If you’re looking for YouTube gaming channel ideas, chances are that’s because gaming is one of the biggest audiences on YouTube right now, and for good reason. Gaming-related video content can be used to dive deep into the cultural inspirations behind video games, to expose gameplay and key features to an audience before buying the product, or just to entertain.
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In this article, we’ll be giving you our best YouTube gaming channel ideas. These ideas will be divided into proper “channel” ideas and individual “video” ideas. Let’s begin!
YouTube Gaming Channel Ideas
The ideas in this section deal primarily with what you can do with your channel as a whole. These ideas involve the appearance of your channel, your branding in your videos, and more.
Collaborate With Other Channels
What you may want to do for your gaming channel is work with other gaming channels!
These collaborations can be one-time affairs, or they can be the focus of the entire channel. Whichever way you choose to go, remember that collaboration will effectively combine your two audiences and allow both creators to experience great growth.
Make A Video Series
Many popular gaming channels on YouTube like to have a series or two that they’re known for. For instance, Errant Signal is known for his eponymously-named series of reviews and in-depth discussions: same for Satchbag‘s Case Studies. These shows come in other forms, too, such as Cinemassacre’s Angry Video Game Nerd series (which started out as the channel’s entire focus).
Decorate Your Channel!
If you care about presentation, your channel shouldn’t be missing an avatar/channel art, and it definitely shouldn’t have badly-made avatars and channel art, either. Among these YouTube channel ideas is one that any creator should heed: decorate your channel! If you don’t have the skills or expertise, you can easily hire experienced artists and graphic designers to do it for you.
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Add Intros/Outros
Another good touch for a gaming channel to have is an intro and an outro for each of their videos. Intro videos, however, should be short- maybe 2-5 seconds is the ideal range to show off your logo before the video starts. Any specific video-related introduction can follow.
Outros follow your main videos, and typically show annotations that allow users to navigate to one of your other videos. These can be designed as you like and go on for up to 30 seconds- this gives users plenty of time to see the options available and choose one that interests them, and this is vital for ensuring people stay engaged with your channel.
Make A Sidechannel
If you decide to focus on one thing on your main channel, you may eventually come up with a new idea. Sometimes the best YouTube gaming channel idea is just to make a new one! It’s OK to mix two different kinds of content on a single channel, but other times it might be best to separate and make a sidechannel for the new content. One great example of this can be found with Egoraptor and his show-with-friends, Game Grumps.
Egoraptor started as a solo YouTuber who did gaming-themed cartoons. These cartoons earned him quite a bit of popularity, and eventually he started a new series with a friend of his, JonTron, that became Game Grumps. Game Grumps would go on to surpass both individual creators in popularity, serving as a staple of the YouTube platform. Without YouTube gaming channel ideas like this one, you might be missing out.
Don’t Do It Alone
Some channels can be run solo, but in general it’s not a good idea to run your channel by yourself. Even if you’re running a solo character-driven “show” like Angry Video Game Nerd, it’s important to have people to come in as side characters so that the audience has people to compare the main character to. For things like commentaries, going solo is okay, but taking the time now and then to bring in a friend can help viewers feel more comfortable with your show.
Stream On YTG/Twitch
Livestreaming video games is a huge thing in popular culture right now, especially when playing competitive titles like Dota or Counter-Strike. If you want to live stream to your followers, look at it this way: Twitch streams are most likely to help you grow and gain new followers, while YTG streams are the best for getting to your pre-existing subscribers/fanbase as quickly as possible. Keep this in mind!
(Note: streaming on Twitch may not necessarily count as a YouTube gaming channel idea, but it can help grow your YouTube following by association.)
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Video Ideas
This section will discuss things you can do for individual videos.
Live Commentaries
Live commentaries are pretty popular among YouTube gaming channel ideas. This is because it allows your audience to see how you react, in real time, to events within the game as you’re playing it. It is advised, however, that you edit these videos for time- don’t fake your reactions, but do cut out swaths of time where nothing eventful happens. People aren’t there for the dull minutae of the game you’re playing (usually- there are exceptions), they want to see what makes you tick.
Reviews
Reviews are a big deal for gamers, since video games can cost sixty dollars or more on average. Buying the latest AAA game is way more expensive than something like spending $10-20 for a DVD/movie ticket/book, and so gamers typically do a little bit more research into games before buying them. Doing reviews, especially if people like them, is a good way to establish a relationship of trust and respect with your audience.
In-Depth Discussions
These differ a bit from reviews in that they’re for people who want to explore the game’s themes and development, not necessarily if they want to buy it or not. The aforementioned Errant Signal is a great example, but other channels who make this approach include Super Bunnyhop, for his Critical Close-up series. People love his content because of how far he goes into these games, and this might be something you could do, too.
Frag Videos/Highlights
Frag videos and highlights are usually made for multiplayer titles with high skill ceilings. You can make content like this to show off your best gameplay clips!
Tutorials
Tutorials are pretty self-explanatory, and often cross over with commentaries. Making tutorial videos can be helpful for explaining concepts in a game that are unexplained or not easily explained by the game itself, or for showing off advanced techniques used by skilled players.
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Trivia
Trivia just covers the category of videos that covers information people might not otherwise know about a game, game console or its development. These are popular on the gaming end of YouTube, popular enough that Did You Know Gaming is a massive entity in the YouTube gaming scene. Maybe you should try to get a video on that channel?
Conclusion
That was our list of YouTube gaming channel ideas! We hope that this article helped give you an idea of what you should be doing for your gaming channel on YouTube.
To learn more about growing as a YouTuber, stay tuned to our blog for more informative posts like this one. Our app, Grin, also connects you to a large network of content creators just like you.
