In recent years, political campaigns have ventured into unexpected territories to connect with younger voters, increasingly turning to popular video games and online platforms.
From custom game maps and live streams to interactive campaign elements within gaming worlds, politicians are leveraging these digital spaces to reach demographics traditionally harder to engage.
This unique approach goes beyond typical social media strategies, with campaigns integrating political messages into games like “Fortnite,” “Minecraft” and “Animal Crossing,” transforming these virtual realms into extensions of real-world election efforts.
These gaming-based initiatives offer new ways to capture attention and deliver messages, aiming to bring a new level of engagement to the voting process.
Kamala Harris: Freedom Town and Video Game Campaign
In the final week leading up to the 2024 U.S. presidential election, Vice President Kamala Harris’s campaign took an unexpected turn into the world of gaming by launching its own custom “Fortnite” map: Freedom Town, USA.
This interactive “Fortnite” creative map featured key themes from Harris’s platform, such as tax relief for small businesses and affordable housing.
Gamers explored the map using code 733155366547, and popular “Fortnite” streamers like Huskerss and MODELMORG spotlighted it through partner streams to maximize reach.
Freedom Town was not the only virtual space the Harris campaign integrated; it also embedded campaign messages across other “Fortnite” maps, each one featuring custom visuals and audio cues.
One cue, a voice clip from Harris’s rival, former President Donald Trump, included the quote, “They’re eating the dogs, eating the cats,” adding a layer of political messaging within the game.
This push to connect with younger, predominantly male voters through “Fortnite” extended Harris campaign efforts like the Geeks & Nerds for Harris fundraiser, mobile gaming ads, and live-streamed gameplay featuring Harris’s running mate, Tim Walz, alongside Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.
While the Trump campaign did not adopt a similar in-game approach, Harris’s initiative underscored her focus on expanding her campaign’s reach through digital spaces where younger audiences were active.
Kamala World of Warcraft Campaign
On October 11, a unique livestream appeared on Twitch.
To the left of the screen stood Tim Walz, addressing a crowd at a Minnesota rally with the Democratic Party’s message. Meanwhile, nearly two-thirds of the screen was filled with gameplay footage from “World of Warcraft” (WoW), where a popular streamer showcased content from the game’s “Mists of Tirna Scithe” dungeon.
This unconventional split-screen livestream belonged to Harris’s channel.
This unusual livestream format blended political messaging with online gaming, an approach the Harris campaign hoped would draw in younger voters who frequented platforms like Twitch. The Harris team had begun streaming political speeches on Twitch in August, explaining that the goal was to reach “the hardest-to-reach voters,” which they identified as young people likely to shape the election outcome.
However, Harris’s speeches on the platform garnered only about 1,500 views on average — a modest reach within the Twitch community.
The strategy of incorporating WoW gameplay received mixed reactions. Some viewers found the campaign’s promotional efforts intriguing, while others were disappointed to discover that Walz gave a remote political speech unrelated to the game, leaving the gameplay to an unrelated streamer.
Although Harris’s Twitch channel saw a boost in views — hitting nearly 100,000 during the broadcast—it remained unclear if this attention translated into tangible support, given the game’s primarily middle-aged audience.
Tim Walz Crazy Taxi Campaign
Vice Presidential candidate Tim Walz embraced gaming as a campaign tool by appearing on Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s Twitch channel.
During the stream, the duo showcased both classic and contemporary gaming, starting with Madden NFL 25 before transitioning to the nostalgic Sega title “Crazy Taxi.” Walz played as the Vikings, his home team, while Ocasio-Cortez chose the Buffalo Bills.
As they discussed policies like infrastructure and housing, Walz likened the U.S. House of Representatives to “public school” and the Senate to “private school,” highlighting the House’s direct role in shaping policy.
The stream attracted around 12,500 viewers, where Ocasio-Cortez and Walz debated topics like coalition-building and the Senate filibuster, with both agreeing on its removal to advance key policies.
In the second half, they switched to “Crazy Taxi,” where Walz humorously reflected on his driving style, saying, “I’m like a New York cabbie: I’m driving the wrong way,” while Ocasio-Cortez asked if this was his real-life driving approach.
