adminHitscan is a creator analytics platform designed to help game publishers understand who is making content about their games and where creator partnerships may have the greatest impact. Developed by the team behind NoScope at marketing consultancy Open World, the tool brings creator discovery, performance tracking and partnership history into one workspace.
How Hitscan helps publishers work with creators
Open World senior vice president of creator programs Adam Dempsky says Hitscan is intended to give publishers a clearer view of creator activity around their intellectual property. Teams can use it to identify potential partners, review existing relationships and see how games are being covered across creator channels.
The platform also aims to make information more accessible across an organisation. Creator marketing, brand and product teams may otherwise manage information separately, making it harder to share a consistent picture of partnerships. A shared workspace can help teams coordinate their efforts and review creator activity using the same data.
Practical tip: Publishers assessing creator programs can use relationship history alongside performance measures. Reviewing when a creator joined a program and how their activity changed afterward may provide useful context beyond a single campaign’s results.
Hitscan can also flag when a creator who previously contributed to a program has been inactive for 30 days. Such alerts may help teams decide when to check in or consider re-engagement, particularly when staff have limited time to monitor every partnership.
Hitscan can help publishers identify creators having an impact on a game. | Image credit: Open World
Creator data tailored to each game
Hitscan brings together information about creators and allows publishers to organise it using factors such as geography and the history of a working relationship. Publishers can view creator activity in the context of a particular game, including how their title ranks among the games a creator covers.
Rather than relying only on a broad list of popular streamers, the platform is designed to shape creator directories and workspaces around each publisher’s needs. A large publisher and an independent studio may have different portfolios, priorities and team resources, so the most useful way to sort and interpret creator data can vary.
Open World says Devolver Digital and Skybound have used Hitscan. Devolver Digital has described the platform as useful for monitoring coverage of older titles and seeing which creators return to them. This kind of tracking can help publishers keep an eye on both overall visibility and activity around individual games.
For discovery, Hitscan considers signals such as viewership and engagement, as well as the fit between a creator’s audience and a game. A creator’s previous coverage of comparable or competitive titles may offer context when evaluating a new release or a franchise that is unfamiliar to the market. These signals can inform research, but publishers still need to assess whether a creator’s content and audience suit their goals.
Hitscan brings together detailed information about creators. | Image credit: Open World
Tracking creators across video platforms
Twitch and YouTube remain important channels for games content, while short-form video has added another format for creators and publishers to consider. A creator may stream for several hours, publish selected clips on YouTube and then edit those clips into shorter videos for TikTok.
These formats can reach different audiences and serve different purposes. Livestreams offer real-time viewing, while shorter videos can help content travel beyond a creator’s regular live audience. When reviewing performance, publishers should consider the platform and format rather than comparing every view or engagement figure as if it came from the same type of content.
The platform’s longer-term ambition is to serve as a central place for creator-program information and performance insights. Open World has also linked this direction to its acquisition of influencer marketing company Drope.me, which was built to involve creators in performance marketing. The stated goal is to connect Hitscan’s intelligence and tracking capabilities with tools for activating and sustaining creator programs.
Future development and AI-assisted insights
Dempsky has described AI as a potential way to make large datasets easier to use. For example, the platform could help identify creators whose profiles resemble those of a publisher’s highest-priority partners. This is presented as a future opportunity to help teams interpret information, rather than simply giving them more data to sort through.
For publishers comparing creator tools, useful considerations include which platforms are covered, how creator relationships are recorded, what performance signals are available and whether the workspace fits the team’s processes. Hitscan’s central proposition is to combine those views and help teams understand creator activity over time.
What Hitscan means for game publishers
Hitscan is designed to help publishers discover relevant creators, review partnership history and track how creators contribute to game coverage and engagement. Its value depends on how well its data supports a publisher’s specific games, objectives and available resources. For teams seeking a more unified view of creator activity, Hitscan brings those functions together in one platform.
