How To Get More Views As A Gaming Channel On YouTube

There are hundreds of thousands of gaming channels on YouTube trying to make it and become famous. If you record and post the same thing as everyone else. You WILL get lost in the search. Just imagine how many new Minecraft Survival videos are posted every day. Definitely way too many!

Lucky for you, I'm here to tell you where you can find success in the YouTube gaming niche, and where you shouldn't even go if you want to get more viewers.

Contrary to the popular belief, even a mediocre YouTube channel can become popular if they post the right kinds of videos. At this point, you might be itching to ask me- What exactly should I record for a gaming channel?
I will answer that question eventually, but first, let's talk about what you shouldn't record!

Do Not Record These. Ever!

1. Games Already Recorded By Very Popular YouTubers

If you see a video on the channel of a popular YouTuber, there's a high chance that that game will have competition that will choke you and beat you to death with one pinky.

As a case study let's use the game Five Nights At Freddy's. You might have just found the game, and you want to record yourself playing it and nearly shitting your pants.

It's a great way to entertain your current subscribers, but a terrible way to get new ones. Why? Let's check out what videos come up when you search for "five nights at freddy's" on YouTube.

The first result is by Markplier, and it has 3,770,698 views. He has a very popular gaming YouTube channel, and if you want co compete with him. Well.. Good luck...

Some of the videos might look like they're easy to beat. However, if you look closely, you'll see that these are in a different language.

These would be the most popular German, Russian, and French videos of this game. Your chance of beating the rankings of games like this and getting more viewers or subscribers is incredibly small.

The only exception to this rule would be if you're recording the game in a language other than English, and no one has recorded it yet in your language.

2. Popular Games That Just Came Out

If you're recording and posting video games that just came out, you're basically trying to compete with all the other huge YouTube channels out there. Unless it's a small indie game, then there is no point in playing it to gain subscribers.
Of course, you can always play it for your enjoyment and record, but it's not a good choice if you want to increase your view-count. 

If you can, always utilize the YouTube Search Check to see if you can compete with the other results.

Just compare these two searches below:

Which one do you think it's easier to rank for?
The search of "Metro Redux" with the competition that gets 200K+ views, and is owned by a huge tech company (IGN, 4,946,707 subs) , a popular German YouTuber (rechyyy, 182,478 subs), and the creators of the game (metrovideogame, 25,562 subs).

Or

Two small channels, one of which is the creator of the game?(GrittyUrbanSaga, 528 subs) and (Egor Rezenov, 68 subs).

The choice is yours!

You might be thinking you won't get as many views if the game isn't incredibly popular. However, if you're in the top 10 for almost any game on the planet, you will be able to get way more views than if you are on page 2+ of a very popular game.

The truth is: Most people don't look past the first page of the search engine. Be it Google, Bing, or YouTube. 

So don't forget to utilize the YouTube Search Check before you record a video!

At this point you might be wondering: "So what should I actually record if I want to increase my viewer count?".

What You Should Record To Increase Viewers

1. FTP Online Games (Preferably A Series)

There are numerous online games out there, with a huge base of players who love watching content about the game. It's hard to be a one-hit wonder with games like these, but if you record at least one video every week or 2 weeks, you will get a loyal following of the players of the game.

Doing a YouTube Search Check could be useful, but it's not necessary in this case.  

You're not aiming to be in the top 10 of the results for that game. (Even though that will be a by-product of getting a loyal following of the players)

What you are aiming to do is to be in the top results for the latest videos for that game.(past week or so). People often look for gamers who play the game on a consistent basis, and skip over the game reviews, and one hit wonders.

Where is the proof that it works?

Well, that's how I started out my YouTube career, and my first video is the third result for a search of "AVA Gameplay", so I'd consider it to be pretty successful! Check out the picture on the right to see me in the third spot!

Some of the key things to remember when doing this are:

• Make your first video absolutely amazing. Plan for it way ahead of time, and try to make it as good as you possibly can. You will receive the most views on this video, and if it's bad it won't convert as well
• I regret not making my first video as good as I could've, because I think I lost loads of possible subscribers by hurrying it (Don't make the same mistake as me!)
• Make sure you respond to the comments! 
• Post your video on the forum of the game (if the forum allows it). That should give you a couple quick views.

For those of you still undecided, here is the lifetime performance of all of the videos for the first FTP Online Game I started to play:

Sadly, you're not allowed to show your YouTube earnings, or else your account gets banned, but this is what I am allowed to show you guys.

As you can see these videos got me 71,000 views, 160 subs, and over 1500 comments!

2. Flash Games (Yes, Flash Games!)

Some people scoff at the idea of making flash game gameplay for YouTube. However, if you are one of the first people to post a video for a specific flash game, you can get a lot of views!

For this, it's very important to use the YouTube Search Check to make sure that you will be one of the first people posting the video for the game. 

Check out my stats from only 12 videos of flash games that I have on my channel!

They only drove 12 subscribers, but I got almost 8,000 views from them!

The funny thing is: I have 3 popular videos, but the rest have 20 views. The reason for the success of those 3 videos, is the fact that I was the first person to upload it and act on it!

I have the number 1 ranking for the search "Soccer Physics PC", over guys like: PewDiePie, MarkPlier, and other popular gamers. 

