Discord opens Ads Manager and pays players in Orbs for 15-second video ads

Discord has opened two new ad products for brands: Discord Ads Manager, a campaign tool, and Video Quests, a rewarded video format built for phones. The chat platform announced both in a press release on 29 September 2026. Players who watch a video of about 15 seconds earn Orbs, Discord’s in-app currency.

Discord Ads Manager sells Video Quests in an auction

Ads Manager lets brands set up campaigns, pick an objective, change budgets and follow results in real time. Prices come from an auction. Discord says the tool is in managed access for now and will open as fully self-serve in early 2027.

The older Quests format stays for brand campaigns under a new name, Video Quests Reserve. There the reward comes only after the whole video has played. Discord says the original Quests reached a 97% median completion rate. The new version pays out faster, at the 15-second mark.

Nabib El-Rahman pitches the format to performance marketers

Discord counts more than 90 million daily active users as of the second quarter of 2026. Nabib El-Rahman, its vice president of product and business, said the tools give advertisers more control. Marketing Dive notes that two thirds of Americans play video games, while ad spending in gaming has not grown at the same pace.

More objectives for Video Quests are due later, Discord says. Meta is also building around communities: this week it launched Forum, a separate app for Facebook Groups.

AppLovin and Unity already sell rewarded video to game studios

Rewarded video is a familiar format in mobile games, where players trade attention for coins or extra lives. AppLovin and Unity built large businesses on it and are now fighting in court over Ad Quality data. Discord now offers the same trade inside a chat app.

Until early 2027, only advertisers that Discord admits to the managed phase can buy Video Quests. Mobile game studios planning their first-quarter budgets can ask for access now and compare cost per install against their current rewarded networks before self-serve opens.