Mobile
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In-game purchases
Beyond the web shop: how new channels like Discord, Telegram and creators are becoming D2C revenue streams
September 4, 2026•8 min
Your web shop is the foundation of direct-to-consumer, but it's no longer the only place D2C can happen. The studios pulling ahead in 2026 are treating it as the center of something wider, using channels like Discord, Telegram, offerwalls, and creators to reach players where they already spend time.
The web shop still matters, and it remains the foundation of any serious D2C strategy. But the question for most studios isn't whether to run one anymore. It's where else their players are, and how to meet them there.
That's what the Xsolla Web Shop Ecosystem is built around: the storefront at the center, with a connected set of channels extending out from it to bring players in and grow revenue beyond the shop itself. This article breaks down four of those channels, what each is good for, and how they work together.
Xsolla tools that can help: Bot in Discord for mobile game sales Discord is where the most engaged mobile gaming communities already live. Studios can sell directly in-server, with a purchase button attached to a message that lets players buy an offer without leaving the conversation. Because the audience is already warm and in the right context, it works especially well for high-intent campaigns, like limited-time offers tied to in-game events or role-specific rewards sent to specific server segments. It uses the same catalog from your Xsolla Web Shop, so there's no second store to manage, and setup is self-service in Publisher Account, live in around two days. Bot in Telegram game store Telegram is the strongest D2C signal in MENA and CIS markets, where it's the dominant gaming community channel with tens of millions of monthly active users. Players in these regions are already used to buying inside Telegram, so the friction of a community-based purchase flow is low and the trust that comes from meeting players in their preferred channel is high. For studios with player bases in those markets, it reaches an audience that standard web shop traffic strategies often struggle to convert. Offerwall for mobile game rewards Offerwall reaches deeper into the non-paying segment. Most mobile players never spend money directly, but a meaningful share will engage with rewarded ads in exchange for in-game value, which brings them into the D2C value loop while still generating revenue for the studio through the CPE model. It's the piece traditional D2C misses. Your web shops and the two bots all monetize players ready to spend. Offerwall monetizes everyone else and extends the LTV of casual players who'd otherwise be entirely outside the revenue picture. Creator and influencer affiliate links Creators are increasingly how mobile games get discovered, especially among younger players who decide what to play based on streamer and creator recommendations. Affiliate links let studios reach those players inside the trust of a creator's audience. The built-in branded purchase flows and commission splits mean attribution flows back to the studio, and the creator automatically gets their share. It's the channel that meets players outside the game entirely and brings them into the same revenue stream as everyone else, without the overhead of managing each creator relationship by hand.
Why D2C is becoming a multi-channel conversation
D2C looks completely different for mobile games in 2026 than it did a few years ago. What started as the App Store opened the way for the web shop, and the web shop has now opened the way for everything that comes next. It's now less a single channel and more a connected layer sitting across the places players already spend their time. Part of what's driving that is how far the category has matured. More than 800 web shops have launched on Xsolla's platform since 2021, and more than 70% of the top 100 grossing mobile games now run one. The studios that started with Xsolla Web Shop are the ones now asking what comes next. At the same time, players aren't only engaging with games inside the app anymore. They spend time on Discord servers, Telegram groups, Reddit, and creator content, where the conversation about the game is already happening. Studios that reach them in those spaces tend to convert better, because they're meeting players where intent is already high rather than dragging them somewhere new. Which channel matters most depends on the market, though. Discord and Telegram together host tens of millions of active members of the gaming community, but they're not interchangeable. Telegram, in particular, dominates in MENA and CIS markets where Discord adoption is weaker. A one-size-fits-all approach leaves a meaningful share of revenue on the table for studios serving those audiences. The biggest barrier to running all of this, the operational lift of managing multiple channels, is coming down too. Adding commerce to each channel used to require custom development, but with Xsolla Web Shop, it's now a built-in integration sharing the same catalog and backend. The infrastructure has finally caught up with the opportunity. While a web shop opens the door to D2C, the channels around it are how studios reach the players who matter most.The four channels worth knowing about
Each of these channels does something different and taps into a different kind of player behavior. Here's how they compare at a glance:| Channel | Player behavior it taps into | Offer types that convert | Setup requirement |
|---|---|---|---|
