New report claims gamers spend more time watching videos about gaming than playing games
New report claims gamers spend more time watching videos about gaming than playing games
It's time for game publishers to think about in-game video as something beyond marketing alone," said Rhys Elliott, games analyst, MIDiA Research. ''By reclaiming video engagement, publishers have the potential to unlock new revenue streams, like advertising, and drive growth.''
Lmao, what a takeaway. Guy is struggling to earn that paycheck.
Reminds me of the business plans of the business guys from Ready Player One. "We estimate we can sell up to 80 percent of a user's visual field before inducing seizures." 😂
Groooowwwtthhhh! It's all about that Groooooowwwtthhhhh!
Please bro just a little bit more groooowth. I promise we'll unlock all the money in the world if we can just have a littile more grooowwth.
New report claims people with hobby spend more time watching videos about hobby than doing hobby
Watching someone cut a dovetail by hand is a lot more interesting now that I know from experience how hard it is. And maybe I'll learn a trick to make my next ones better.
If I want to do my hobby, I need to make time for it, whereas if I want to watch videos about my hobby, I can do it on the toilet. It turns out it's a lot easier to watch than make time for a hobby, hence why I do more of it.
If I didn't have to work, I'd spend more time doing my hobby. But I do, and I have kids, so hobby time is quite limited.
Execution is a small part of "the planning", man. That ain't even fair.
I stream a 25-year-old MMO, EverQuest, about 8 hours a week and lots of viewers just want to live vicariously through my moment remembering when they were doing it themselves without committing 500-1,000 hours to level a character.
I also watch other people play other class types of endgame content to do the same.
I'm not the most engaging streamer, but I enjoy answering questions to my 2-10 viewers. I also enjoy when another streamer answers my own questions.
I don't understand watching streamers with 4,000 viewers spamming kewk emojis though.
I've been really into Meridian 59 lately, but haven't been playing in the past couple of weeks. Thanks for the reminder.
This is not at all surprising. Almost all hobbies and sports are like this.
You don't watch football while playing football? What else is the jumbotron even good for?
Not really interesting. Gaming is often stressful and requires more though / action being put into it. Also there is the matter of skill - it's way more fun to see someone completely anihilate the other team, than to go out and get killed yourself. You can also go through a story based game without having to actually play, and you get most of the experience. You also need to count in people watching other people's guides, especially for strategy games. For other hobbies it's often about actually doing something and feeling the rush, or by occupying the hands and chilling out. You don't get the rush of driving a car by watching someone else do it. You don't get your hands occupied by seeing someone knit. Also, gaming provides instant feedback / dopamine. Watching it does that with even less effort.
I don't find gaming stressful at all, I just honestly don't have the time for it. Gaming means my butt needs to be in the chair doing nothing other than playing the game. Watching/listening means I can be doing dishes, folding laundry, or even commuting to work. Very rarely am I totally focused on watching/listening to someone playing a game, and I'm never involved in the chat.
If I had the time, I wouldn't watch nearly as much, but I don't, so watching is my surrogate.
Makes enough sense, as goofy as it sounds.
You forgot: The videos often have absurd challenges that most gamers would never try, like for example trying to beat Pokemon Ruby and Sapphire with only a physical attacking Abra.
Or counting how many people are employed in Skyrim.
Arguably that falls under both 2 and 3, but yeah entirely unique challenges or play modes is another reason to watch.
Amen to that!
In other stunning news, researchers find people who like sports spend more time watching it than playing it.
Definitely fall into this category. Commentary/ video essays about games are my go-to for background noise.
Commentator: “Here’s my 100-hour video essay on what King’s Duty 8, an award-winning game, could have handled differently, with another 40 pages of annotations.”
Game Developer at 4:50 PM: “Ok whatever, we didn’t fix the cutscene bug but at least it doesn’t crash. Time to go home and not think about video games all weekend.”
Game Production Manager: "Nobody is going home until we get this bug ironed out. You don't have to come in this weekend if you don't want, but we won't renew your contract if you didn't."
Where's "New report claims sports fans spend more time watching sport / videos about sport than playing sport".
This isn't some new, crazy, hard to understand concept.
I'll be honest I find it hard to understand for sports as well.
Makes sense. I usually just put on a 2+ hours long video whenever I'm doing chores. I don't actually care about Wolfey's last weird team, it just makes for good background noise.
Same. I watch VODs about a strategy game I really like playing (EU4) because I rarely have the time to actually dig in to a campaign, so watching/listening to someone else (while I do chores) do what I don't have for allows me to get some of that connection to a game I love. I do play the game quite a bit (have nearly 1k hours), but not nearly as much as I'd like.
