News & Analysis

LinkedIn Adds Gaming to Boost Engagement

The Microsoft-owned networking platform wants people to spend more time with it

Trust social networks to do everything possible in order to increase engagement rates, even if some of us would like to believe that such strategies could actually cause more harm than help. The latest to join this bandwagon is LinkedIn, which now wants to engage its billion and more users into online gaming. 

The Microsoft-owned social platform is currently on top of the networking space, providing job opportunities, professional knowledge sharing and recruitment. Published media reports now suggest that the company is working on adding a gaming experience to the mix – just so that its users do not leave the platform in case the gaming bug bites them. 

Of course, it isn’t difficult to guess where the idea is coming from, given the viral success of games such as Wordle that boasts millions of players worldwide. According to a report published by TechCrunch, the company is currently making efforts to include games called “Queens”, “Inference” and “Cross-Climb”. 

LinkedIn confirms the news, but no info on launch date

The report quoted a spokesperson for LinkedIn to confirm that gaming would soon become a part of the activities that its users can participate in, but gave no specific details around when the new move would launch. Early indications are that the games would be organized by workplaces where companies get ranked by scores across these games. 

In other words, individuals who take up these games and play would have their scores collectively organized under their employers’ companies. How this benefits the company is not yet clear though it would be safe to expect some HR professionals to screw up their eyes over staff playing games during work hours! 

According to the spokesperson, the company is currently in the process of adding puzzle-based games on LinkedIn in order to “unlock a bit of fun, deepen relationships, and hopefully spark the opportunity for conversations.” Whether the platform would stop at these games or borrow some more from its owner and gaming behemoth Microsoft is for time to tell. 

Will Microsoft get its gaming prowess into the mix?

Readers would recall that Microsoft is a major force in the gaming business, owning gaming consoles such as XBox, while it also owns Activision Blizzard and the recently acquired ZeniMax which boasts revenues in excess of $7.1 billion over the last quarter. What’s worth noting is that Microsoft’s gaming business surpassed its Windows revenues for the first time. 

Of course, for now LinkedIn is silent on how or whether Microsoft is directly associated with this gaming project, but we believe it is only a matter of time that it does muzzle in. Given the popularity of online games – for PCs and smartphones – puzzle-based games are proving to be a new category buster, given its supposed skill requirements that ties-in well with the audience profile of LinkedIn. 

Publishers, networks battling for more engagement

As the battle between platforms and publishers hots up, including gaming as a means to sustain and grow engagement is only to be expected. Just two years ago, The New York Times acquired Wordle and in a short time, it has acquired millions of subscribers that also led to the developers creating a bigger platform for online puzzles and games. 

In the past, we have seen Facebook, considered to be the world’s biggest social network, taking to social gaming with titles such as Farmville becoming quite a range. However, in 2022, the company shut down its standalone gaming app after a decline in usage and shifted focus on to mixed reality experiences. 

Over the past few years, LinkedIn has sought to expand its engagement activities by introducing new features aimed at fostering engagement. The company is aiming to track the most popular online tools and bring it to the platform’s audience with a focus on the workplace and larger networking goals of individuals. 

The most recent ones, especially in the post-pandemic timeframe, related to education and professional development courses, while in the past the company sought to turn knowledge experts to share their perspectives via publishing and blogging. It also boasts of new video tools that assists influencers and helps their creativity.