Gamer t-shirts on Amazon Merch on Demand: Market size, bestsellers, and best practices

Gaming has taken the world by storm, enthralling audiences – both young and old – with the quests it presents, providing an adrenaline rush, and giving gamers an escape. Although initially the domain of males, female gamers are plentiful too, as both enjoy immersing themselves in a fictional world.

Gaming has grown so much that it has become its own market. A way of expressing one’s individuality. And what better way to do this than by donning a t-shirt that tells the world you’re a part of this growing community.

As such, sellers on Amazon Merch on Demand have yet another niche to explore. But what is the market size and scope for profitability? We explore this in more detail below.

How big is the gamer niche on Amazon Merch on Demand?

We initiated the research process for the gamer niche on Amazon Merch on Demand with the help of Merch Informer’s Products Search module. By typing in the keyword “gamer”, we got a best-sellers rank (BSR) of 7,370,258. But one keyword is insufficient for a thorough research process, so we dove into some variations.

For example, the broader keyword “gaming” gave us a slightly lower BSR of 6,278,277. Although these BSR figures are not necessarily the most competitive, they also need to be looked at in conjunction with other keywords and search volume. So, let’s take a closer look at these metrics.   

Keywords, search volume, and BSR

Because “gaming” has a lower BSR, which indicates a higher volume of sales, we targeted this keyword on Merch Informer to see what the associated keywords are.  In terms of metrics, we chose to focus on search volume and BSR.

Here’s what we discovered:

• “Games”: search volume – 151,721; BSR – 3,431,619
• “Video game games”: search volume – 91 549; BSR – 4,649,032
• “Video games games”: search volume – 91,301; BSR – 4,649,032
• “Game”: search volume – 16,149; BSR – 7,022,113
• “Game on”: search volume – 15,255; BSR – 2,049,197
• “Game of games”: search volume – 14,507; BSR – 137,720
• “Gameing”: search volume – 6,007; BSR – 7,469,146
• “For gaming”: search volume – 5,848; BSR – 801,981
• “Games video games”: search volume – 5,715; BSR – 4,649,032
• “Game’s”: search volume – 4,098; BSR – 7,469,146
• “Gaming and”: search volume – 1,619; BSR – 774,509
• “Games for video games”: search volume – 1,511; BSR – 524,263
• “Game over gaming”: search volume – 1,503; BSR – 903,465
• “Gaming video games”: search volume – 1,303; BSR – 4,162,890

From the above, it appears that there’s quite a broad BSR range going from the low hundred thousands up to and over seven million. However, the key thing to note is the massive search volume for the “gaming” keyword.

It goes over 2.5 million and this is an incredible search volume that sellers can and must take advantage of.

Listings saturation

To complete the next piece of the puzzle, we headed over to Amazon.com, refined the search parameters, and identified the listings count for some of the most popular apparel products related to gaming.

We found that gaming t-shirts for women and men, as well as for girls and boys, all yield 60,000 results. This makes the market quite saturated.

Coupled with the 2.5 million searches for gaming-related t-shirts, this makes the market incredibly dynamic, indeed.

As a final observation, it must be said that the results are somewhat surprising because unlike the anticipated trend that there would be more gaming t-shirts for men, the numbers are in fact identical.

Pricing

Before wrapping up the market overview, we must also examine the pricing for gaming-related t-shirts on Amazon.

Using Merch Informer to do the calculations for us automatically, we know that the lowest price for these shirts is $13.07, the highest price is $35.95, and the average price is $17.34.

What are some of the bestselling merchants doing right?

Our research process yielded some interesting insights from the bestsellers in the gaming category. In fact, we specifically identified two listings that are performing reasonably well.

First up, we have Gaming Designs for Gamer Boys as the seller, who offers the “Funny Video Games Gaming Design for Gamer Online Gaming T-Shirt”. With a low BSR of 98,893, it has made 27 sales in the past 30 days at a price of $15.95.

And then we have the Mom Dad Xmas Stockings Tee seller and their “Gamer Heartbeat Video Games Gaming Boys Teens Men T-Shirt”. Once again, with an exceptionally low BSR of 25,681, this seller has made 104 sales in the past month at a price of $19.98.

Keywords

So, what do these sellers have in common? They both use variations of the highly searched-for keyword “gaming” in their listing titles and descriptions. These variants include “games”, “gaming”, and “gamer” – basically covering all the possible search queries in the niche.

Design

Their designs are also quite unique, with the first seller relying on text-only to bring across a funny point. In fact, it specifically asks: “I’m not denying anything but define too much gaming”.

The second bestseller mentioned above has opted for a design-only offering that creates a connection between a heartbeat monitor and a gaming console. As such, despite their differences, both target the love for gaming and the sense of humor that gamers supposedly have.

Prices

And of course, there’s the pricing. With the average price in this niche hovering around the $17-mark, both sellers have opted to price as close to this as possible with the first bestseller going a few dollars under, while the second bestseller has gone a few dollars upwards.

What is the profitability in the gamer niche?

To calculate estimated profitability within the gamer niche, we took the number of sales of the two bestsellers mentioned above and multiplied these by the selling price.

Consequently, our calculations show that the first bestseller has so far made earnings in the region of $430.65, while the second has earned around $2,077.92.

It therefore becomes abundantly clear that sellers targeting male gamers can earn anywhere from a few hundred dollars up to and over $2,000 per month.

This makes the gaming t-shirt niche one of the more lucrative markets on Amazon Merch on Demand.

Our recommendations

Sellers interested in entering this popular niche would do well to follow these tips:

Optimize for “gaming”

Regarding keywords, be smart when it comes to the ones you select. Keywords are used in both titles and descriptions. Employing them intelligently to create smooth-flowing text to describe your product offering will go a long way to help ensure you position yourself well. It will also enable the Amazon algorithm to crawl your listing and rank you higher.

As such, keywords such as “gaming”, “gamer”, “game”, “video games”, “games for PC”, and others are a must in your listing optimization strategy.

Use humor and wit in the design of the t-shirt

The next important element is your design. We studied the two bestselling listings in this niche carefully and can conclude that you can have both text-only and design-only offerings.

In either case, your sense of humor and wit need to come to the fore. Offer unique designs that set you apart and speak in your audience’s language.

And yes, this means learning some gaming memes.

Price around the average

Finally, there’s the need to price accurately. It’s a well-known industry secret that charging just around the average for t-shirt products is the optimal way to reach your audience.

In this case it’s around 17 bucks per item.

Wrapping up

With over two million searches for “gaming” on Amazon, you need to be taking advantage of this niche. If not, you risk losing out on a massive clientele. However, reaching your target audience means following a holistic listing optimization strategy.

And one of the best ways you can do this is through Merch Informer. It’s possibly the industry’s smartest and most helpful platform that helps you do everything from A to Z in the merch design and listing optimization process.

For only $9.99 per month, it’s a tiny investment you can’t miss out on.