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Glam Goddess Meets Pixel Pioneer: The Rise of Gaming Creators

Published January 8, 2026
Published January 8, 2026
Troy Ayala

Key Takeaways:

  • Gaming culture drives beauty trends through digital self-expression.
  • Brands collaborate with diverse creators for authentic community reach.
  • Influencers leverage artistry to validate performance-driven beauty products.

As gaming culture and beauty entertainment blends, brands are looking to collaborate with creators who combine gameplay, transformative artistry, and digital self-expression.

While the beauty industry has long relied on influencers to shape consumer taste, the next frontier lies in tapping creators whose influence extends beyond traditional makeup looks and into fandom-driven communities where identity is explored through characters and immersive aesthetics. Currently, the global gaming creator economy is valued at $28.6 billion in 2025, projected to reach $104.3 billion in the next nine years.

From pro-level cosplayers using high-performance pigments to streamers whose camera-ready looks normalize beauty in gaming spaces, creators are shaping how and where beauty resonates online.

However, not all gaming-adjacent creators have verified brand relationships, opening the doors to potential businesses who wish to snap them up. The following list highlights the creators with proven artistry and clear relevance to brands seeking meaningful entry points into the gaming world. Together, they represent the growing convergence of beauty, community, and digital culture.

Pokimane
Followers: 7.3M TikTok, 6M Instagram, 9.4M Twitch

Imane Anys (Pokimane) is recognized for her warm personality and natural aesthetic. Primarily playing League of Legends, Valorant, Minecraft, and Fortnite, Anys is often seen wearing soft, camera-ready makeup during streams. Pokimane has collaborated with beauty brands including Winky Lux, creating her own palette and lip products. Her influence sits at the intersection of gamer-girl culture and approachable beauty, making her a clear fit for brands targeting Gen Z. With millions of followers across TikTok, YouTube, and Twitch, Pokimane pioneered the “Gamer Glam” aesthetic—a lightweight complexion, fluffy brows, and subtle shimmer.

Jessica Nigri
Followers: 3.6M Instagram, 958.8K TikTok, 1.2M YouTube, 179K Twitch

A recognizable name in the gaming industry, Nigri offers beauty brands access to a deeply loyal, fandom-driven audience. Her gaming—ranging from League of Legends to Skyrim and Final Fantasy—often incorporates bold glamour and intricate details, making her a natural partner for brands emphasizing color performance and long-wear formulas. Nigiri is often seen using NYX Cosmetics and Mehron products, using her platform to showcase pigments, SFX materials, and full-coverage complexion products in dramatic, character-led contexts. Her content blends high production with playfulness, demonstrating how beauty can enhance identity exploration. Nigri remains influential to consumers who view cosmetics as creative tools rather than everyday essentials, offering authenticity, significant reach, and decades-long cultural relevance within gaming.

Kinpatsu Cosplay
Followers: 562K Instagram, 334.8K TikTok, 315K YouTube

Tayla Barter AKA Kinpatsu Cosplay is known for her beauty-driven character artistry, transforming gaming and anime icons into hyper-real, high-perfection recreations. With a signature style that mixes flawless complexion work, precision detailing, and expertly crafted wigs, she elevates cosplay into a form of editorial beauty storytelling. Barter’s looks balance technical mastery with a cinematic finish, making her one of the most influential creators in the beauty-gaming crossover space. Whether she’s channeling a fierce heroine or stylized fantasy character, Kinpatsu Cosplay brings a polish that inspires aspiring cosplayers and professional makeup artists alike. The creator often shares social media updates about games she plays including League of Legends, Apex Legends, and Borderlands. Kinpatsu Cosplay has previously teamed up with Riot Games and Techland, as well as brands including Kryolan and other brands tied to SFX using their products for covering tattoos or achieving specific character looks.

Hendo Art
Followers: 411K Instagram, 80.6K TikTok,  73.9K YouTube, 13.8K Twitch

As a respected figure in the cosplay community, Hendo Art is a go-to partner for artistry-forward brands such as NYX Cosmetics. Her transformations—often inspired by games like Overwatch, Cyberpunk 2077, and Final Fantasy, demonstrate product performance in demanding contexts where color payoff is non-negotiable. Beauty brands value her ability to showcase full-coverage foundations, pigments, and SFX-friendly formulas in a sophisticated, narrative-rich format. Hendo Art’s audience spans both core gamers and creative beauty consumers, making her ideal for brands positioned at the intersection of both. Her content elevates cosplay into a form of editorial beauty, helping brands validate their products within a performance-driven environment.

