for Discord if they can maintain their current trajectory for the  foreseeable future and that is also great for the users of Discord.

Read the rest of the post to know more about how Discord makes money.

Competitors of Discord

Discord is always being pushed to the edge as they have other major competitors as well. The market for apps like Discord is full of other amazing options.

It is always great when an organization has competitors as that pushes each organization to be better. Discord is trying to upgrade itself thanks to some competitors.

The major ones are TeamSpeak, Troop Messenger, Chanty, HeySpace, Slack, Mumble and Facebook.

Juggernauts like Youtube and Twitch are actually the main competitors of Discord. Thankfully Discord is not only a competitor but also a partner to a platform like Twitch.

As Discord is also a great platform to stream, users can link their Twitch account to their Discord  account and use them together during their streams.

So Discord has competitors and some major partners as well, so revenue is coming from multiple sources.

Follow our guide step-by-step to make someone Admin Mod in Discord.

Future Business plans of Discord

Discord is still trying to implement a feature where users can host audio and video events on a much larger scale.

As Discord has already gained so much recognition and success thanks to its amazing feature,  it is not a bad idea to add more features like the option to host large virtual events.

Discord tried to open a store similar to Steam, but that effort was short-lived.

Still, Discord released a statement assuring us that they plan on releasing well-optimized features in the future.

It is safe to assume that if Discord adds more fantastic features, they will gain more recognition and being a fellow gamer myself, I would like some features to be free.

Discord plans on implementing more video-sharing features and it is also possible for them to attain more investors.

As of now, the future looks bright for Discord.

Go and check our other article on how to react on Discord.

Conclusion

I hope the information in this post has helped you. I made sure to research extensively and to only write the latest and most relevant information regarding how Discord makes money.

If you make a Discord Nitro account, I hope you have a smooth experience, and being a Nitro user myself, I can confidently say it is worth it, especially if you are into streaming.

I hope you have an amazing experience in using Discord and good luck!