Monetisation, player retention and communities on Discord: Top tips incoming at PGC San Francisco

• Discord's Anthony Tešija will discuss UA and monetisation of mobile gamers through Discord at PGC San Francisco.
• The event takes place on March 9th, 2026.

Discord has long been popular among gamers as a place to chat about games. The platform claims to have evolved beyond a community server into a useful tool for developers, too.

To explore these uses, Discord will attend Pocket Gamer Connects Summit San Francisco on March 9th, 2026, where senior developer Anthony Tešija is set to discuss best practices for developers looking to acquire, retain and monetise mobile gamers through Discord.

On stage, he will deliver a holistic view of the platform, how it enables developers to cultivate communities and how to connect with players.

Quest campaigns and tips to retain those players will also be explored, and naturally, monetisation will be raised.

More to come

Tešija’s talk will be tailored towards everyone from game developers to product managers to community professionals. Teasing that session ahead of his on-stage appearance next month, Tešija told us:

"The Discord Social SDK supports both iOS and Android platforms, bringing the same opportunities for extending reach and playtimes through account linking to mobile games as well as PC and console.

"The key is taking advantage of the right features for a game’s genre. For example, making sure a casual multiplayer game leverages Discord-powered direct messages and lobby text would be key, while a battle royale would thrive with both direct messages and voice chat enabled."

PocketGamer.biz asked Tešija whether player retention goes beyond gathering feedback from users. He suggested this is "one piece of the puzzle", but creating a strong community can have a major impact in and of itself.

"It gives players a space to meet others, make friends, give feedback on the game, report bugs, talk with the developers, and learn about new content coming out," he explained.

"An active community on Discord can keep players in the loop between releases and even bring back players who have stopped playing. Developers can create bots to give players special roles, extend the game world within the server, and even run things like giveaways that give items back in the game.

"Taking it further, account linking through the Discord Social SDK enables the developer to keep track of players on their server, which enables the connection between their community and their game. We’ve also found that players who account link play more often and for longer."

Get more industry insights from our conference series, including Tešija’s talk, at Pocket Gamer Connects Summit San Francisco on March 9th.