Can a Strategy really help you?

If you fail to plan, you plan to fail

Author

Johnathon Eva
June 16, 2025

From Gaming to Politics

Matthew Patrick a.k.a. MatPats Instagram

“After two years of work, Steph and I have just launched the Creator Economy Caucus in the House of Representatives, a bipartisan group where creators can work alongside lawmakers to ensure legislation is timely and relevant for all of us online”

Don’t take it from me, take it from Matthew Patrick - a.k.a. MatPat, the founder of GameTheory and several other “Theory” channels.

In an interview with Colin and Samir, MatPat talks about the importance of Strategy and channel launch, and how this is vital to a channel’s success.

After just launching the first ever “Creator Caucus” in the house of representatives, he’s definitely someone I’d be willing to trust when it comes to the importance of
“Strategy” But what does that look like?

We’ll talk more about that in a bit.. but first:

Thumbnail Review

by Sylvus

Marvel Rivals is a huge opportunity for gaming content creators. It has immediately amassed over 100 million views across thousands of channels.

When you combine two things that people are crazy about: Marvel characters + Hero Shooter - - it’s sure to have some level of intrinsic success.

So why does this video only have 1.1k views? Let’s take a look under the hood.

A.) That’s a lot of words. But it’s not just the number of words, it’s the closeness of the font. If you were to zoom out those words become VERY hard to read. It’s 26 characters not including spaces, rule of thumb is to do less than 15 characters for thumbnail text.

B.) In terms of contrast Sylvus has put an orange character against an orange background. There’s just not enough contrast for “The Thing” to really pop

C.) Obviously if it’s only 6:37 worth of content don’t add fluff, but if there’s anyway to make a break down a bit longer people are willing to watch. For this type of video the norm is about 10 minutes. I would consider a bit of scripting to make this just a BIT longer

D.) It’s honestly not a bad title at all. The problem is, it says the same thing as the thumbnail. Repetition in thumbnail and title loses a lot of the time. Best to have them compliment instead of replicate

by Sylvus

Want me to critique your thumbnail? Just reply to the email. It’s free. So there’s no reason not to… unless you’re scared?

by Sylvus

Key: There’s psychology at play here. By telling someone they are doing it wrong it opens a curiosity gap that isn’t there at all in the first thumbnail/title combo

32k Views and a 25x outlier. From the same series, AND same franchise.

I don’t love the contrast here, but it’s still more than the above image.

At only 17 characters the words pop WAY better, and I can read it way easier. The outer glow of the words also helps it to pop of the page.

it’s just over 10 minutes, so the perceived value is higher, because it’s in a sweet spot.

And look at how the title no longer duplicates the thumbnail.

If you have questions - email me. I don’t bite… hard.

Creator’s Killing it.

You’re a skeptic. You want more proof that people are succeeding NOW in gaming on YouTube. Alright, twist my arm. Here ya go.

On YouTube since 2016 but only publishing videos for the last 6 months.

110k views

7x outlier

100k views

6.4x outlier

35k views

2.2x outlier

Key Takeaways

Strategy: Part of strategy is niche selection, and if you look here, it doesn’t take much to see that this YouTuber plays subnautica. He may eventually switch to another game. But when you’re starting out, YOU aren’t big enough to switch around. Your favorite players can do it, but you’re not there yet. Baby steps

Series (do or don’t?): Take a look at that 3rd video. It still has a lot of views, but significantly less than the first one. That’s because it’s part of a series. VERY rarely will any part of a series to better than the first one. That means that I you have a long series idea, it may be best to either brand it as it’s own video, or to ditch the series if the first “episode” doesn’t break 100k views.

Keep it simple: You don’t need to have a degree in graphic design. You just have to know your audience, and cater everything to them. The people this creator is trying to reach may not be the ‘kids’ that watch hyper edited thumbnails - and that may actually help his viewer retention.

Creator Opportunity

and how to weaponize it

…Long Long ago - but make it trendy

404k views

509k views

83k views

How PartyArlie weaponizes Nostalgia

  1. ____ years later - Look how every video thumbnail has an amount of years later. The amount of years doesn’t seem to matter much, but from a brief look at her channel, 5 is a pretty golden number. What games would fit in your niche that are a little older

  2. Titles - You can’t get away with something like “Ya’ll mind if I talk critically about Animal Crossing New Horizons” Why? because you don’t have a half a million subscribers. Your title will have to be more hyperbolic. See the Pokemon Gold one as a better example.

  3. Face - is she pretty? sure, and if you are conventionally attractive maybe go for it, but if not - then it’s not her that people are clicking for. (She gets some from that because she’s built up an audience over the years) but you’re not her.

  4. Content style - In the Pokemon Gold video she doesn’t use OBS, and a voice over. She records herself playing the game in an old school way. What does this mean for you? Think outside of the box when it comes to YouTube. What have people seen before, and how can you change it up?

  5. Layer it with your own take. She doesn’t just use nostalgia, she does in interesting take. Look at it. “To feel something” a “Critical view” on a beloved game. “Let’s finally play”

So what might that look like for you?

“I miss my friends in Halo 3” and the thumbnail might say something like “18 years later” with a cool visual of Master chief

“Why I hate Stardew valley, 9 years later” and the thumbnail might take a horror spin on the main character/ village - or even “The one thing I HATE about Stardew Valley | 9 years later - or you could put 9 years later on the thumbnail

“I played the original Spider man game to feel alive” and them you can have a picture of the original game on a counter top or something like that with text saying 25 years later”

Hey, if this newsletter helped you at all, could you do me a favor and forward it to someone who you know it would help?
Thanks in advance