Social Games for greater reach and engagement

Games are becoming part of major platforms

YouTube has a dedicated area for games called Playables. TikTok integrates Mini Games into its app, connecting them with videos, recommendations and sharing features. Facebook has had its own gaming ecosystem, Instant Games, for years. LinkedIn has also established Daily Games: short daily puzzles and brain teasers that are now a regular part of the platform.

Reddit is developing particularly quickly. The Reddit Developer Platform allows games and other interactive applications to run directly within Reddit. Developers can use established web technologies and game frameworks such as Phaser.

The principle is similar across platforms: the game comes to the user, without having to search an app store, install anything or visit a separate website.

Which games work well on social platforms?

The focus is usually on casual games that are easy to pick up and offer short rounds. Players should understand the mechanics within seconds, and the game should work well on smartphones.

Examples include:

• Puzzle and connect games
• Quiz and trivia games
• Endless runners and racers
• Skill and reaction games
• Physics puzzles
• Daily games
• Word games and brain teasers
• High-score challenges
• Simple multiplayer and community challenges

Reddit is already home to a wide variety of games built around these mechanics. The platform explicitly supports development with frameworks such as Phaser and encourages new daily games and community experiences.

What matters most is not complexity, but an easy start and gameplay that gives people a reason to play again.

Daily games and repeat visits

Daily games are a particularly visible trend. Rather than completing a game once, players receive new tasks, puzzles or challenges on a regular basis.

The idea is familiar from daily word and logic games and can be applied to many other genres: a new puzzle each day, a daily quiz question, a new racetrack, a high-score challenge or a shared task for a community.

Reddit actively encourages these games. In 2026, developer hackathons were held specifically for daily games and recurring community experiences, with support for established web game technologies such as Phaser.

For brands and publishers, these formats offer the potential to turn a one-off campaign into an ongoing point of contact.

From social games to your own platform

These developments also show which game mechanics can work on company websites, media portals and in apps.

A daily puzzle, quiz, racer or connect game does not have to live exclusively on a social platform. The same core idea can become part of a customer portal, an editorial games section or a campaign website.

This gives businesses another way to bring users back regularly and communicate content through play.

We develop these casual games both as standalone browser-based applications and as part of larger platforms and gaming portals.

Reddit as a platform for interactive advertising

With Interactive Ads, Reddit goes a step further by offering interactive applications as an advertising format in their own right.

Unlike a conventional image or video ad, users can interact with content directly within the ad, through quizzes, challenges or custom-built games, for example.

Reddit describes Interactive Ads as fully customisable interactive experiences that work directly within the Reddit feed. They are built on the Reddit Developer Platform. Early brands to test the format include Paramount Pictures, Electronic Arts, Red Bull and the Ad Council.

Paramount, for example, used a specially developed game to promote a film, while Electronic Arts created an interactive community challenge for Battlefield.

Reddit Interactive Ads as branded games

This opens the door to familiar advergame mechanics becoming a direct part of a Reddit campaign.

A racer could feature a brand's vehicles or products. A puzzle could reflect a campaign's visual identity. A quiz could build product knowledge, while a community challenge could track progress towards a shared goal.

The key difference from a conventional advergame is that users do not have to leave Reddit. The game itself is part of the ad.

Reddit Interactive Ads currently have limited availability and are delivered in coordination with Reddit.

Dutyfarm develops games for Reddit Interactive Ads

Dutyfarm develops custom casual games and interactive experiences for Reddit Interactive Ads.

We can build on established, proven game mechanics or develop a game specifically for a campaign.

Possible formats include:

Racers and endless runners

Short, fast-paced rounds with high scores and plenty of reasons to play again.

Puzzle and connect games

Simple mechanics that lend themselves to products, imagery or campaign themes.

Quiz and trivia games

Playful ways to share knowledge with a direct connection to a brand or topic.

Skill and reaction games

Mechanics with a very short learning curve that players can understand straight away.

Daily and community challenges

Recurring tasks, personal bests or shared goals within a Reddit community.

Technical integration, publication and media placement are coordinated with Reddit or the media or lead agency managing the campaign.

One game, multiple uses

A game developed for a campaign does not have to be limited to Reddit.

Depending on the concept, the same game idea can also be developed as a browser-based version for a campaign website, customer portal, trade fair, app or other digital channels.

A single game mechanic can become a campaign asset used across multiple touchpoints.

Games as a new content format

Social platforms show that games are increasingly becoming a content format in their own right, alongside video, text and images.

The aim is not to develop the most complex games possible. Often, the most successful mechanics are those that are immediately understandable, offer short rounds and give people a reason to come back.

For brands, this opens up a new form of communication: users do not just see the campaign, they take an active part in it.

Reddit Interactive Ads already make it possible to put this idea into practice as an official advertising format.