Taking a look at one of the most popular online combinations of our time.

Over the past few years, YouTube has been made home and has made impact to one of the world’s most popular form of entertainment, Video Games. With over 486 Billion in total views this year, Video Game related content has made up 15% of YouTube uploads, and has spawned a new era of Superstars, which we called “YouTubers” such as PewDiePie,  Vegeta777, and Stampylonghead .

A screenshot of the stream by YouTuber Felix Arvid Ulf Kjellberg better known as PewDiePie

From lowly streams to a billion dollar industry

YouTube video game streaming has had its lowly beginnings, with its origin greatly unknown but overtime has made it to 15% of all the content uploads, coming in second to the overall People and Entertainment Video Blogs, and is now billion dollar industry earning over 3.8 Billion in US Dollars.  Even Video Game companies (developers and publishers) have joined the fray with the leading Company owned Video Game Channel being Riot Game’s League of Legends with over 1 Billion views.

Frankly, we are not sure how Talking Tom made it to Top 3

When it comes to video viewership and content share by content creators though, Minecraft topped the list as of December 2014, with 62.7 billion views.

Statistics by TubularLabs.com

Publisher and developer investments on YouTube content viewership has also paid off, as companies have seen high returns with Minecraft, again, leading the race netting $305 Million in Net Revenues.

Statistics by SuperData.com

So, why YouTube?

In a research being made by Superdata.com, one big reason why Companies have chosen to market and support Video Game content creators on YouTube is because it offsets their rising marketing costs, and helps greatly in bringing brand awareness, as well as getting community feedback. Back in the day, people relied on reviews and advertisements to help them choose which game to play, but with YouTube streams, people can actually see other people play video games, and decide basing on how these streamers react, overtime gamers have been using online personality recommendations and using YouTube gaming videos as a basis for their purchases, 58% of American viewers alone decide on their purchases just by watching people play games on YouTube.

Much of Minecraft’s revenues are attributed to online created content such as streams by TheDiamonMinecart

In addition, YouTube streams and streamers has also lead to independent game developers having a share of the limelight as both streamers and viewers also look into creating new content based on these brands. One such example of this Indie-game YouTube success is Stanley’s Parable, which had its sales attributed to the developers encouraging players to post “Let’s Play” type videos to YouTube.

The Stanley Parable, an indie game made popular through numerous YouTube uploads and views.

What makes it so popular

Perhaps one will wonder, just how did YouTube get that extremely big? Well, the answer can be quite simple, together with the ongoing rise of the Online revolution, online videos have already become a primary way for the Video Game industry to reach its audience. Overtime people are opting towards being able to customize or filter what information they want to see, listen or watch depending on their preferences. YouTube adds to that customization or personalization factor as viewers get to choose, support, and even get feedback and interact with other players in realtime.