The Next Decacorn is a Social Gaming App

Why

The creator economy is booming, yet it’s hitting an engagement ceiling. Platforms like TikTok and Instagram have scaled globally, but creators are feeling the burn as engagement stagnates and monetization hits roadblocks. Why? Because passive content only holds attention for seconds and lacks the interactivity fans crave.

Gaming, however, flips that script. It’s proven to be the most engaging, community-driven, and monetizable form of content. The next $10 billion company won’t be another short-form video app—it’ll be a social gaming platform that makes creating multiplayer games as easy as posting a TikTok.

Gaming: The Ultimate Engagement Machine

Gaming solves the problems creators face because it’s built around interactivity, long engagement times, and natural monetization:

• Time Spent: The average time a user spends in a personalized game is 12-40x higher than on any social media platform. This means deeper interaction, longer attention, and a stronger emotional connection to the content.

• Purchasing as Part of the Experience: In-game purchases are not intrusive. They’re part of the natural flow of the game. Fans are already primed to buy because they’re engaged with the experience. It’s not a banner ad you swipe past—it’s a skin, a power-up, or a custom tool that enhances the experience for the player, making it a win-win for both creators and advertisers.

• Shared, Community Experiences: Gaming brings fans together to experience content in real-time. Imagine being in the same game world with your favorite creator, going on quests, collecting exclusive branded items, and interacting with other fans. That level of community-building is impossible to replicate on platforms like TikTok or Instagram.

Here’s what many miss: gaming is the only form of content that can do all this at once—combine attention, monetization, and community into a single experience. And right now, creators don’t have an easy way to access that.

Why Game Creation is Currently Out of Reach

Despite the potential of gaming, the barrier to entry is too high for the average creator today:

• Technical Complexity: Platforms like Roblox and Fortnite might allow for user-generated content, but they’re not designed for creators outside of the gaming industry. Learning to code or navigating complex development tools isn’t feasible for influencers or creators used to producing quick content.

• Development Costs: To build a custom game right now, you’d need to hire a development team. That costs anywhere from $50k to $500k and can take months. Not exactly a TikTok production timeline, right?

This is why creators continue to churn out videos—they don’t have access to the tools that allow them to easily create games. The next decacorn is going to change that.

How the Game-Building Process Works: Unlocking Game Creation for Everyone

Most people know how to play games, but 99% have never built one. Creating an engaging game requires a series of intricate decisions: designing the game world, setting mechanics, and integrating personalized elements like branding and music. For a first-time creator, this can feel daunting. So how do you make the process intuitive without sacrificing complexity?

Game creation tools traditionally fall into two extremes: overly simple systems that limit creativity or complex ones that require expertise. To break this mold, a game-building platform can turn the process into a series of guided, interactive steps. Basically a game creation flow that takes you through around 30 simple decisions with around 20 AI wrappers and modular game templates, each handling a specific part of the game-building experience. For instance, a user could start with a simple text prompt like “alien desert with ancient ruins,” and get a detailed environment in seconds as an output—complete with assets, textures, and juicification. The creator doesn't need any technical skills to get started.

The platform, however, must also cater to experienced developers. Advanced users should have the option to fine-tune elements. Aka- go a layer deeper in every single step of the creation. Tweaking lighting, adjusting AI behaviors, or modifying physics settings. This flexibility is key. While the core experience remains simple for beginners, deeper layers of control allow developers to create more complex, highly customized games.

This system doesn’t aim to replace existing platforms like TikTok or Instagram—it complements them. The ease of use allows creators to seamlessly integrate game creation into their weekly content schedule alongside videos and posts. The result? Longer retention per content piece, extended playtime, and a higher likelihood of fans staying engaged with the creator’s brand.

In under 15 minutes, any creator—whether an influencer, artist, or musician—can launch their own multiplayer game, without writing a single line of code. The platform makes game creation as easy as selecting a few options, customizing quests, adding branded elements, and clicking launch. All of this can be integrated with their personal brand, music, and e-commerce, transforming their fans’ passive consumption into an interactive, shared experience.

Fans can join these games, interact in real-time, collect exclusive branded items, and play alongside their favorite creators. In-game assets also become natural revenue streams. Creators can generate income through in-game purchases, exclusive passes, and e-commerce integration—with significantly higher conversion rates than traditional social media ads. By driving engagement and monetization, this system could enable 10,000x more games to be created annually, empowering every creator and fan—not just professional studios—to participate.

Monetization: A New Revenue Stream for Creators

Unlike current platforms where monetization largely depends on ads or sponsorships, gaming opens up new avenues for creators to earn. Creators make money through a split of in-game advertising revenue, which can include branded power-ups or in-game asset integrations. They can also sell subscriptions or passes to exclusive game content or events. And since the platform integrates seamlessly with e-commerce platforms like Shopify and TikTok Shop, creators can drive marketplace sales directly from their in-game stores—whether that’s digital wearables or physical merchandise.

This multi-faceted approach to monetization means creators don’t have to rely on traditional ad revenue models, giving them more control and flexibility over how they earn.

Why Gaming is the Perfect Solution for Advertisers

Here’s the game-changer: For advertisers, gaming presents a huge, untapped opportunity. Unlike traditional ads that users skip or scroll past, in-game advertising can be integrated organically into the experience:

• Product Placement as Power-ups: Imagine a branded power-up in a game where the player gains extra speed or skills. The player is benefitting, the creator gets paid, and the brand is being naturally showcased in a way that feels good for the user.

• Playable Assets: Brands can create playable items, avatars, or even game mechanics that users actively want to engage with. The experience is branded without being disruptive—it’s a part of the game itself.

• Organic Engagement: This type of advertising feels natural, not intrusive. It’s enhancing the player’s experience rather than interrupting it, leading to better brand perception and ultimately, more conversions.

For advertisers, this means reaching the right audience in a way that aligns with their experience, not detracts from it.

Conclusion

The next $10 billion company will look nothing like TikTok, Instagram, or YouTube. It’ll be a social gaming platform that gives creators the tools to build interactive, community-driven experiences for their fans in minutes. Gaming will become the backbone of the creator economy, solving engagement, monetization, and community-building challenges that short-form content can’t touch.

For creators, it’s a way to finally build lasting relationships with their audience and unlock new revenue streams. For advertisers, it’s the key to organic, non-intrusive marketing that actually works. And for fans, it’s a way to interact with the content they love, together.

This is the future of digital content. It’s not just playable—it’s personal, interactive, and built around the fan experience. And that’s why the next decacorn will be a social gaming app.