| Discord | Active community engagement, real-time game conversation | Limited-time offers tied to in-game events, season passes, rewards with Buy Button embedded into message | Configure inside Publisher Account, live in around two days |
| Telegram | Regional gaming community participation, particularly MENA and CIS | Community-led rewards, seasonal offers, regional bundles | Configure inside Publisher Account, shares Web Shop catalog |
| Offerwalls | Engagement with rewarded ads in exchange for in-game value | Reward-based offers for non-paying players, ad-funded in-game currency | Integration with existing Web Shop and game economy |
| Creators | Discovery and decision-making through creator trust | Branded purchase flows, commission-shared offers, time-limited creator rewards | Affiliate setup with commission and attribution rules |
Xsolla tools that can help: Bot in Discord for mobile game sales Discord is where the most engaged mobile gaming communities already live. Studios can sell directly in-server, with a purchase button attached to a message that lets players buy an offer without leaving the conversation. Because the audience is already warm and in the right context, it works especially well for high-intent campaigns, like limited-time offers tied to in-game events or role-specific rewards sent to specific server segments. It uses the same catalog from your Xsolla Web Shop, so there's no second store to manage, and setup is self-service in Publisher Account, live in around two days. Bot in Telegram game store Telegram is the strongest D2C signal in MENA and CIS markets, where it's the dominant gaming community channel with tens of millions of monthly active users. Players in these regions are already used to buying inside Telegram, so the friction of a community-based purchase flow is low and the trust that comes from meeting players in their preferred channel is high. For studios with player bases in those markets, it reaches an audience that standard web shop traffic strategies often struggle to convert. Offerwall for mobile game rewards Offerwall reaches deeper into the non-paying segment. Most mobile players never spend money directly, but a meaningful share will engage with rewarded ads in exchange for in-game value, which brings them into the D2C value loop while still generating revenue for the studio through the CPE model. It's the piece traditional D2C misses. Your web shops and the two bots all monetize players ready to spend. Offerwall monetizes everyone else and extends the LTV of casual players who'd otherwise be entirely outside the revenue picture. Creator and influencer affiliate links Creators are increasingly how mobile games get discovered, especially among younger players who decide what to play based on streamer and creator recommendations. Affiliate links let studios reach those players inside the trust of a creator's audience. The built-in branded purchase flows and commission splits mean attribution flows back to the studio, and the creator automatically gets their share. It's the channel that meets players outside the game entirely and brings them into the same revenue stream as everyone else, without the overhead of managing each creator relationship by hand.
How these channels actually work together
Each of these channels can run in isolation, but they're a lot more valuable when they're part of a connected D2C system. Take, for instance, a Bot in Discord that operates alone: it will use a different catalog from the Web Shop, creating operational overhead the studio has to manage. It’s the same for Telegram Bot – if it doesn't share player identity with the Web Shop, it’ll lose the data benefit. Similarly, creator affiliate links that don’t attribute back to the studio's broader analytics are just one-off sales. When all the channels are connected, however, everything changes. You get:- Shared catalog. Set up offers once, and they're available across every channel the studio runs.
- Shared identity. A player who buys through Discord is recognized as the same player who buys on the Web Shop, and the studio builds one view of behavior, not four.
- Shared analytics. Attribution and performance from every channel flows into the same place, so the studio sees what's working across the whole D2C operation rather than channel by channel.
- Shared payments. Pay Station handles checkout across every channel, so players get a consistent experience regardless of where the offer was served.
Where the ‘edge’ actually comes from
For most of the past decade, the question for studios looking at D2C was whether to launch a web shop at all. Today that answer is easy, since the web shop is the foundation; most studios serious about direct-to-consumer now have one or are working toward one. The real question now is what sits around it. The studios with the edge this year aren't the ones with the biggest web shops; they're the ones treating D2C as a network with Web Shop at the center and Discord, Telegram, Offerwall, and creator channels extending it to where their players actually spend time. Each channel reaches a different player context and adds a different kind of revenue. Together they widen a studio's D2C reach without adding to the operational burden. Xsolla Web Shop is built around exactly that, with Bot in Discord, Bot in Telegram, Offerwall, and creator integrations all sharing the same catalog and backend, so studios can extend their reach without rebuilding their infrastructure for each new channel. If you want to see what a multi-channel D2C strategy could look like for your game, explore Xsolla Web Shop in your Publisher Account. If you're new to Xsolla, talk with the team about mapping out the right channel mix for your audience.Featured articles
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