There's a pretty big difference in what I play vs what I watch though. I generally play action games and watch strategy games, because action games are easy to jump into for an hour or so at a time, whereas strategy games usually need an hour just to remember what I was doing last, so I tend to wait until I can block out an entire evening.
Yep, it's hard to make time for a several hours long hobby when you're an adult.
strategy games usually need an hour just to remember what I was doing last
lol yeah, it's like planning date night with your game.
I have played through Factorio, I have also watched every video doshdoshington has made about it while cooking, doing dishes etc.
Wouldn't be me. I don't like streams. When I've had twitch drops i wanted to claim I'd just mute the tab in the background to get the time limit needed.
I don't have the attention span for streamers. It's like golf. Might be fun to play but watching is another matter.
This, how people can find watching more entertaining than playing is beyond me. I tried watching people play my favourite games on twitch to see what it was like, I got bored out of my brains in minutes.
The closest I can do is watching gameplay videos on youtube, from people who do extremely creative things that inspire me for future playthroughs - but even then.
To y’all watching streams: I’m not judging you, you do you. I just don’t understand you.
Well, for example; I like to watch LeagueOfLegends streams but don’t like to play it anymore.
I enjoy watching tournaments to see how much of skill difference there is between me, the one day a week gamer, and the pros who play every single day for 8-12 hours. It shows you what is possible and what the limit is.
Once I bought a game because I saw a pro playing it and thought it looked like fun. Boy, was I wrong. The gaming community is not just a shit-hole, it's a toxic, radioactive bog of brain dead troglodytes caked in layers of fecal matter, impervious to reason or friendliness. Not only that, many multiplayer games have either no tutorial and you're dropped into a war zone when you keep dying, all the while being screamed at by some dude with a supermarket mic that's either in his asshole, mouth or 3 meters away on his console, with no possibility of reviewing what you did or a some kind of training chamber / level with bots to get better in peace and quiet.
I don't watch streamers, but I'll watch videos like 'which is the best weapon for [X]' or 'how to optimize production in [X].' I've watched stream highlights like SovietWomble's bullshittery, or IAmCrusty's psychopathic VR vids. Once you get stuff like that into your YouTube algorithm, there's a lot of it. It's gaming content you can consume when location or time constraints won't let you actually game, and that's a larger chunk of my day than when I can sit down and play.
You can't have stream highlights without a stream. Even if no one watches the stream, the infrastructure and technologies have to be there. And I can see where some audience members of those highlights would be attracted to the raw stream, trying to catch the 'good stuff' live, the same way some people watch NASCAR hoping to see crashes as they happen.
Yeah I've only ever found 1 game play chann on YouTube that I enjoy watching, Macie Jay who makes compilations of his stream for YouTube. He's incredibly creative playing R6, it's really fun to watch. But in general I don't get watching someone play a game when I could just play it myself.
For me, it's audio in the background that I can interact with if I want.
Sometimes the people are funny too, but it's not like my first monitor. Streams are a second monitor thing, with me doing something on the main. Reading, gaming, writing.
Also sometimes I'll watch the various leagues to see people do games I'd hate to play do really really well at it.
I usually open streams on a second monitor while playing, unless the game demands my full undivided attention for extended periods of time. It's more of a case by case basis for me.
I did the same when I was playing WoW a long time ago, watching stuff while doing mining routes and whatnot. But to be fair, I was doing it because the game itself was a drudgery that I got skinnerboxed into playing and pretending I was enjoying.
So I ask this to you: is the game you are playing not entertaining enough, that you have to watch something with it in order to feel entertained? If so, why not play something else that captures your whole attention? It’s your time, shouldn’t you be spending it with things you actually enjoy?
There's retro streamers and smaller/older streamers that aren't so hype and "ON IT" all the time.
Sometimes I just want to be around the community that surrounds a game I am enjoying. If I am playing a JRPG, I may spend more time in a JRPG discord going back and forth with users, or go find a streamer playing it and pick their brain a bit.
It helps you not feel so alone with the experience. You may be the only person for miles and miles to boot up Breath of Fire IV, but rest assured, someone out there wants to talk about it.
This thread got me thinking Lemmy needs a better "find a co-op buddy" community for games in general. If it's here already, could use better marketing.
Not sum'm I suffer from, but I want to see y'all living your best lives too. A good homie can make or break a game run.
I miss r/summonsign and whatever the one for elden ring was. From Soft co-op is the best part of their games.
