I just used the word like, now that's what I want to bring up. These influencers likes and dislikes now are what run the game industry whether you think they do or don't. Big Triple A game developers cater to and make concessions for these people on a daily basis and it honestly I feel that it ruins some games.
The amount of times my friends and I have gone into a game and seen the changes the developers have made to cater to Twitch streamers, YouTuber's, Professional E-Sports players, etc is astounding. For us, a big one is Rainbow Six: Siege, despite us having stepped back a bit from the game you could tell that it was being catered to by "influencers". Ubisoft catering to influencers and ignoring its main community is a travesty but that's what was happening. How ?? Well, for Siege, it will look at the pro league players and big streamers like Macie Jay and pay attention to what they think is wrong or what they don't like and immediately in the next update all those things are gone. Like the map, Tower, that was released as a part of the season with Dokkebei and Vigil it was an awesome map with unique places to defend and attack; professional players complained about corners being too dark and it was pulled from ranked play and only occasionally is inserted in quick play. Or certain guns that these people find too powerful, they immediately pay attention to the influencers when the community at large could be saying nothing is wrong with them. Gone. Other things, an influencer could say something as simple as "that was lame" and I guarantee it will be gone.
The problem is, companies know who is going to help them make money, and that is why they cater to them. They know a guy like Macie Jay can get people to buy a ton of R6 credits to buy gun skins and cosmetics, that Ninja can get people to buy V Bucks for skins in Fortnite, that PewDiePie can do anything in anything and people will listen, and even my boy Russian Badger (I'd never say a bad word about him) even companies see his influence and will cater to him. That's what matters to Triple A devs, not their community, but the money they make from people and these influencers intentionally or unintentionally become shills to these corporations by showing off their "cool gear" or "awesome stuff". It's especially bad when companies like EA pay guys who open FIFA or Madden Ultimate Team packs, then changing their algorithms so that when these guys open a card pack they get an outstandingly rare card, then change it back because they know all the kids who've watched their favourite influencer has just seen this and is now going to sift money out for those sweet FUT or MUT packs.
So why I feel that influencers ruin the game industry is simple.
1) They have too much sway over the way the game is designed (ex: they can get the devs to change things if they don't like it)
2) They have too much control over their followers and are able to manipulate them, intentionally or unintentionally, into doing things
3) They are corporate shills who are often willing to take deals in order to get money, not caring if they hurt someone that isn't them (ex:that FIFA Ultimate Team example)
4) They create a bad example for everyone in the game space.
5) They create a terrible fanbase willing to stick up for them despite what they do to the games industry.