Game on: Inside Razer’s quest to turn avid gamers into brand loyalists

The fandom around gaming and lifestyle brand Razer is the stuff that a marketer’s wildest fantasies are made of. Numerous gamers get tattoos of its three-snake logo—designed by Razer founder and CEO Min-Liang Tan. Gamers also create and showcase shrine-like setups featuring equipment from the brand. Fans visiting Singapore often make a pilgrimage to its office.

Even companies that have no direct link to gaming wish to tap into Razer’s equity and audience. Lexus designed a special-edition concept SUV, Gillette came up with well…a Razer razor; and Dolce & Gabbana partnered on a line of clothing, headphones, and a gaming chair with an eye-watering $3,350 price tag.

Razer's leadership attributes the brand's enormous success to its 'for gamers, by gamers' credo, which they say has been the driving force behind navigating turbulent times and shifting audience trends for two decades.

The not-so-secret sauce of a successful gaming company

At the outset, Razer holds an advantage that more conventional brands lack—significant overlap between its employees and the end users of its products. “About 90% of our staff are gamers,” says Nikhil Kharoo, global head of partnerships and PR at Razer, noting that having large segments of the target audience within the company helps anticipate and understand shifts in gaming.

However, in-house trendspotters are only part of the story.

Razer’s approach also indexes heavily on partnerships both within and outside the gaming space to build community. Kharoo shares with Campaign, “Razer is no longer in the battle of driving brand awareness. It's about communicating value—how we make the gamers’ experiences better with every product. Our marketing is a little more intimate.”

Hung Wei Goh, who spearheads this effort as global head of community, influencers, and esports, has seen this role evolve over 13 years with the company. Starting with outreach to a burgeoning esports scene, his remit has since expanded to cover social media, and increasingly influencers and gaming content creators. Speaking about the marketing approaches that have resonated best for Razer, he says, “The community dislikes being talked down to. Our competitors look at gamers merely as a slice of the pie. But we consider them fellow gamers and are authentic in how we speak to them. While some of the competition is very salesy, we are not afraid of memes and informal content which builds rapport.” 

One recent success story for Razer's informal content strategy was partnering with Vtuber (virtual YouTuber) Ironmouse, a gaming influencer represented by an anime avatar. Considered a gamble at the time—Razer was among the first brands to collaborate with a Vtuber—Ironmouse now boasts 1.2 million YouTube subscribers and twice that number on Twitch. So far, the collaboration has resulted in a range of custom-designed gear including a customisable mouse and mouse mats.

While this was Razer’s first collaboration with a Vtuber, the company also relies on more conventional partnerships within gaming, creating customised gear around massively popular titles such as Fortnite or Battlefield, and leading teams within esports. Goh shares, “One of our bestselling lines was a licensed custom mouse with Sentinel—one of the top teams for Valorant. The moment we launched the pre-order, all 2,000 units sold out right away.”

Razer does not disclose the value or the terms of these licensing agreements.

The company has expanded the scope of its partnerships beyond esports teams and popular games, to encompass live streamers and gaming content creators.“Younger audiences have a short attention span. We must play with content to chase them. Big billboard advertising is not what catches their attention,” notes Goh. However, the company does not back fickle content creators who are only in it for the money and the free swag, instead choosing to only opt for individuals who they deem as champions of the gaming community and have a passion for its brand and products.

Playing the game of community-building

Besides engaging key opinion leaders, Razer’s content programme aims to draw in the next generation of gaming influencers. Signing up to be part of the programme gives an influencer not just Razer hardware like microphones and webcams but access to tutorials from more established creators. Razer also offers creators who are part of the programme opportunities to promote Razer gear and earn via affiliate links.

Gamifying its creator ecosystem, Razer has introduced several tiers that go all the way from pioneers (5,000 followers and below) to titans (over 300,000 followers). Besides perks and incentives, creators above the basic tier are also eligible for bounties that give them an opportunity to showcase products, including those that are yet to be released.