Truly. A bit of jolly co-op goes a long way
or it's because IRL our gaming interests aren't something we can talk about. I haven't had a IRL friend who thinks gaming is cool since I was 15. I'm 40 now. for 25 anytime I bring up my interest in games my 'friends' or girlfriends cringe and tell me to STFU about my weird immature stupid interest.
If "friends" or even "girlfriends" tell you it's cringe, it's them that's cringe. Worker-bees with sticks up their arses. Get away from such toxic people.
I get it, I'm gaming for 40yrs now, and i know how it feels to be ridiculed for it. Fuck them. Especially when it's coming from people who spend their time watching TV or mindlessly scrolling fuckbook et al. They really should STFU. Gaming always was an art-form, now more than ever. And adults have a right to, nay, the freedom to enjoy their passions guiltfree.
Try to find new friends, or a community where your interests are shared. Anybody who makes fun of another person for their interests is not a good friend.
Yeah cause I'm too busy to game frequently, but I can watch something while being productive.
That's me for sure these days. Back in high school I used to play at least a couple of hours every day. I have a gaming PC and a Steam Deck but probably play a few hours a month. But I'll happily watch several hours of Twitch each day while I'm relaxing.
Probably just getting older and busier, haha.
As a (probably) even older guy I find it the weirdest thing ever. "watching games being played". It's boring AF.
Sure, I can't t play counterstrike effectively anymore. Sure I am the one with the most deaths in helldivers2. Doom eternal is just way too twitchy for me. I've become too slow. In mechwarrior 5 I have too put the difficulty on story/easy and aim assist on. Which hurt my old ego the most to be honest.
But doing it still beats the shit out of watching it.
/start_old_man_rant
Especially these days when every streamer is an egocentric manchilds screaming their head off in a totally scripted "episode". Or girls in bikinis only because it sells. Can we just leave that in hooters? And everything is bought and paid for. You're watching a commercial. Or do you really think that logo on his mike just happens to be in view? Or the brand of the gaming chair?or that cupboard behind him filled with lights and gaming gear? Its ultra consumerism. And the begging for money. Fuck off. Really.
I hate it.
I miss total biscuit. That was entertainment.
/end_old_man_rant
I mean, the thing that people watch twitch for is mainly the person/people on the stream, the game is a backdrop, rarely the actual focus
And not everyone is ego-centric like you're saying? I mean, there's literally tens of thousands of streamers. Don't just look at the biggest ones that probably mainly appeal to kids, i.e. a different audience than you. Chances are the kind of people you would enjoy watching are just smaller and more niche
I would say this isn't me, but I started playing Dwarf Fortress lately and have probably been watching an hour of tutorials for every 30 minutes I play at this point. 😅
It's not that bad! Once you've got the basics down you can just watch as everything explodes
Once you learn how to survive, the deep end is best learned by trial and error!
All of my little cousins and nephews watch streamers. To them it's more fun to watch someone play than to play most times. They don't like dealing with challenging games all the time, they really just want to have fun. These kids do play games but they watch more than me so I tried watching some streamers and I get it. When I was growing up we had systems with multiple controller ports and no online. Online gaming was PC only until I went to college and console online took off. But growing up you had to bring your friends or cousins to play some Mario Kart 64. That was way different than playing with randoms online. Streamers kinda brings that connection back.
Streamers kinda brings that connection back
In a parasocial kinda way...?
when my son plays he's constantly talking through whatever he's doing in the game. streaming has rubbed off that much
I watch games about the game in gaming, but I also watch games about my game when I'm not gaming. Therefore by definition my gaming will be less than my watching gaming.
What if gaming time is 4 hours, you spend 3/4 of gaming time playing games, and you watch gaming videos for one hour outside gaming time?
You have to watch the video of the game you are playing in order to play the game you are playing. By definition... (if you are video gaming) all bets are off for boardgamers!
What if gaming time is 4 hours
I remember not having kids...
Now gaming time, if I'm lucky, is like 30 mins a week. Much of that spent patching and remembering wtf I was doing last time I played.
Not counting playing with them, at least. Though they spend more time watching Minecraft videos than playing Minecraft, so there's that.
Sometimes you are so tired that you can’t actively engage in something, but you want to engage with it so you passively engage instead.
This goes for gamers watching gaming videos, woodworkers watching woodworking videos or people with dirty houses watching lawnmowing/pressure washing/car detailing/rug cleaning videos.
You get some of the endorphins of achievement, without having to go through the effort of achieving something.
I mean they are counting e-sports? Because is the same shit as watching soccer but better, vast majority of soccer fans doesn't play it regularly.
