If you’re looking into how to become a YouTube gamer, the truth is that you’re not alone.
Thousands upon thousands of avid gamers have slowly started investing more time into their gaming career, and now there are more content creators than ever.
One of the best things about YouTube is that it allows pretty much anyone to make a living online, and there’s full communities of creators that have “YouTuber” as their official job title.
And within those creators, you’ll find a good percentage of YouTube gaming channels focussed on making content for eSports, MMORPGs and other forms of gaming too.
So, what does it take to start a YouTube gaming career online? We’re going to look at what sets apart the average to the very best in online gaming.
How to become a YouTube Gamer
Although being a professional gamer helps, the truth is that you don’t need to be skilled at gaming to become a YouTuber gamer (though it helps).
There are plenty of amateurs, like PewDiePie, that have used YouTube gaming to launch a much bigger career.
However, becoming a content creator centred around gaming is a very difficult career to break into, as the competition for YouTube gaming videos is pretty fierce.
There are a lot of people trying to do this and because of this, your biggest strength is going to be your ability to stand out. Although it may be hard, the good news is that it’s not impossible.
The one thing that this will take is hard work – it may seem easy, but there’s often a lot more effort going into making YouTube videos than you think.
There are a few things you can do which we’ll discuss here in a moment, but they are going to be difficult.
In order to attract viewers, it’s not as simple as starting up your recording device and playing a few games. You have to entertain, and you have to keep an audience’s attention.
Remember that in order to best perform on the website your content has to keep your audience’s attention for the full duration of the video ideally.
If you make a clickbait video that everyone clicks off of very quickly then your video will be lost as YouTube will not be recommending it to viewers. So, what do we need to become a gamer on YouTube?
What makes a successful YouTube gaming channel?
When it comes to any good gaming channel, they usually have many of the same characteristics;
- Basic level of gaming skills
- High quality editing and screen recording software
- The ability to add relevant commentary to your gameplay
- Some charisma is a massive bonus and can help with fast growth
- The ability to stay consistent with uploading, potentially for years into the future
The ability to research video topics and turn gaming trends into views is underrated, especially if you don’t have a prior audience to leverage.
Pre-requisite: Do you need to be good at gaming?
The first thing you’ll need is some level of ability in games. You can of course make gaming content without playing games in the form of news segments.
But if you want to be known for your gameplay and associated prowess, then you need to have some level of competency in the games you’re looking to create videos around.
Now, here’s where it changes up a bit. It depends on what type of content you’d like to make.
If you’re looking to make walk throughs of first impression videos of new releases, then it certainly helps to be a good gamer, as you’ll be able to give your audience a better indication of the difficulty the game possesses but you don’t exactly need to be the best in the world.
The other side of this is if you are looking to become known for your incredible gameplay. This would make the content creator side less important as your main selling point is going to be your individual skill.
However, this does mean you will need to be spending a lot of time mastering your game. Whether you’re a speed runner or a CS:GO pro it takes a lot of dedication to stay at the top of your field.
Working out what you’ll make your YouTube videos based on is the hard part. If you’re good to great at video games, then you should focus on your own gameplay.
If not, you may be better off making news content – there are gaming channels that specialise in different consoles like the Switch or Xbox, or even just an individual game like FIFA.
So, once you have an idea of what your content will be based around, we need a way of recording it.
Software & Equipment
When it comes to software, there’s two key pieces of software you’re going to need. The first, is recording software; this is going to be something similar to Bandicam which will allow you to record your gameplay and webcam if you choose to use one.
The second is going to be some editing software, depending on what type of content you’re going to be producing it will depend on the sort of software you need.
Editing your YouTube videos properly can be a massive factor in the success or failure of any influencer.
For example, if you’re doing highly edited content such as news or discussion based content where a lot of different cuts are going to be needed and potentially a lot of effects then a more substantial software will be more beneficial.
However, if you were producing vlog type content or playthrough content you could probably get away with something simpler than this.
Getting a good screen recorder is of the utmost importance if you’re going to be recording gameplay.
If you’re instead looking at creating a news channel or want to feature your face, you’ll also need traditional YouTuber equipment, like a solid camera, the right lighting and maybe even a green screen too.
Ongoing expectations
As a YouTuber in the gaming niche, your biggest and most important trait is going to be producing good content.
Creating quality content means your audience will do the job of sharing you and viewing your videos. Extra effort on your part to create content will save you a lot of time once the video is uploaded.
Next, is going to be consistency, it’s not going to get you the whole way there, but results show that a consistent upload schedule improves your viewer count and viewer retention.
If those subscribers know when to check for one of your videos, then they’re much more likely to be viewing. If you’re consistent, your viewers are consistent.
It’s also a good idea to try and build a presence on social media at the same time – you may just break through on Twitter or Twitch, which could give you the launchpad to build your YouTube career.
As the YouTube algorithm can be difficult to predict, there’s only a certain level of control you have over your own success – so, putting yourself out there across different social medias is definitely a good idea.
Conclusion
In conclusion there are an infinite number of measurements for success when it comes to gaming on YouTube. Primarily you’re looking to make the best videos possible and uploading as consistently as possible.
It is very difficult but making your content as interesting and unique as possible is going to be the way forward as far as generating interest to your videos.
When first starting out will be the toughest time. But if you have a passion for creating great content then you will only go from strength to strength and your progress will be exponential. You get more viewers, more fans and therefore more people sharing your videos to friends.
We hope this article has been helpful and the best of luck in your YouTube career.