How to Market a Simulator Game

Short answer: simulators are hard to sell in a trailer and easy to sell in a 20 second clip. The appeal of a sim is usually one satisfying or absurd action, and a creator reacting to it shows that better than any montage. Find that action, give creators the game and a three line brief, and let many of them post in the same few days. Four recent sim campaigns on Trapster landed between $0.15 and $0.23 per wishlist.

Sim developers often feel their genre is a hard sell. The trailer shows a bus driving down a street, and it's hard to explain why that is fun. Short-form video solves this, because the viewer doesn't watch the bus. They watch a person trying not to crash it.

How have sim campaigns performed?

Five simulator campaigns with public case studies:

Game	Wishlists added	Cost per wishlist	Campaign
The Bus	+11,082 in 4 days	$0.15	21 creators, 913,420 views
Professional Ship Simulator	+10,874 over 12 days	$0.15	31 creators, 2.1M views, budget spent in one day
Global Rescue	+9,000 in 7 days	$0.18	18 creators, 750,000 views
Forensics: Crime Scene Detective	+7,000 in 3 days	$0.23	16 creators, 36 videos, 1.17M views
Vacation Cafe Simulator	+6,514 in 6 days	$0.69	62 creators, 108 videos, 2.24M views

Vacation Cafe Simulator is a different situation from the rest: its page already had about 168,000 wishlists, so the campaign added volume on top of a big base, timed to a release date reveal.

Why do sims work so well in short form?

Because the core loop of a good sim fits in a few seconds and is easy to understand without context. A bus taking a tight corner, a ship docking, a crime scene being dusted for prints. Nobody needs to know the controls or the story to get it.

The other half is the reaction. A creator's first try at parking a bus is more entertaining than a perfect run, and their surprise sells the realism better than a feature list.

How do you find your game's watchable moment?

Look for the action a player would show a friend. A few from the case pages:

• The Bus: the whole brief was "drive a bus, film your reaction".
• Forensics: Crime Scene Detective: dusting for prints, matching DNA, reconstructing bullet trajectories.
• Heavy Cargo's Heavy South expansion: oversized loads on cliff roads. 52 videos in eight hours reached 2,729,394 views at an effective CPM of $0.88.
• Shipping Store Simulator 2037: the scan, sort and pack loop. The whole payoff was whether that loop looks satisfying on screen.

If you can't name the moment in one line, test it first. Post a few of your own clips and see which ones people watch to the end. The small budget guide explains how.

What should the brief say?

Less than you think. Global Rescue gave each creator a key pack and a three line brief, "play, react, post", with no scripts and no approval rounds. It added 9,000 wishlists in a week at $0.18 each.

Add your must haves (the game title on screen, the Steam page in the description) and your don'ts, and stop there. The full brief checklist is in our influencer marketing guide for indie games.

Which creators should you look for?

Not only sim channels. The Bus pulled creators from simulation and cozy game niches. Global Rescue went to simulation, survival crafting and cozy management creators, a game whose audience overlaps with city builders and disaster games. Think about who would enjoy your game, not only who covers the genre.

On Trapster, creators see the campaign and opt in, so the roster tends to sort itself by interest.

Should you post on one platform or all three?

All three. Several Global Rescue creators cross-posted the same recording to TikTok, YouTube Shorts and Instagram Reels to get more reach out of it. We compare the platforms in TikTok, YouTube Shorts or Instagram Reels.

Does it work for a demo?

It can, but measure it differently. A demo has no purchase to drive, so the goal is to show the loop to as many players as possible. Shipping Store Simulator 2037 had 43 creators post 64 videos in 48 hours for its demo, 417,242 views with a 2.75% like rate. Track wishlists and demo players, as described in how to measure wishlists from a creator campaign.

Once it works, repeat it

Aerosoft ran several Trapster campaigns before Heavy Cargo's expansion, and Alice Games ran two before Vacation Cafe Simulator. Each campaign teaches you which moment and which creators work for your game, and the next one starts from there.

"Trapster was the first time I saw wishlists moving in real time from a dashboard."
Andreas Berger, Marketing Lead, Aerosoft, on The Bus

FAQ

Are simulator games good for influencer marketing?
Yes. On the four sim campaigns above that started from smaller pages, cost per wishlist landed between $0.15 and $0.23.

What kind of video works best for a sim?
A creator trying the core action for the first time and reacting to it. Unscripted first impressions beat polished montages.

Do I need sim creators specifically?
No. Cozy, survival and management creators often bring the right audience too.

How much does a sim campaign cost?
Campaigns on Trapster start at $3,000. See how much game influencer marketing costs for how CPM and cost per wishlist work.

Show your sim to the right players

Send us your Steam page and tell us the moment you think sells the game. We'll come back with a forecast for views, creators and wishlists. See Trapster for studios or book a call.

Sources: campaign figures come from Trapster case studies. Cost per wishlist is the creator budget divided by wishlists added, platform fee excluded.