Do they have more views than me? Of course... They have way more subscribers.

However, I am still ranked number one for that keyword, and I don't think I'm going to get knocked down!

I also have the 2nd ranking for Bucket Cop as shown on the right, and even though this game didn't bring me as many subscribers or viewers as the game that I'm about to show you, it's still nice to know that I will be at the top for this game for quite a while!

My most popular Flash Game video by far is my Dream Car Racing 2 video. It has around 6,200 views at the time of writing, and I'm ranked number one for the searches "Dream Car Racing 2, Dream Car Racing 2 Gameplay", and probably a couple more.

Another great thing about it is that since I gave it a catchy name: Flash Game Fridays, I am in the top 10 results and steadily climbing for that keyword. 

When I reach the top, I'm sure I will get even more viewers!

So how do you find flash games that don't have any videos for them yet, that people might search for?

Pick your favorite Flash Game website, I will use Kongregate because they have a very useful Hot New Games bar. 

Basically, what I do is just log on to Kong from time to time, go to the Hot New Games section, and check out if there are any games posted TODAY.

If there are, I do a quick YouTube Search Check, and if there are any videos on it. If the coast looks clear, I record a quick video and post it on the same day!

The sooner you post it, the higher the chance that you will be the most popular result for that game.

Just today, I went on and saw that Jellydad Hero was just uploaded on Kong and didn't have any videos on YouTube, so I went and created aquick video on it! Hopefully it'll start ranking soon.

Flash games are so great for views, that you could even create a very popular YouTube channel just for flash games! You could be very, very successful if you check for new ones every day and always do the YouTube search check!

3. Reach Out To Indie/Kickstarter Games In Development

If you are the only one to create a video for an indie game in devolpment, you pretty much have it made.

All you have to do is:

1. Reach out to the game developer through e-mail/facebook
2. Tell him that:
1. You have a YouTube channel and he will get free publicity from the video
2. You love his game design/idea/whatever. (Make sure this is actually true though, you don't want to make a review of a game you think you would dislike)
3. You would be very grateful if he could send you a Beta/Alpha version of the game before everyone else (Of course you'll link to his campaign/game in the description of your video)
3. Sit patiently and hope for a positive response 
1. If it's positive: Thank them profusely and say you can't wait to record some gameplay.
2. If it's not positive: Thank them profusely for taking their time to answer your email and say you can't wait to play their game when it does come out.

A sample email could go like this:

Hello, [Game Creator], I am the owner of the YouTube channel [MyChannel], and I would love to create a review of your work-in-progress. I can't wait to play it, and I think it would be great for your publicity. I'd obviously leave a link to [Your Game] in the description of my video. Thank you for your time!

The email is short, to-the-point, and easy to understand. Of course you could always personalize it more, but make sure that the reader will understand what you want from him within the first sentence or two.

4. Anything That Passes The YouTube Search Check

Basically anything that passes the search check is good for getting more viewers and subscribers. 

However, don't just pick games you don't want to play, just because you think you might rank high for them.

If you're not enjoying the game, your viewers won't enjoy the gameplay (Unless your trademark is dissing every game you play.) 

Is This The End?

We're almost there! Bear with me here!

Here's a quick summary of what you should and shouldn't record, and how you should go about figuring out if something is worth recording if it's not on this list. 

There are also some bonus tips at the end of this section, so stay tuned in!

Do Not Record:

1. Games Already Recorded By Big YouTube Channels
2. Popular Games That Just Came Out

Do Record:

1. A Series Of FTP Online Games
2. Flash Games
3. Indie Games (Both In Development And Just Released)
4. Any Topic That Passes The YouTube Search Check

What if the game is not on this list? 

Number 4 in the Do Record box mostly takes care of it, but if you want to be more detailed, you should do some keyword research.

Bonus Information!

How To Rank Your Video On Google

You know what's better than being on the first page of YouTube for a keyword?

Being on the first page of Google for a keyword! However, what's the keyword/video title you should use to be able to get to the first page of Google?

As always there are a couple simple steps:

Top 3 on YouTube for AVA Gameplay,
but nowhere to be found on Google...

1. Do the YouTube search check first to see if you can be in the top 3 of the results. (Even if you're in the top 3 on YouTube, it doesn't necessarily mean you will be in the top 3 videos on Google for the same search.)
2. Do a Google search for "[Your Game Name] Gameplay", why are we using this format? Because YouTube gives priority to video results with the following keywords:
1. Gameplay
2. Tutorial
3. How To
4. Unboxing
3. If there are already a couple videos in the results and you think you have a good chance of beating them, you should make the video!
4. If there are no videos in the results, but it is a combination of the game-name and the 4 keywords I mentioned before. You should definitely make the video! 

Having your video rank in the top 10 on Google can double your traffic in some cases, so if you want to do that, you can check out the software called Market Samurai, and read my post on using it to improve your YouTube rankings here!

One last tip that I have for you guys is to create closed captions for your video if you're trying to make it rank higher.

Why?

Simply because it gives Google more data to work with when trying to understand what your video is about, and if you say the keyword you're trying to rank for, a couple times in the video, it could bump you up in the rankings!

Wow! This is the longest post I have ever created! I tried to make it as information-packed as possible, but if you think I missed something or if you liked it please comment!

Thank You For Reading!