As they say, all good things must come to an end. Okay, I’m being facetious (maybe), but Discord has named Humam Sakhnini as CEO, effective April 28, 2025. Sakhnini will also join Discord’s Board of Directors, while current CEO Jason Citron will transition to a role as advisor to the CEO and remain on the Board of Directors. Citron co-founded Discord with Stanislav Vishnevskiy and has been CEO since its inception. Vishnevskiy will continue to be the company’s Chief Technology Officer.
Sakhnini was most recently Vice Chairman at Activision Blizzard, but before that, he was President of King Digital Entertainment. He succeeded the founding CEO and led the company following its acquisition by Activision Blizzard. While he brings over 15 years of gaming industry experience to Discord, the community is understandably cautious about a former Activision Blizzard executive taking the reins.
The platform currently has over 200 million monthly active users worldwide, and while it’s definitely embedded with the gaming ecosystem, many of its communities have nothing to do with gaming. In the statement announcing Sakhnini as the new CEO, Discord talked about its financial performance, with continued strength in revenue growth and positive adjusted EBITDA for the past five quarters. It sure sounds like Discord is trying to set itself up to become a public company.
Whether or not this is the beginning of the end of Discord as we know it remains to be seen, but based on history, I’m not surprised the community is disappointed with the news.
“I’m incredibly excited to join Discord at such a pivotal moment. Discord stands as a massive, foundational part of the gaming ecosystem that millions of players, developers, and publishers rely on every day. What Jason and Discord co-founder and CTO Stan Vishnevskiy have built is truly remarkable — a platform with an undeniable product-market fit where hundreds of millions of people connect around their passion for gaming and shared interests,” said Humam Sakhnini. “I look forward to working with Stan and Discord’s talented team to scale our business while staying true to the company’s core mission and the special connection it has with player communities. We’re still at the beginning of gaming’s impact on entertainment and culture, and Discord is perfectly positioned to play a central role in that future.”
