In-Game Influencer Marketing: Brand Activations in Roblox and Fortnite

The short answer

In-game influencer marketing means a brand buys visibility or builds content directly inside a game — not a feed post, but a 3D ad, a sponsored experience, or a branded “island” players encounter while they play. Roblox sells its ad formats (Immersive Ads, Rewarded Video, Homepage Feature) centrally through its own and third-party buying platforms, while Fortnite runs on brands partnering with creators who use the build tool UEFN (Unreal Editor for Fortnite) to build branded experiences — plus a bidding placement called Sponsored Row. Neither platform has documented Danish usage data.

Why is in-game marketing structurally different from the Academy's other channels?

Every other channel the Academy covers — TikTok, Instagram, YouTube, Twitch, Discord — is built around a feed, a video, or a conversation between a creator and an audience. Roblox and Fortnite are something else entirely: the advertising is part of the gameplay itself. A user doesn't encounter a post with a visible sender, but a 3D object, a sponsored room, or a whole “island” they move around inside. That has three consequences for a brand considering the channel:

• The audience skews younger. Both platforms have historically had a high concentration of children and teens (Gen Alpha and younger Gen Z), so the channel only makes sense if a brand's target audience genuinely overlaps with that.
• There isn't necessarily an “influencer” in the traditional sense. On Roblox, a brand often buys ad space directly from the platform — with no creator as an intermediary. On Fortnite, the creator (the UEFN developer building the “island”) is central, but the role looks more like a production partner than a classic influencer posting on their own channels.
• Measurement is still immature compared with feed-based platforms. Neither platform has the same established ecosystem of third-party measurement tools as TikTok or Instagram — though both recently launched their own measurement partnerships, covered below.

Roblox: ad formats, buying and measurement

Roblox announced an expansion of its advertising platform on its own newsroom in January 2026, built around three core formats:

• Homepage Feature — a premium placement on Roblox's homepage, which Roblox states reaches the platform's 151 million daily active users. It's bought on a CPM basis, and a brand's video creative is converted into a clickable 3D environment without the brand having to build it themselves.
• Rewarded Video — a performance format where players watch an ad in exchange for an in-game reward. Per Roblox, as of January 2026 the format was live across more than 400 experiences and used by over 1,000 brands, with completion rates above 90% and viewability above 95%.
• Immersive Ads — a broader category of ads built natively into the gameplay rather than static banners.

A brand buys these formats either programmatically through demand-side platforms (Google, Amazon DSP, Liftoff) and supply-side platforms (Index Exchange, Magnite, PubMatic), or directly through a studio or creator partnership. Roblox itself names a range of brands that have run campaigns on the platform: Universal Pictures (Jurassic World Rebirth, Five Nights at Freddy's 2), Wicked, FIFA Super Soccer, NFL Universe Football, NBA Champions and NBA Heroes, Sam's Club and e.l.f. in retail, plus Mattel and H&R Block.

Mattel, per its own investor announcement, expanded its Roblox partnership across 2025–26 with multiple experiences spanning its brands — Monster High, Barbie, Hot Wheels, Masters of the Universe and UNO — with a Monster High experience launching 24 October 2025. H&R Block, per Roblox's own coverage, returned in 2026 after a 2025 campaign that combined paid media with an integrated experience introducing players, in an accessible way, to the tax implications of in-game earnings.

In June 2026, Roblox announced two new measurement partnerships at Cannes Lions: Ipsos, to study Gen Z and Gen Alpha behavior and digital self-expression, and EDO — described by Roblox as the platform's first gaming partner — to bring measurement of branded experiences and standard campaigns benchmarked against linear TV and streaming. Per figures Roblox itself cites from the Ipsos research, 52% of surveyed 13–34-year-olds spent more time on Roblox ads than they typically do on other platforms, and 63% found the product information more memorable than on competing platforms.

Fortnite: UEFN creators, Sponsored Row and branded islands

Fortnite works entirely differently. Epic Games doesn't sell a centrally managed ad format the way Roblox does — instead, the economy runs on creators using UEFN (Unreal Editor for Fortnite) to build standalone game experiences (“islands”) inside Fortnite. A brand can either get a bespoke branded island built in partnership with a UEFN creator or production studio, or pay for visibility through Sponsored Row — a bid-based placement in Fortnite's Discover section which, per Fortnite's own reporting and trade outlets including esports.gg and GEEIQ, launched in late November 2025 and remains active in 2026. Sponsored Row doesn't replace algorithmic discovery entirely, but gives a brand a more guaranteed placement for a launch or a sustained campaign, in exchange for bidding against other placements for the spot.

Note: fortnite.com and epicgames.com block automated fetching (HTTP 403), so the following UEFN economy figures are cross-checked across multiple independent trade outlets (including Tubefilter and GodIsAGeek) that covered Epic Games' own “State of Unreal” showcase in June 2026, rather than pulled directly from Epic's own site. Per that coverage, Epic Games has now paid out over $1 billion to UEFN creators in total since the program began. There's no published, documented price level for either getting a branded island built or bidding on Sponsored Row — both are negotiated or auctioned case by case, and no named 2026 brand case study for a Fortnite island could be confirmed via a primary Epic source.

