Loot box content is associated with increased user engagement for YouTube gaming videos

Abstract

Video games frequently contain loot boxes, i.e. purchasable randomised virtual in-game items which share structural similarities with gambling. On YouTube©, there are multi-million subscriber video streams focusing on gaming, and many videos also prominently feature content related to loot boxes (e.g. box opening videos). We investigated whether user engagement for YouTube gameplay videos is related to the display of loot boxes, assuming that the gamblification of video games drives user engagement. Using web scraping, we collected various user engagement measures from selected YouTube gaming videos with and without focused display of loot boxes. The user engagement measures were subjected to dimensionality reduction via principal component analysis, and differences in user engagement for loot and non-loot box video content was examined. Confirming our hypothesis (see preregistration at https://osf.io/nh7zr), we found a significant positive effect of loot box content for the first component, reflecting higher active (i.e. commenting behaviour) and passive (i.e. views and likes) user engagement for loot box compared to non-loot box content. Higher user engagement for loot box video content may be linked to the gambling-like properties of loot boxes. Further, our analyses demonstrate that publicly available user data may serve as an early indicator of potential changes in problematic internet use and gambling behaviour.