The problem with gaming channels is the barrier to entry is very low.
Meaning anyone with a computer or a mobile and a game can start uploading gaming videos and become a creator.
This creates competition. So being a gaming creator demand one thing, that is Consistency.
If you look at videos of Mr beast gaming, their videos are not easily re-creatable by someone else. That creates a very high barrier to entry.
But there are new gaming creators coming up literally everyday, because it is so easy to start a channel. Gaming creators need to make sure their audience are fed with content almost on a daily basis.
Now if you don’t want to post everyday there are two things you could do:
- Either create videos that people can’t replicate
- or offer something new that people have never done before… Those are different topics
This is how most people start a gaming channel:
“I am so good at this game, let’s make a gaming channel, get a ton of views and make a lot of money.”
The problem with this approach is people don’t know who you are or what you have to offer.
That is why you have to provide some kind of value upfront and help others.
STEP 1: HELP OTHERS/SOCIAL HACKING
If you have a game that you love playing before making gameplay videos you need to help gamers who play that game.
How to do that. Make Tutorial Videos.
People are actually searching on YouTube for their problems with a game for example How to play 4-claw in BGMI, How to do skills in PES mobile etc..
And if you can make content specific to their needs you can rank in YouTube search and get a lot of views initially.
So what you can do is, identify what are the common problems that gamers in your niche is facing and try to come up with 5 video ideas. Do this if you already have a gaming channel and are not getting any views.
You can use my YouTube search ranking video to find out the best keywords and rank for them.
Now, social hacking is using trending topics or personalities (celebs) in your videos some way to get views from people interested in them. This tactics can help you get that initial views too.
Check the first videos of channels like Myth Pat, you will understand what social hacking is.
Once you get some views with the tutorials, you can then start to post gameplay videos. And some of the initial viewers you helped will probably stay and watch those videos.
So this brings me to the second point that is
STEP 2: DOUBLE DOWN
After trying a bunch of games you might be able to spot some games that are getting more views. That is where you double down on that particular game.
You create more tutorials, more walkthrough videos, more side missions and hidden detail videos for that particular game.
You must keep in mind that you shouldn’t make videos around a game if you don’t enjoy that game. That is a sure way to failure.
For me I don’t like fantasy and mystical games like God of War . So if I start a channel then I would definitely not play those games even if it is the most trending game.
But there is a problem with this approach.
STEP 3: RELEVANCE
Lets take gaming channel like Mortal or Dynamo Gaming, they were also doubling down on PUBG when it was a big thing.
But then PUBG got banned in India, more and more people stopped playing it and its popularity was also down.
This is a problem for all gamers who focus on one game.
Their channels relevance is dependant on the games relevance.
If the game has huge popularity, your videos will get more views, but we know that from history no game is going to stay relevant for so long.
So how can we as a gaming creator stay relevant?
Simply make videos on other games as well – Minecraft, Call of duty and so on
So now your channel is not tied to relevance of one particular game and also you will get a lot more views from people interested in other games as well.
A problem with this approach is your subscribers will be scattered into different sections, so don’t expect same views on all the videos.
To solve this what you can do is make niched game videos
If you look at channels like Jarno Opmeer (Professional EA Sports driver for Mercedes) most of his videos are based on racing games, even though his main passion is F1 game.
Now anyone interested in these racing games is going to watch most of his gameplays.
And that can get him more views in all of his videos rather than doing gaming videos from different niches like horror, action, or fantasy etc…
That is a great move for staying relevant.
Now don’t think that you can’t stay relevant for so long with a game, but it depends on the game.
For instance games like Football Manager (Eg: Zealand) or chess (Eg: GothamChess) can help you stay relevant for long. But just playing Far Cry won’t do that.
STEP 4: GOING VIRAL
This is another major difference between good gaming creators and newbies.
They know how to make a normal game into a viral video idea.
Look at the thumbnails and title of this video.
Now look at the this.
Posting gameplay is easy anyone can do that, but finding viral ideas inside the game is where you can get ahead.
The second video got more views because of how the video of gameplay is packaged as a YouTube video.
In the second video, rather than having a title like GTA 5 GAMEPLAY – PART 7 he used THE ULTIMATE GTA 5 CHALLENGE and used a great thumbnail to create curiosity in the viewer.
This means that more people are going to be naturally interested in clicking this video and find out if he did complete those challenge. And it got almost 3X views as his subscriber count.
And with some videos you won’t feel like this is a gaming channel.
One of the best way to create viral gaming ideas is to do challenges like MythPat did in the above video or just check out any of the MrBeast Gaming videos.
Viral Ideas work well when it is packaged properly with the right thumbnail and title.
If you find it difficult to find ideas for title and thumbnail, just reverse engineer…
STEP 5: REVERSE ENGINEERING
Understand that sometimes you need to see what works on YouTube and implement that, simple.
So when you find that some type of thumbnail is working well for gaming, or writing title in some format is going to work. We just have to copy those or take inspiration from them.
There is nothing wrong with this, its actually genius because all the work have already been done by other youtubers to see what is working, and all you need to do is take that from them and present it in your own angle.
It’s just like Bollywood music directors taking inspiration from (or just outright copying) old songs and producing hits.
Here is how to get ahead of other creators with reverse engineering. Subscribe to my newsletter “Creator Letters“ to receive thumbnail and title frameworks of viral videos on your inbox every Monday.
You can read my last weeks letter here.
Here is a bonus tip for you:
Repurpose
This is by far the fastest way to produce more content and grow on any platform you want.
Firstly, you need to live stream your gaming on all major platforms (YouTube mostly)
That is your main piece of content, from that 2 hour or 3 hour stream you can easily create 10-15 shorts, 4-8 clips. Now you have content for the whole week.
You do that consistently your videos will take off and will get to more people. We have AI tools that helps you with repurposing clips from your main piece of content.
This is applicable even for a non gaming channel. Upload a longer YouTube video and use that videos to create more shorts / reels / YouTube clips.
I am using this newsletter as my main piece of content to create tweets and LinkedIn posts and YouTube videos. You can find many ways of doing this depending on your niche.
In the next Saturday’s letter I will breakdown the perfect reels/shorts structure that you can use to get more views.
That is it for this week, if you found this helpful, here is the previous letter.
-Sayar