Glam & Gore Mykie
Followers:2M Instagram,519.5K TikTok, YouTube 3.79M

Occupying a rare lane in the beauty landscape, fusing beauty techniques with cinematic SFX to create transformations that intersect horror, gaming, and alternative beauty, Glam & Gore Mykie’s collaborations with NYX Cosmetics highlight her dual influence across both mainstream and pro-artistry categories. Mykie’s work showcases products under the stress of prosthetics, high pigmentation, and extended on-camera wear, making her a valuable partner for brands seeking credibility in performance makeup. Her gaming-inspired looks—drawing on titles like Resident Evil and Dead by Daylight—bring elevated, storytelling-driven approaches to beauty marketing, appealing to consumers who embrace bold, experimental aesthetics. Mykie’s tutorials demystify complex techniques, empowering fans to explore both fantasy and editorial beauty precision.

Sweet Anita
Followers: 624K Instagram, 2.4M TikTok, 1.6M YouTube, 1.9M Twitch

Sweet Anita, a prominent English Twitch streamer and YouTuber who has built a major following through a distinctive blend of gaming, live commentary, and candid personal storytelling, began streaming in 2018. The creator quickly rose to fame due to her openness about living with Tourette syndrome. Anita’s content spans Overwatch, community-driven gameplay, reaction streams, and “Just Chatting” segments, where her humor, vulnerability, and improvisational style have cultivated a deeply loyal audience. With more than 1.8 million followers on Twitch and a substantial YouTube presence, she has become one of the most recognizable voices in inclusive gaming culture. While not primarily a beauty creator, Anita is valued by brands and media for her authenticity, mental health advocacy, and ability to bring underrepresented experiences into mainstream digital spaces. Her influence extends beyond gaming, shaping broader conversations about accessibility and creator well-being and making her a standout candidate for beauty brand collaborations.

Valkyrae
Followers: 3.3M Instagram, 2.4M TikTok, 4.7M YouTube, 1.57M Twitch

Known for her soft-glam aesthetic and steam-ready complexion, Valkyrae is a strategic partner for beauty brands. While her now-discontinued skincare line RFLCT was controversial due to a lack of scientific-backing surrounding blue light protection claims, it demonstrated the industry’s recognition of her crossover potential and the appetite for gamer-led beauty brands. Her presence positions beauty in front of a demographic brands have struggled to reach: young, highly engaged female gamers who look to creators for product discovery. Valkyrae influences product categories from lightweight complexion to hydrating skincare and gloss-forward finishes, while her GRWM streams offer real-time product education, making her a valuable voice for beauty brands in the gaming space.

Abby Roberts
Followers: 1.7M Instagram, 15.7M TikTok, 798K YouTube

One of the best-known transformation makeup artists on the internet, Roberts merges gaming culture with high-impact beauty looks. Known for looks inspired by Fortnite, Valorant, and The Last of Us, Roberts recreates characters and stylized aesthetics inspired by these gaming worlds. Roberts has collaborated with major beauty brands, including Morphe—with whom she launched a full collection—Fenty Beauty, Anastasia Beverly Hills, and KVD Beauty through sponsored campaigns and editorial-style content. As a Gen Z icon with millions of followers, Roberts consistently influences trends surrounding alternative looks, character-inspired beauty, and bold color expression, appealing to both gamers and beauty consumers and positioning her as a go-to for brands seeking to reach a digitally native, fandom-driven audience.

As beauty, gaming, and digital culture merge, these creators illustrate a powerful shift in how consumers discover, interpret, and celebrate cosmetic artistry. No longer confined to the vanity mirror, beauty now lives inside character builds, cosplay transformation, livestream chats, and the hybrid identities players craft online.

These influencers spotlight how to not only shape aesthetic trends but also redefine what credibility, community, and creativity look like in a rapidly expanding creator economy. For brands seeking authentic entry points into gaming culture, this convergence represents more than a marketing opportunity; it is an invitation to participate in a new era of self-expression, where beauty meets gameplay and the next generation's influence is being written in pixels.

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