Discord on Monday unveiled Nitro Rewards, which supplies Nitro subscribers access to offers from other gaming and lifestyle brands for no additional cost.
Currently, Nitro offers upgrades to Discord, like more profile customization options, HD streaming, and the power to upload files of as much as 500 MB. The subscription is optional, as you may easily use the platform without paying, which is an intentional design selection on Discord’s part. But that also means user acquisition could be tricky.
“Nitro has all the time been about how we will meaningfully upgrade the Discord experience, but not limit it [for free users] in any large way,” Stanislav Vishnevskiy, Discord’s co-founder and CTO, told TechCrunch.
Nitro Rewards is offered Nitro ($9.99 monthly) subscribers, but not for users on the Nitro Basic ($2.99 monthly) plan. However the appeal of Nitro Rewards could help improve value for subscribers and due to this fact retain them.
At launch, Nitro Rewards will provide access to the bottom tier of Xbox Game Pass, which helps you to play greater than 50 PC and Xbox games, including Fallout 4, Stardew Valley, and DayZ. The tier also includes 10 hours of cloud gaming, which helps you to stream games from a PC or Xbox to other devices.
Nitro Rewards also provides discounts between 15% and 30% on a rotating number of gaming hardware from Logitech G, SteelSeries, and KontrolFreek. Over time, Discord plans to partner with more firms for similar offers.
“Nitro is the largest contributor to Discord revenue, and it’s been growing healthily yr on yr,” said Vishnevskiy. “That is about doubling down on that and providing you more value again … It’s truthfully an enormous thanks to [subscribers] for supporting us. But in addition from a business perspective, it’s higher retention on subscription as well, because people have more value for it.”
Initially conceived as a chat platform for gamers, Discord today plays a much larger role in online culture, serving as a community hub for every kind of users — from crypto users constructing decentralized community projects to pub-goers organizing local craft nights to activists coordinating political protests. Discord also has an outsized role within the tech community, and founders have been using the platform to convene beta testers or power users of their products and communicate with them more directly. The platform has grown to over 90 million every day lively users.
But this increased exposure signifies that Discord has to confront the identical complex, online questions of safety as larger platforms. The corporate is currently preparing to roll out age-verification measures because it faces more lawsuits over children’s online safety.
Update, 5/11/26, 3:00 PM ET: Discord initially told TechCrunch that Nitro Rewards is offered to all Nitro subscribers; nevertheless, Nitro Rewards shouldn’t be available to the Nitro Basic tier.
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