Can a Youtuber Affect Game Sales?

[Corzhens]

If you mean by youtuber is a youtube star then I'd say yes to the title of this thread. I understand that a youtube star has a million followers therefore he is considered a celebrity in the real sense. And what he does in real life (whether it is for real or just for effects) would have an influence on his followers. I would love to be a youtube star and be treated by media as a VIP. There are several local youtube sensations here that surfaced on tv. I have lost count but they are more than 50 already, I think.

 

[ulfhedin]

Any form of propaganda can boost sales of anything. YouTube.com is no different. Anyone can do this to. Do an experiment yourself, find a game that is unpopular and put some of your game play on YouTube. I think you will be surprised how many hits you get and how popular you become. The really popular ones on YouTube know how to suck you in. The way they get excited, when playing the game. Even a bad review can boost the sales of a game. I personally like YouTube, for I can see what the game play is like before buying the game.

 

[Distilled]

YouTube is how I test a game before buying it. It allows me to same gameplay and repetitiveness. If a YouTuber is making videos for over a week that means the game has some of value to its depth.

I do not like games that are only fun for like one day then become repetitive.

 

[Sino989]

Yes, I think that a big youtuber can most definitely affect game sales. A youtuber with a big fan base can easily do this by just telling his or her fans to go buy a game or by just playing the game in their videos. The viewers are probably highly influenced by this youtuber so of course they'll want to get a game he or she has.

 

[Lord Sanity]

I do believe YouTubers can affect games sales to a certain extent.
Especially if you're a big YouTuber they have a very big audience. but also driving in new people. who may not have played the video game that they are watching. but are they are not interested in it.

 

[kovacs]

The answer's to the thread's question is: absolutely! There are many well-known gamers on youtube these days, who'll easily get millions of views with any video they make, so having this kind of youtuber promote a game could be a really good marketing decision.

 

[lunarsilkdragon]

Of course they can. Video reviews are the best way to review a game in my opinion. That way, you can really see the game as it supposed to look instead of having it described to you in text

 

[camshaq23]

I think they can if they have a lot of subscribers and complain about the price enough :tearsofjoy:.

 

[omar]

Yes, of course, they can, when my friend told me about League Of Legends I wasn't interested after then I saw a video on YouTube for Siv HD playing League Of Legends, from this moment I never stopped playing it.

 

[gkillian]

Anyone can do this to. Do an experiment yourself, find a game that is unpopular and put some of your game play on YouTube. I think you will be surprised how many hits you get and how popular you become.

There are a lot of people already doing just this and let me tell you, you won't be getting the kind of audience the original question is positing without a lot of sweat, dedication, and time. I've been doing this in one form or another for a while and the results are decidedly mediocre.

Anyway, literally the only thing that makes YouTube money is the fact that it has an audience to sell. That's why ads work, why there's a whole 'apocalypse' going on over advertisers wanting more control, etc. etc. For games, the content itself is practically an ad. The whole website (or Youtube Gaming, anyway) is a machine to drive conversations and trends; forget PewDiePie or the Game Grumps or whoever has the biggest numbers. They're just at the top - stuff they play will trickle down, stuff they don't gets picked up by their smaller competitors, people trying to break into the YouTube scene try to make that Death Star trench run to hit an indie that's not yet super-popular yet has enough traction to get searched.

YouTube's a big deal for game marketing in this day and age, especially for games made by the budget studios and smaller names.

 

[Xilkozuf]

It depends on the game. If it's a really big game, pretty famous and well known, then the Youtuber won't change a thing. He will have more benefits, because a famous game would attract more viewer.
But if the game is a unknown game, maybe some small indie, and the Youtuber prove it to be really good or interesting, or even "so bad it's good", then I think he would have at least a small impact on the game sales and popularity.

 

[Jonathan Solomon]

It depends on how big his/her audience is and the overall influence they have on gaming reviews. But to answer your question, yes, I strongly feel a YouTuber can affect gaming sales for the positive or negative. I do feel even if a YouTube that's known gives a bad review, doesn't mean its all over for the game. Because no matter if the review is good or bad, it's still driving attention to the game itself. Remember, for celebrities, good press or bad press is still press. Which means your being talked about and your name is trending. The same thing kind of applies to gaming reviews by popular channels. Even if the review is bad, people will still find interest in the game itself and may possibly buy a copy just to see themselves.

 

[dbwv]

Of course they can affect sales! The thing I really like about Youtube for gaming is that, if you are on the fence about biying a game, you can watch hours of actual gameplay and decide if it is for you or not. This beats the hell out of simply reading text reviews or relying on some company who gets kickbacks to promote certain games.

 

[anadrotowski]

I believe as long as the YouTuber is positive and brings the game in a positive light, game sales will definitely increase for that reason. It's crazy how much more publicity a game can get because one person plays it on their channel. Others will also play it on their channels, thus more people seeing it and wanting it for themselves.

 

[lexcion]

Popular Youtubers will almost always affect game sales positively, unless they really don't like the game and are negative about it. If you've seen popular Youtubers like Markiplier/Pewdiepie they give a lot of popularity to unknown games that cause their viewers want to play it, having them go out and buy it. On the other hand, viewers might already have experienced the game by watching so they wouldn't feel the need to play it anymore.

 

[dbwv]

Anyone can affect sales, so of course Youtubers can affect sales in proportion to their popularity and influence. Before Youtube was big, I personally affected sales many times. For example, Xbox 360 had been out a while and nobody around really had one. I decided to buy one and then, within a couple months, literally a dozen of my friends bought one because of me.....and then that influenced their other friends to buy them. Same happened with certain games. I used to joke that I should get kickbacks because I personally helped sale a bunch of units. In every social circle, no matter how big or small, there is always one or more people who kinda make the trends for everyone else. Naturally, Youtube is an extension of that phenomenon.

 

[SirJoe]

Yes, of course, they can, when my friend told me about League Of Legends I wasn't interested after then I saw a video on YouTube for Siv HD playing League Of Legends, from this moment I never stopped playing it.

I agree, in the past people would depend on the review of their friends. If the game wasn't any good then you wouldn't be compelled to buy it but now we have people that will go through the game step by step and show you exactly why it is good or bad.

 

[Zyni]

I think they can have a big impact on games sales, either positively or negatively. When you see someone playing and making it look like fun, especially if they show/tell you how you can do it too, I think it encourages people to play. I used to love watching the boss fight videos to learn tips and tricks. Those guys probably got a lot of people to raid, and obviously then, to play the game (WoW in this case).

I've also seen some well-liked personalities become disgruntled with the game, and their followers soon... follow. It's a good idea to keep players that have a voice (and an audience) happy for that reason.

 

[Koyomi Araragi]

This is definitely a reoccurring thing. Some YouTubers who are guaranteed to make your game boom in popularity if they play it include Game Grumps, Markiplier, PewDiePie...

 

[Tronikart]

Oh absolutely, when they play it, they tend to include only the fun parts, because otherwise it would be a rather boring video. And when you see a 10 minutes video of someone playing a game and everything seems pretty fun, youll go and get it, no matter what. Now when you play it, the game might be as fun as you thought it would be, thats a thing that might happen, but sometimes you dont have as much fun because maybe you are the only one with the game among your friends, and the video featured several funny people playing the game, that can be a turn down, but it still affects the sales of the game, even the rating of it.

I think its a pretty good thing but it can lead to developers making games that are appealing to youtubers, where the game is really bad on purpose just to sell copies, so there must be a balance there.