In the Company of Strangers: Social Influence from Anonymous Peers in Online Game Settings.

This article investigates the impact of anonymous peer interactions on consumer purchase behavior within an online competitive video game context. Using detailed purchase and gameplay data from a large South Korean gaming platform, the study finds significant peer effects whereby a 10% increase in anonymous peers' spending leads to a 0.7% increase in a player's own spending. The research empirically tests two theoretical mechanisms—informational influence and competitive concern—and concludes that peer effects are primarily driven by informational influence, meaning players learn from others' purchase behaviors to reduce uncertainty, especially when they have less contextual knowledge. Competitive concern, or status threat, was not supported as a driver of peer influence despite the adversarial setting. The study also shows that peer influence is stronger for purchases of highly visible (salient) in-game items and demonstrates through simulation that targeting socially active players who interact with less experienced peers can enhance marketing effectiveness by leveraging informational influence. These findings offer insights for academics studying social influence in digital environments and provide actionable guidance for video game marketers aiming to harness peer effects in freemium gaming models.