If you have decided to transform your love for video games into content that can be useful or interesting to others and already started your own YouTube channel, ensuring its growth may become an urgent problem. The fact is that today, more than regularly uploading new streams is needed. Below, we will help you understand your channel promotion strategy and share some non-obvious insights.
Choose a Niche and Analyze Your Competitors
Before starting to develop your channel, you must analyze the popularity of your gaming niche and check your potential competitors. Today, it’s not so easy to interest an audience, so it’s better to come up with a unique style of presentation and play, improve your skills, and take care of good video quality. Now, let's take a closer look at the best YouTube gaming niches for which you can create content.
Gameplay Walkthroughs
This gaming content is trendy among gamers, as many turn to walkthroughs when they get stuck in a complex game moment. In addition, people who, for some reason, cannot complete the game on their hardware or want to evaluate whether it is worth spending money to watch such clips.
Livestreaming
Previously, Twitch was the most popular platform for game streaming, but many creators switched to YouTube over time. Currently, you can meet some of them only there. So, if you want to do live streams, you will need specific skills for creating high-quality reactions, such as a great sense of humor. Third-party tools for streaming and re-streaming, like Gyre, can also come to your aid, as they will allow you to run several streams simultaneously, use pre-recorded content, and even make 24/7 streams.
Gaming News
It is a great niche for those who don’t like to play games publicly but still want to share everything related to the industry with people. If you do it right, your subscribers will want to watch each of your releases to learn something new about the upcoming titles or the ones already released, as checking game overviews is an excellent opportunity for the public to understand whether a game is worth buying.
Let’s Play
The niche is prevalent among viewers interested in watching how their favorite creator plays an exciting game and comments on what is happening. You can make clips on your own or connect to your friends. When creating Let's Play content, you must incorporate your creative gut to make gaming videos on YouTube engaging and interesting.
Games Tutorials
If you want to create game guides, be ready you must be a pro at it and have an excellent understanding of the games you are highlighting. The thing is that viewers watch such content not only to go through the game’s challenging sections and win but also to understand the complex game mechanics.
Speedrunning
Speedrunners are popular on YouTube because they play famous games in the shortest possible time. To make such content, you must have many years of gaming experience because a newbie won’t be able to navigate and get a quick passage. It is also essential to choose suitable games, as specific titles can take weeks or even months to complete.
What Equipment Should You Choose?
To grow a gaming YouTube channel, you need equipment you cannot do without:
- PC or Console for games. The most essential device without which you won’t be able to do anything is the PC or Console to run games. Moreover, for modern games, you must buy a powerful computer or next-generation Console (PS5 or XBOX Series X), while for older titles, an average-power PC or, for example, PS4 may be enough.
- Screen recording tools. If you want to play on a PC, you can use special software that you can install on your computer. But in the case of consoles, the best solution would be to purchase an additional screen capture device. Also, remember that you should set the video to 60 FPS for a better perception of the content.
- Camera. If you will make videos in which you will show yourself, you should equip your studio with a camera. It can be a webcam or a DSLR. However, if your smartphone takes good-quality videos, you can use it and purchase a tripod only.
- Microphone. Buying a microphone is better for shooting your gaming experience; viewers can hear your jokes or scream if the gameplay is terrifying. That’s why you must purchase a microphone that will transmit sound in good quality so your content will look much more professional.
- Lighting. Think about how you will look on camera. You should purchase good lighting to make the entire display look great. You don’t have to buy the most expensive lots; mid-budget lamps will be enough.
- Green screen. If you want nothing to distract your viewers in the background, buy a green screen. With its help, you can clear the entire room behind you, and only you will remain in the frame.
Come Up with a Good Name
Your YouTube gaming channel name is important because it is one of the first things your audience sees. Below, we have provided some tips to help you come up with this:
- Choose a name that is easy to write and remember.
- Consider making your name reflect the genre or game.
- The name must be up to 70 characters.
- Try to incorporate relevant keywords into your name.
- Avoid insults and curse words.
Release Videos Regularly
Regularly releasing new materials demonstrates to YouTube that your channel is active and viewers like it. The optimal number of clips depends on you, but uploading new ones at least once a week is justified. Your videos must be well-optimized so the platform's algorithms offer them to the audience.
Increase Interest in Your Content with Thumbnails and Titles
As a rule, viewers notice the thumbnail and the title at their first look. That is why you should pay maximum attention to these two aspects of post-production. If you insert the relevant keywords into the title, you can raise it to higher positions in search results. An enticing thumbnail can engage users to play your video, too.
Follow Gaming Trends and Cover Hot Topics
It is essential to stay updated with all the latest developments in the gaming industry and YouTube gaming trends. If you cover relevant topics in your videos, you will attract more people and views accordingly. You can highlight exciting news about games, start playing a new title on the day of its release, or, for example, look for Easter eggs and references. In any case, your content should contain something up-to-date.
Create YouTube Shorts
YouTube Shorts are trendy among people who dislike spending a lot of time viewing content. They are excellent for creating funny moments or quick tutorials. You can make Shorts with the most engaging parts of your streams. If you have nothing to show, you can try to make guides. Thanks to these 60-second videos, you can gain several subscribers as millions watch them daily.
Use Continuous Streaming Tools
Imagine you have a complete Resident Evil 4 Remake walkthrough, and not all of your subscribers have watched it. To cover larger audiences, you can resort to continuous streaming. For example, when using Gyre, you can run a 24/7 stream, and users from different time zones can join it. Moreover, you can run up to eight streams simultaneously on four platforms (like YouTube and Twitch).
Keep Experimenting, and Don't Give Up
We hope we have explained all the details of creating content on gaming topics. The main thing for you is to choose the most exciting niche, acquire good equipment, and develop creative gaming YouTube ideas. Therefore, we wish you the maximum number of subscribers and constant inspiration for your public activities.