Gaming on YouTube is not Over Saturated

That's not why you're failing

Author

Johnathon Eva
June 06, 2025

Gaming is growing - why aren’t you?

Turn on YouTube - and there they are. All the 100,000’s of gaming channels. A new one every day. But this doesn’t mean that gaming is “Over saturated” to be over saturated, the market would have to have more supply than demand however:

This is just a pull from the last 90 days on Google Trends. - Specifically from YouTub search.

This means that people want gaming content.

They just don’t want garbage gaming content. But what makes something “garbage” as opposed to “great”? Isn’t that subjective? …. Not Quite

Thumbnail Review

by Ropotopolous

This isn’t a bad thumbnail per se’ - but it’s not as good as it could be.

Remember that the thumbnail game, is exponential, not logarithmic. What this means is that the little changes mean the most.

Little changes over time will have a HUGE impact. A 1% better thumbnail, may not lead to 1% more views, but 50% more views. - - - oh yeah, but what’s wrong with it?

A.) The character - the off center is fine, but he’s also really dark, and jumbled. People click on what they know, and unfortunately it’s just a jumbled mass at the top of the screen

B.) This tiny text breaks two rules. 1) it’s too small, no one on mobile can read that, and 2) it uses the word tremendous. Americans on average have a 4th grade reading level. Big, Huge, Massive are all better

C.) He’s cute, he’s out of the way, but still, unless you’re at 1M plus subscribers it’s best practice to keep your mascot out of the thumbnail, because people don’t know it.

D.) It’s cool… it’s edgy… that title won’t get clicks. It doesn’t tell me what the video is about. It would honestly work out if you titled it “Biggest Assassin’s Creed Kill Compilatin 2025” or y’know play with it a bit.

by Ropotopolous

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 Ropotopolous

Key: Look at that value proposition. I’m going to save 40 hours of time by watching a 40 minute video.

33k views - a 16x outlier. Why?

Look at the main character. I can tell that he’s a posed assassin type character. I don’t need to play the games to know that.

The contrast is sooo much better in this thumbnail. Because it’s black on white, instead of white on white.

The lettering … I can read it now!!

Last, look at that title - I know exactly what I’m getting.

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.

Started in August 2023 - But the most popular videos are in the last 2 months

46k views

33x outlier

106k views

76x outlier

167k Views

100x outlier

Key Takeaways

Brand: It’s not a logo, or a mascot. Look at how no one can copy these thumbnails. I bet if I showed you a random showcase of other videos from different creators you could tell me which ones belong to Minecraft Historian. That’s not an accident. This style is his brand. The font. The drawing, the simplicity.

Authenticity: Are these the most professional thumbnails you’ve ever seen? No. but they work because of the authenticity. You don’t need to hand draw your thumbnails, but maybe you can post something that’s not just a cleaned up screenshot of gameplay

Outside of the box (pun intended): Notice how the video isn’t about a build, or about zombie survival mode. Or God forbid. A “Let’s Play”

If you can handle it

Gaming isn’t over saturated.
Bad content is over saturated.

Yeah. You can’t just turn on your game, record for three hours and post it to YouTube and have success. Anyone who told that to you was lying.

Has it worked for others? Yes. 7-8 years ago. If you’ve got a time machine lying around, then I guess go for it. But I don’t understand why you wouldn’t just invest in BitCoin

Creator Opportunity

Gamma Emerald - a Pokemon Fan Game, and what it means for you (Even if you don’t play Pokemon)

Creator - UndreamedPanic

“This is going to be huge” I thought.

In December of 2024 I was scrolling TikTok - and I saw this dev, UndreamedPanic working on something. The little clip was of an HD-2D Pokemon Emerald. It looked gorgeous. I saw the amount of followers, likes, comments, and it was stupid low. Like under 1k.

I reached out to Undreamed, followed his Discord, and guess what? He messaged me back. I’m a PokeTuber and I thought, this is going to be huge. I had some family stuff come up, so I was unable to make a full Video for this, but the opportunity was there.

Today there’s not a single serious PokeTuber who hasn’t done something on Gamma Emerald. My hunch was right. I’m not mad that I didn’t make something. Family will always come first for me - - - The point is this. Opportunities for your game are everywhere. Mods, new Mods, fan games, hacks, independent creators, up and coming YouTubers, collaboration opportunities. And they exist everywhere - a Subreddit, a random TikTok, a really cool, and underrated newsletter, who knows?

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Would you do me a favor? If you know a gamer, or someone who likes to game, and is a bit lost on YouTube would you send them this? Thanks in advance!