Minecraft selects impact.com to power its first affiliate program as the company scales AI, creator, and partnership capabilities
NEW YORK – August 26, 2026 – impact.com, the global infrastructure for partnership-driven commerce, today reported second-quarter results marked by Minecraft’s launch of its first affiliate program, a slate of AI-powered platform innovations unveiled at its annual iPX event, and continued global customer growth. During the second quarter, impact.com welcomed more than 700 new customers, growing its global customer community to more than 6,500 brands that rely on impact.com to power partnership-driven commerce.
A key milestone this quarter was Minecraft’s selection of impact.com to power its first-ever affiliate program. The program leverages impact.com’s partnership solutions, enabling Minecraft to seamlessly manage creator relationships, measure affiliate performance, and reward creators around the world through a unified platform.
The move reflects a broader shift as brands increasingly look to partnerships to build more authentic, measurable connections with consumers at scale.
“Marketing is entering a new era where growth is less about reaching more people and more about creating the right connections – with the right partners, creators, and consumers,” said David A. Yovanno, CEO of impact.com. “AI, creator commerce, and performance marketing are converging into a single layer of the customer journey, and the businesses that build the infrastructure to manage it will own the commerce relationships that drive discovery and purchase. Our job is to give brands the technology, marketplace and intelligence to turn those relationships into measurable, scalable growth.”
At its annual Partnerships Experience (iPX) event in Austin, Texas, impact.com unveiled its next-generation AI-powered partnership technology, alongside new creator commerce capabilities designed to help brands scale high-performing partnership programs. The three-day event welcomed more than 1,100 attendees, including 110 creators and nearly 60 speakers, representing every corner of the partnership economy. The event featured product announcements, customer success stories, and insights from industry leaders on the future of partnership-driven growth. iPX London marked its biggest turnout yet, bringing together 400 attendees and over 20 speakers across two stages in a single day, while facilitating more than 300 one-on-one meetings. iPX China, planned for September 3 and iPX Sydney on September 10, will complete this year’s global event series.
During iPX, impact.com introduced significant platform innovations that further strengthen its position as the infrastructure for partnership-driven commerce. New capabilities include:
- AI-powered partnership assistance and autonomous agents to automate workflows and accelerate decision-making, including a Recruitment Agent (closed beta) and AI Search Visibility, coming next month to help brands understand which creators and publishers are shaping AI-generated recommendations.
- A publicly available Model Context Protocol (MCP) connector, enabling impact.com to connect with AI-native tools and workflows and extend partnership data and capabilities into the broader AI ecosystem.
- Creator Storefronts enable creators to build personalized shopping experiences.
- In-platform social amplification and expanded creator discovery integrations to help brands identify and activate high-performing creators more efficiently.
- Faster creator payouts, helping brands strengthen creator relationships while reducing operational complexity.
Together, these innovations simplify how brands discover partners, scale creator programs, automate repetitive tasks, and drive measurable business outcomes.
In Q2, impact.com continued to provide marketers with timely industry intelligence through new benchmark research. Ahead of Amazon Prime Day, the company analyzed performance across 1,364 North American retail brands, revealing a major shift in consumer purchasing behavior. While clicks rose 9% year over year across the full pre-event and event window, transactions during the four-day event declined 25%, conversion rates dropped 31%, and consumer spending fell 45%, indicating that shoppers are researching more, purchasing later, and increasingly relying on loyalty programs. Notably, transactions peaked 12 days before the event’s final day, well ahead of the sale itself, highlighting the growing importance of pre-event promotional strategies and changing consumer buying patterns. The company also released its Mid-Year Partnership Benchmark Report, providing brands with additional insights into evolving partnership performance and emerging industry trends across the first half of 2026.
The Partnership Economy Podcast surpassed 570,000 downloads, continuing its growth as one of the industry’s leading resources for partnership professionals. Season 7 features conversations with executives from CNN, Best Buy, SharkNinja, and BetterHelp, exploring how leading organizations are using partnerships to drive measurable growth.
impact.com’s leadership across the partnership economy continued to be recognized throughout the quarter, with 15 award wins and shortlist recognitions. The company was named Best Overall Martech Company by the MarTech Breakthrough Awards, maintained its position as the #1 Top Partnering Platform in the World by Market Growth Reports, and earned four Gold and two Silver awards at the US Partnership Awards for excellence in partnership strategy, platform innovation, lead generation, and performance marketing. Additional recognition included a CODiE Award shortlist for Best Marketing Solution, five shortlist nominations at the Global Influencer Marketing Awards, and PMW Powerlist International recognition for impact.com CMO Cristy Garcia.
