How to get game review codes? Platforms for influencers

You often hear that a certain Youtuber Twitch streamer or video game journalist has received a video game review code for free. How do people get these review keys for Steam or console games? Let’s dig into this topic.

The best option to receive a game code for review is to use one of the popular platforms that connect influencers (youtubers, streamers, journalists etc) with video game publishers and solo developers.

Platforms offering game codes for online creators

There’s a handful of platforms that offer video games for reviews. Let’s review them.

Keymailer

One of the most established companies in this space. “Where game influencers and brands come together”. Keymailer offers games for review, performance marketing, and sponsored content for creators and influencers. With my small youtuber channel I managed to get great games there: War Mongrels or Hard West 2 for instance.

Keymailer offers to connect and verify your Youtube, Twitch, Facebook Gaming, Press Content (Website), Tiktok and Twitter accounts. There’s A LOT of games to choose from. You also connect your Steam account so Keymailer can verify if you activated the game there. You can choose the percentage that of you are sure you will review a game that you ask a review code for. Make sure to make a video or other content if you get the key.

Woovit

Another great platform that I only heard great stories about from other content creators. To get yourself accepted to Woovit and receive review codes you must be:

• Invited by a publisher to join Woovit
• Maintain Twitch Affiliate or Partner status
• A a minimum of 1,000 YouTube subscribers, channel views five times the subscriber count, 5 published videos over the last 90 days, and 240,000 public watch minutes.

Woovit only accepts Youtube and Twitch creators at this point. They have a great selection of games, you can get extra keys for giveaways and the support is good.

Lurkit

I head mixed opinions about Lurkit, but I got accepted quickly and I like it. The games selection is not that great, but they’ve got a nice gamification feature which is their currency – Lurkcoins, you get 200 for each game that you create content for and you can spend it for other games that are available only in their store. I managed to “buy” myself Sable and Ready or Not for Steam this way.

PressEngine

This is service mainly aimed towards video game journalists, not really content creators. If you are a video game editor or a website owner that covers video games space then this is for you.

IndieBoost / Catapult.gg

This is a platform established in late 2017, they have a good amount of games to choose from, you can link your Youtube, Twitch and Facebook Gaming accounts there. You can also add a website or a blog. The interface isn’t that great and there are games that have no remaining keys in stock.

Terminals.io

I never got accepted there, so I’d guess the waiting queue is long, but they offer a good selection of video game keys for Steam, PS5, Xbox One and Switch.

Rainmaker.gg (arsenal.gg)

This is a very new service, the biggest downside is that they have very little games to choose from. This is mainly aimed at Youtube and Twitch creators. Let’s hope they grow, so we can make a more detailed and informed opinion or review about them.

Steam Curator

You can get games instantly activated onto your Steam account if you have a big following as a Steam Curator. This has been exploited in bad ways in the past unfortunately.

Video game publishers creators programs

Lots of video game publishers offer their keys only via their own platforms, such as Capcom creators for instance. Solo developers also can be reached individually via their emails and Twitters.