Razer avidly tracks several parameters when it comes to creators, influencers and its activations on social platforms. Goh explains, “We consider reach, engagement, and whether affiliate marketing driven by our influencers translated into sales.” The company uses several traditional commerce metrics—for instance customer lifetime value to get an idea of the number of upgrades or side-grades (pairing a new keyboard with a mouse, for instance) to get a clearer idea of purchase cycles.

However, ultimately, the approach is built around what Goh says was “the right metric at the right time.” The brand is comfortable forging partnerships which may take a while to realise their full potential. He shares, “This is a bigger metric—we look at the numbers and say, ‘This can do better. How do we extract value from it?’”

Razer’s retail outlets have a similar approach—the focus being less on a quick sale, and more on creating a venue akin to a community square. Goh adds, “You can just stay at the store and play games all day hearkening back to the old days of LAN parties where people gathered to have fun. We never chase people away. The stores are the best place to experience Razer products and offers a great experience because our staff are gamers too.”

The stores double up as venues for Razer’s bespoke events, which are occasionally also hosted at the company headquarters. A recent event featuring Korean esports pro Faker (a Razer partner for a decade now) saw several thousand applications within a day of being announced, and over 13,000 entries vying for a signed jersey giveaway.  

Wooing a spillover audience

Over the years, Razer has been able to draw in an audience that is larger than just the gaming obsessed. The number of gamers including casual players who merely dabble with the hobby has touched 3.4 billion worldwide according to data from Newzoo a games data platform and the brand has benefitted from the heightened awareness around gaming.

Several brands have partnered with Razer wishing to tap into its equity, aesthetic, and audience of gamers, with co-branded products that typically sell at a premium compared to more vanilla variants. The limited-edition GilletteLabs Razer sold at $33 in Singapore, roughly twice the price of a regular razor from Gillette.

A Razer headset co-branded with Sanrio carries a $45 premium to the standard edition. The Dolce & Gabanna headset sold for $675 compared to the near $200 price tag for a regular variant.  

Razer claims to be spoilt for choice when it comes to brand partnerships. Explaining how collaborators are selected, Kharoo explains, “It is a case of how much we can do rather than looking for more. Collaborating with renowned international brands is a strategic endeavour that requires careful consideration and alignment of values. We want to ensure that every partnership is up to the standards of Razer and helps the brand as well. We have partnered with Sanrio, launched a mint with Mars, bags with Tumi; and an exclusive watch with Panerai. Our first filter is whether our audience connects with the brand. The second: are we committed to a longterm relationship rather than a quick marketing win? Are we cobranding and building something unique? It’s about having the same ethos and adding value to our consumers.”

Razer is also expanding to become a brand of choice for users who may not be gamers or whose most manic gaming days are past them. Goh says, “There’s a growing realisation that if it is good enough for gaming, it is good enough for performance. Everyone looking at the high end is willing to invest in something that will last them a while.”

The AI-copilot powered future of gaming

While Razer may have been among the pioneers of gamer exclusive gear and laptops, its competitors have not been standing still. Dell acquired Alienware in 2006, and Acer and ASUS who earned their spurs on more functional personal computers, now have gaming devoted verticals with Predator and Republic of Gamers. Razer is taking the competition head on, by paradoxically enough, focusing to an even greater extent on its own audience. Among the company’s announcements at CES this year was Project Ava, an AI-powered co-pilot that could provide gamers with in-game suggestions and advice on improving their performance, a product that’s as of now not being offered by any of its competition.

Asked about the increasingly crowded space for gaming related gear, Kharoo is candid, “Despite being leaders, we have a challenger mindset about what we have done before. We don't focus too much on what everyone else is doing and instead become better at what we do, while questioning the status quo.”

Goh notes “There's a beauty in dancing on our own, because we have the largest community. While we may get copied, it just makes us move more unpredictably and innovate faster.” He added wryly, “I don't see gaming fans sporting tattoos of our competitors.”

For more of Nikhil Kharoo's insights, hear him speak at Campaign360 in Singapore at Marina Bay Sands from May 27 to 28 2025.