As of June 2024, YouTube Gaming viewership has reached 6 billion monthly views.Not only that but there were 250 million gaming video uploads and over 90 million hours live streamed.
It’s because Gen Z loves to play video games - their favorite form of entertainment.
This blog will explore the future of YouTube gaming and what direction we should expect the platform’s algorithm to go.
Let’s dive in.
In this blog:
- Features for gamers
- What is the best content for YouTube gaming?
- Product Feedback
- YouTube Shorts Fund
- Monetization On YouTube
- What is the future of YouTube content creation
- Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
- Final Words
Features for Gamers
Teams at YouTube have been very active in developing handy features to help gamers produce immersive streams and engage the audience.
Gaming streamers are very versatile, talented, and skilled content creators building amazing brands on the platform.
They have been very successful in leveraging features like video on demand (VOD), Live Streams, and YouTube Shorts to share engaging stories and connect with their audience on a deeper level.
Moreover, they’re also utilizing several ways to monetize their content other than YouTube ads - Super Chat, Super Thanks, Ticketing, and much more.
All these features are helping the gaming community to share and engage with the best gaming moments and experiences.
What is the Best Content for YouTube Gaming?
With a growing interest in gaming videos, the future of YouTube Gaming is very promising. CouRage, head of gaming at YouTube, exemplifies how limitless creativity can capture audiences' attention. Here are some proven ideas to attract a gaming audience to your YouTube channel:
Gaming reviews: You can provide your opinion (for or against) about a game. For giving credible advice, you need to immerse yourself enough in the game so that you know exactly what your audience will expect from a review.
Live Stream videos: Live streams on YouTube allow real-time interaction with viewers.
Gaming news: The gaming community is very active and engaging. They always respond to the news; whether it’s about a new game or the release of an anticipated game they get very excited. To engage your audience, make sure to add your opinion about that as well.
Gaming tutorials: Game lovers always run into some hard levels they can’t clear, or they might have difficulty understanding a feature of the game. Tutorials are great in helping those people with these hacks and information that can help them pass certain roadblocks.
Top 10 games: List videos are a surefire way to attract a large audience and grow your channel. From the top 10 war games to the 10 worst combat games, there are plenty of ideas to come up with and grow your gaming community.
Game analysis: Creating analytical videos, explaining your perspective of a game, or explaining the overall impact of the game, is your best chance to establish your authority and attract a wider audience.
Gaming highlights: Capturing little scenes, while doing tricky moves or achieving something very difficult, is a fun way to hook your audience and engage them. Gamers love to share fun gaming moments and little wins with the community. With YouTube content creation, gaming Shorts can grow your audience in a short time.
Preview an upcoming game: With hundreds of games released every year, giving a sneak peek of an anticipated game is a fun way to generate huge engagement and attraction. Such videos get a crazy number of views since a lot of people want to know what should be expected with the game release and what not.
Product Feedback
Since gaming YouTubers have become mainstream content creators, YouTube is closely looking at what tools and features can help them even more in the future.
Gaming has evolved dramatically on the platform for the past few years and it has pushed YouTube product developers to seek the feedback of gamers regarding gaming-centered tools.
This collaboration enables the YouTube team to get feedback from creators regarding designs and product features and adapt to their needs for an immersive gaming experience for streamers and viewers.
These feedback sessions have helped optimize features like Live Control Rooms, Membership Milestone Chats, and Super Thanks to becoming more game streaming-friendly.
YouTube Shorts Fund
Like so many other communities, YouTube gaming has also gained tremendous momentum through YouTube Shorts.
YouTube launched a $100 million Shorts fund for 2023 to promote short-form video content on social media.
With the disruptive virality of TikTok and the unprecedented popularity of short videos, YouTube decided to reach a wider audience with short-form videos.
Many gaming creators are creating Shorts videos from their longer videos.
Fortnite player Lachlan has created a dedicated YouTube channel for uploading Shorts videos.
He turns his Live Streams and VOD content into interesting little videos and posts them on his Shorts channel. He hit 30 million Shorts views in September alone.
Monetization on YouTube
YouTube content creation has created a lot of opportunities for people to make money by monetizing their channels.
As of 2024, YouTube has paid over $107 billion to content creators in the last three years (2021-2024)
As we’ve seen earlier, gaming streamers are the ones who were early adopters in using various monetization options provided by the platform.
Currently, there are 10 money-making options available to YouTube creators - Ads, Premium, Super Chat, Super Stickers, Super Thanks, memberships, Merch, Ticketing, BrandConnect, and Funds.
YouTube is very optimistic that there will be a lot of monetization opportunities will be provided to the creators and businesses on the platform.
What is the future of YouTube content creation?
While it’s hard to imagine video content without YouTube in the next 20 years, the platform itself has to stay relevant and entertaining.
Interestingly, YouTube has managed to remain the star of online video edutainment by following Facebook’s model - whenever something is rising stick with it.
Most of YouTube’s popular features are just copy-cat ideas from other platforms; Live Stream was inspired by Twitch, Shorts is a TikTok adaptation, and the podcast hub was taken from Apple and Spotify.
We can say that YouTube hasn’t produced a single unique and original idea so far. If it has to stay alive in the future, then the management has to start initiating innovative and original ideas to stay in the social scene.
Frequently Asked Questions
Why did YouTube Gaming fail?
YouTube Gaming, the dedicated app for gaming content, shut down in 2019 due to low user adoption. Here's why it didn't take off:
- Low Usage: Despite a large audience for gaming content on YouTube (over 200 million daily viewers), the separate app didn't attract enough users. Only a small fraction of those viewers downloaded the YouTube Gaming app (around 11 million).
- Habit Already Formed: People were already accustomed to watching gaming videos on the main YouTube platform. The dedicated app didn't offer enough of a reason to switch.
- Redundancy of Features: YouTube aimed to integrate the best features of the Gaming app into the main platform. This promised to offer the same benefits without needing a separate app.
YouTube eventually merged YouTube Gaming back into the main platform to consolidate content and audiences
Can you start gaming YouTube channel in 2024?
With loads of monetization choices to encourage YouTube content creation, there hasn’t been the best time before to start a gaming YouTube channel.
The best part?
It doesn’t cost you the bank.
If you are a professional gamer or enjoy playing online games, starting a gaming channel can be both a fun and profitable full-time activity.
You’ll need the following tools to get started;
1. Webcam or digital camera for your video feed,
2. Screen capture software,
3. Graphics Design Tools,
4. Good-quality microphone,
5. Lighting,
6. Video-editing software.
2. Screen capture software,
3. Graphics Design Tools,
4. Good-quality microphone,
5. Lighting,
6. Video-editing software.
Are gaming YouTube channels profitable?
The answer is yes, gaming channels are profitable. There is a little investment for gaming equipment as you get started and after that, it’s all about giving time to your content creation and building an audience.
Making money on YouTube, like any other platform for that matter, is all about building influence in your niche.
If you’re building a global audience in the gaming space, it will take a longer time to build an influence. But, the time and effort you put in are worth the rewards, for sure.
With more monetization methods in the pipeline for the future, there is crazy money to be made with YouTube gaming channels.
Final Words
With more than ever gaming creators joining the platform every day, YouTube will remain the gamers’ favorite in the coming years. Getting feedback from the community and pivoting to the needs is vital to YouTube’s growth. It’s time to hear from you, now.
Are you a professional gamer or just love to watch gaming streams?. Do you think that YouTube will be able to grow its gaming community in the next few years?