At Dairy MAX, we're committed to building trust in real dairy by meeting young consumers on platforms they already love—and Fortnite has proven to be a powerful stage. We launched Farm Tycoon in April 2024 as our first Fortnite Creative world, inviting youth to experience modern dairy farming firsthand: managing plots, upgrading infrastructure and discovering dairy nutrition within gameplay.
Within the first phase of the launch, Farm Tycoon delivered more than 85,000 hours played, over 20 million impressions, and 45,000+ direct engagements, with an average session time of 27 minutes—nearly double Fortnite’s average. It proved that real-world education could drive virtual immersion.
Building on that momentum, we introduced Diner Tycoon in July 2025—bringing the journey full circle from farm to fork. Players step into the role of diner operators: filling orders, preparing dairy-rich meals, upgrading kitchens and building their brand—all reinforced with embedded facts about dairy nutrition and sustainability. They essentially played dairy into their memories. Diner Tycoon surged to #1 Top Rated Fortnite experience in the U.S. and globally within its first weekend.
Our goals were clear:
Educate and engage young consumers through highly immersive, playful experiences.
Tell a complete, integrated farm-to-table story—spanning production to consumption.
Demonstrate real-world impact through measurable metrics, including impressions, awareness and e-commerce sales.
Together, these immersive experiences reimagine dairy storytelling—and set a new precedent for how real food can be relevant, fun and measurable for the next generation.
To bring Farm Tycoon and Diner Tycoon to life, we started with one core insight: Gen Z is not just digitally native—they're digitally immersed. If we wanted to make milk relevant again, we needed to move beyond traditional advertising and into their world. That meant entering gaming. Specifically, Fortnite—a space where 60% of Gen Z already spends time weekly.
We partnered with the creative developers at Zoned Gaming to build two custom Fortnite Creative maps that would connect players to the real story of dairy in an authentic, meaningful way.
In Farm Tycoon, players take on the role of a modern dairy farmer—managing operations, upgrading equipment, and learning about sustainability and animal care through gameplay. Our goal was to dispel outdated perceptions of farming while reinforcing dairy’s role in a balanced diet.
Farm Tycoon’s success led directly to the vision for Diner Tycoon. If Farm Tycoon showed where dairy starts, Diner Tycoon reveals where it ends up: on the plate. Players operate a bustling diner, prepare dairy-rich meals, fulfill orders quickly and build their brand—all while absorbing nutrition facts and sustainability messaging embedded into gameplay. Again, playing it into memory!
Challenges & Differentiators:
Our biggest challenge was authenticity. Gen Z is savvy and skeptical. If the game felt too branded or forced, we risked losing them in seconds. To overcome this, we designed immersive, mission-based gameplay where learning was seamlessly baked in. Every upgrade, order and task was based on real-world data and dairy science.
The second challenge was tracking impact. Because Fortnite doesn’t allow direct analytics, we worked around the platform limitations by integrating an Instacart e-commerce click-to-cart feature promoted by popular gaming influencers. We partnered with well-known streamers like ExtraEmily, HeadShotChick, Sparkles_QT, and HappyHappyGal across Twitch and TikTok, who livestreamed their gameplay of Diner Tycoon. These four streams alone generated over 5.7 million branded impressions—with 69K impressions from dairy-specific chat engagement on launch day and 896K impressions from a single dairy-focused stream. Their credibility helped drive home dairy messaging in an organic, culturally relevant way.These influencers shared their favorite dairy foods, linking players directly to real-world product purchases through shoppable Instacart campaigns. This breakthrough not only bridged online-to-offline engagement—it allowed us to track more than $1.5 million in dairy sales, which equals 462,000 incremental pounds of milk. That's a huge win for our dairy farmers.
What makes this work unique is the full-circle approach. Most brands build one-off games. We built an evolving, connected ecosystem: Farm Tycoon focused on origin, Diner Tycoon focused on consumption. The entire experience was layered, culturally relevant and strategically reinforced with PR, influencer campaigns and new Gen Z-facing channels under our Level Unlocked brand.
We didn’t just launch a game—we created a movement that elevated dairy’s role in Gen Z culture.
Our objective was to engage young consumers in a meaningful, measurable way—by building trust in dairy through immersive digital experiences and connecting that engagement to real-world action. With Farm Tycoon and Diner Tycoon, we achieved just that.
Farm Tycoon brought players into the role of modern dairy farmers—resulting in over 85,000 hours played, 20M+ impressions, 45,000+ engagements, and an average play time of 27 minutes (nearly double Fortnite’s standard). The experience helped reshape perceptions of farming while planting seeds of trust in dairy’s benefits.
Diner Tycoon immediately accelerated momentum. Within weeks, it delivered 83,000 plays, 2.2 million minutes played, 4.7 million in-game orders completed, 68,000+ dairy facts read and 7.1 million map thumbnail impressions. It also generated 41.6 million in PR reach with 292 media mentions, and ranked #1 top-rated Fortnite experience in the U.S. and globally at launch.
Livestream support from influencers drove an additional 5.7 million impressions across branded content and dairy-focused interactions—furthering reach and reinforcing credibility with young audiences in a space they already trust.
What made these campaigns truly impactful was the integration of influencers and a shoppable click-to-cart feature. Influencers shared favorite dairy foods, which players could add to their Instacart carts—creating a bridge between virtual interaction and grocery store purchase. This strategy enabled us to track $1.5 million+ in real-world dairy sales, or 462,000 incremental pounds of milk sold.
This two-part experience built trust, delivered ROI and proved that gaming can be a real engine for change in food culture.