As a final nod to the unique nature of the event, Walz remarked, “Do you think a vice president has gamed before?” highlighting the unconventional and fresh approach his campaign had taken to connect with voters.
Joe Biden Animal Crossing Campaign
Four years earlier, past U.S. President Joe Biden’s campaign had also experimented with gaming as a campaign tool through “Animal Crossing: New Horizons.”
Using a different approach from live-streaming, Biden’s team created an entire “campaign island,” allowing players to visit a virtual space filled with custom design elements reflecting Biden’s political platform. This included campaign offices, stores, and even a replica of a voting booth.
The experience was immersive, with supporters roaming the island, encountering campaign staff NPCs sharing Biden’s slogans, such as “no malarkey.”
This digital approach gained traction on social media, with the island becoming a popular topic as players shared their visits and experiences.
By enabling players to explore the island through a custom Dream Code (DA-7286-5710-7478), players could visit the “Biden HQ” island, exploring virtual spaces that mirrored campaign themes, including offices, stores, and replica booting booths.
This strategy garnered significant attention on social media platforms, with players sharing their experiences and screenshots of the Biden-themed content.
The widespread sharing and discussion of these in-game elements indicate that the campaign’s efforts resonated with the gaming community, effectively extending its reach and fostering a sense of connection among supporters.
Though it’s hard to quantify the impact on voter turnout, the strategy brought political engagement into a widely played, relaxing game environment. This effort, paired with a series of socially distanced events and online fundraising efforts, reflected the campaign’s innovative approach during a time when in-person gatherings were limited due to COVID-19.
Emmanuel Macron Minecraft Campaign
This political video gaming trend is not exclusive to the United States; similar strategies have been seen internationally, such as in France.
In the French presidential election on April 10, 2022, incumbent President Emmanuel Macron’s campaign also targeted young voters, which was deemed a demographic at risk of record-high voter abstention. Polls showed that nearly a third of voters might skip the election, including half of the 18-25 age group.
To engage these disinterested voters, Macron’s team launched a “Minecraft” server designed to simulate a modern city, complete with replicas of key French landmarks like Paris’s City Hall and the Elysée Palace.
Players could explore the city, interact with NPCs based on real campaign staff, and see Macron’s accomplishments during his term.
According to Macron’s team, the server aimed to educate France’s youth, encouraging them to vote by connecting them to election issues in an interactive way.
The “Minecraft” server aligned with Macron’s recent public remarks on the Metaverse, where he expressed interest in a “European Metaverse” to strengthen France’s digital independence from tech giants.
Macron was not the only candidate to employ gaming in his campaign. A day before the “Minecraft” server launch, his opponent Jean-Luc Mélenchon’s team released a mini-game (LAECestTOI) modeled after the popular indie game “Baba Is You.”
This tactic of using gaming to reach younger audiences illustrates how political campaigns are increasingly experimenting with digital platforms to engage younger voters.
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez Among Us Campaign
In addition to “Animal Crossing,” the popular social deduction game “Among Us” became another platform for political engagement during the 2020 U.S. election. Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (AOC) launched her own gaming stream to encourage voter turnout among younger audiences.
The event, initially intended as a casual outreach effort, became a record-breaking success, amassing 440,000 live viewers, the highest concurrent viewership for a debut stream on Twitch at the time, even earning her a Guinness World Record.
Ocasio-Cortez’s approach stood out as a hands-on effort to reach voters, setting a precedent among politicians. While presidential candidates often participate in gaming campaigns indirectly, AOC took a different route, streaming herself playing “Among Us” and directly interacting with the gaming community. She later explained that the campaign’s purpose was to remind young people of the importance of voting and to encourage their participation in the democratic process.
Conclusion
In recent years, politics has found an unlikely new playground in the world of video games, where candidates and even nonpartisan groups are realizing just how much power these digital spaces hold.
It’s a fresh approach, and it’s one that might just be here to stay. As games continue to evolve, they are likely to play an even bigger role in how we talk about and engage with politics.
Who knows? The next big election moment might just be unfolding in a virtual city, on an adventure island, or even behind the wheel of a classic game.