Roblox vs Fortnite: two different models

When does in-game marketing make sense for a brand?

Run through this checklist before committing budget to Roblox or Fortnite:

• Does the target audience genuinely overlap with the platform's core users? Both platforms skew significantly younger than most other channels in the Academy — a campaign aimed at, say, a 35+ audience will rarely make sense here.
• Is the goal visibility and brand perception rather than an immediate sale? Neither format is built for direct, last-click attribution the way a tracking link or discount code is — see discount codes vs tracking links for that model, if sales attribution is the goal.
• Is there budget for a specialized advisory or production partner? A bespoke Fortnite island or a Roblox campaign run through a DSP typically requires specialized production — it isn't a task solved by simply extending an existing influencer relationship.
• Can the result be documented in a way leadership will accept? Roblox's new Ipsos/EDO partnerships improve measurement over what existed before, but it's still far from the maturity of CPM/CPA campaign measurement on, say, Meta — see measuring brand lift and awareness from influencer campaigns for the broader method of measuring awareness when sales can't be tracked directly.

Worked example

The figures below are hypothetical and illustrate only how a CPM-based Roblox buy can be calculated — they are not a documented market price and not a real Make Influence customer case.

A brand buys a Homepage Feature campaign at an illustrative CPM of $13 targeting 400,000 impressions: 400,000 ÷ 1,000 × $13 = $5,200 in total media spend. Because Homepage Feature is a visibility placement with no built-in sales tracking, a ROAS can't be calculated the way it can for a tracking-link or discount-code campaign — if a Roblox or Fortnite activation needs to be tied to sales, that requires a separate mechanism, for example a creator with their own channel mentioning a unique code in a video that links to the activation.

Common mistakes

• Expecting the same sales attribution as a feed platform. Neither Roblox's ad formats nor a Fortnite island are built for click-based, last-click tracking — measure the campaign as an awareness channel, not a performance channel.
• Assuming Danish usage data exists. No published Danish breakdown of Roblox or Fortnite users has been found — unlike, for example, Danmarks Statistik's figures for other platforms.
• Overlooking that the audience is often children and teens. Both platforms have a significant share of younger users, which should sharpen a brand's own internal review of how advertising is targeted and designed for a younger audience — on top of the ordinary disclosure rules, which still apply.
• Comparing the price directly with an ordinary influencer deal. Neither a Roblox ad buy nor a commissioned Fortnite island follows the same pricing structure as a post-based deal — see Twitch influencer marketing for another example of a channel with its own pricing structure.
• Forgetting disclosure if a creator promotes their own island elsewhere. If a UEFN creator builds a branded island and then promotes it as a paid partnership on, say, YouTube, the ordinary Danish/EU disclosure rules apply to that post the same way they apply to any other paid endorsement.

Make Influence's operational perspective

In Make Influence's experience, in-game marketing on Roblox and Fortnite is a structurally different discipline from ordinary influencer marketing — on Roblox, a brand often buys ad space directly from the platform with no creator as an intermediary, and on Fortnite, working with a UEFN creator looks more like a production project than an ongoing influencer relationship. We recommend a brand only moves into the channel if the target audience genuinely matches the platforms' younger core users, and that the campaign is measured from day one as an awareness and visibility effort, not as a sales channel on par with a tracking-link-based deal.

FAQ

Is in-game marketing the same as sponsoring a gaming YouTuber or streamer?

No. Sponsoring a streamer or YouTuber who plays Roblox or Fortnite happens on the platform the streamer broadcasts on (typically Twitch or YouTube) — see Twitch influencer marketing. In-game marketing, by contrast, is an ad or experience built into the game itself.

Is there Danish usage data for Roblox or Fortnite?

No — no published, documented Danish breakdown has been found for either platform.

Is in-game marketing only for large brands?

In practice, a commissioned Fortnite island or a programmatic Roblox campaign requires some production or media budget, so the channel is currently most realistic for brands with a dedicated awareness budget — but Roblox's own description of Rewarded Video positions it as accessible to a broader range of advertisers than a bespoke Homepage Feature or island campaign.

Do disclosure rules apply to in-game content?

Yes, to the extent a creator promotes a paid partnership outside the game itself — for example in a video showcasing a branded island — the ordinary Danish/EU disclosure rules apply the same way they apply to any other paid endorsement.

What about Discord communities built around gaming?

That's a different channel with its own structure — a private, membership-gated platform with no public feed and no ad product. See Discord and community-based influencer marketing for how brands sponsor or build a community there.

Is there a published price for Roblox ads or Fortnite's Sponsored Row?

No — neither Roblox nor Epic Games has published a fixed price level; both are negotiated or settled in an auction case by case.