7.4 hours a week gaming
Those are rookie numbers
The long weekend from Thanksgiving gave me unprecedented access to factorio space age. I think I hit 60 hours last week.
I’ve spent boatloads more time watching football than playing football, too.
Also, with Rainbow 6: Siege, there’s so many ways to play the game that I love watching videos to get ideas for new strategies to try.
Lastly, contrary to popular belief, a lot of games actually require thinking about what you’re doing. Time spent playing is not really time spent spacing out so I will happily watch videos about a game I like to play when I don’t have the energy to actually focus on playing them.
This makes me feel kind of alienated.
I don't think I've ever watched someone playing games intentionally, outside of like "how do you do this part?" guides, and maybe a couple hours spectating in games total.
Ok, and a handful of like "let me solo her" highlights that made it to me. But I never like seek it out.
I'm principal Skinner, I guess.
Bro, preach. Definitely only need a quick clip for like, where is this item hiding in Elden Ring?
Maybe helps that I still have a solid squad of irl mates I game with, but also don't mind catching solo time on single players.
I was dead fucking wrong about twitch tho. When it first came out I was like "who the hell is this for, younger siblings?" Like, why wouldn't you just play the game yourself? Figured there'd be a lil niche for e-sport pro level scene, but twitch got way bigger than I ever would've thought.
Saying all this as a mid-thirty dude who truly will never comprehend people who spend a bunch on twitchy
It's cool watching people of different skill levels than you, not just the pros I think. Also when people take on challenges that take a long time, you can kind of skip through the vid at your leisure.
Plus sometimes you just don't have the energy to game. It's like Matt Groening said in that old Life is Hell comic (although about tv): Why is tv the best pal of all? When you're tired, tv does the playing for you.
this is Lemmy. There's like dozens of us in this thread that hate watching streamers! you are not alone.
I like people doing challenge runs and speed runs, and occasionally letsgameitout who spends 1000 hours committing to the bit that I might have considered as a passing funny joke. I'd rather watch that then some evening ad riddled free to air.
I'm well over 30, not far from 40. Hobbies can be entertaining like watching someone else race a car. I ain't gonna be able to do that. But I appreciate those who can.
It would never occur to me to go watch someone do a whole speed run. Even less so to watch someone "doing a bit". Like, making a character that looks like Shrek and invading in a swamp is kind of funny, but I'm not going to watch that.
I don't know how to explain the complete void that is my interest there. Like, I wouldn't be mad if it was on in the background. But I just... Don't find it appealing. Like watching paint dry or looking out my window. It's there. Sometimes there's a cat. But I'm never going to be like "sweet let's go watch outside the window "
Expensive as the games are these days you gotta do copious amounts of research before plunking down those bennies
What you need to do is find two or so reviewers who align with what you want out of a game.
It is a free and easy way to experience 75% of the experience without even downloading it (data bloat has massively ballooned too, perhaps needlessly in some cases). Also linear stories, or procedural things not being as deep as they seem.
Even when it comes to indie-appearing stuff I often don't like the direction of the game design/difficulty, so it will likely be a more enjoyable experience in those cases too. The narrator also cuts boring bits or issues, also may do things I would not especially when it comes to skill or knowledge of said game. They may do silly things or tell a story. This may be 300% experience (of a new mix).
I am absolutely trash with the elden ring series but I love everything about it. I watch people play and enjoy it. I'm sure 20 years ago I'd have been all in on them but my game difficulty is set to easy these days.
My first thought: I love the stories in Elden Ring, there's so many, so much history written into the art. But between constantly getting mollywopped and it being kind of trickle fed, I lose the story(ies). There are a handful of channels that go indepth on the stories, the legend, the history and "archeology" of The Lands Between.
There's a lot of intention and love put into Elden Ring, but do to sucking at video games, sometimes it's easier to enjoy the stories through other avenues.
I beat elden ring and the expansion.
it took me 200 hours. it took me 6+ months.
most games are like 1/10 of that length.
Those aren’t gamers in the same way watching racing doesn’t make me a race car driver.
Just because someone doesn't play games all the time doesn't mean they don't play games sometimes.
If you race 10 hours a week, but you watch racing 20 hours a week, are you not still a racer?
Fair point
Never really understood watching it when playing is also very little effort. It's not football.
Well...
Interesting that you see a difference between the two. Football also does not require incredible effort to play, still a lot of people only watch it.
I don't watch streams, but I do watch a lot of Let's Plays (i.e. Materwelonz, WoolieVersus). Sometimes to watch them play games that I normally wouldn't, sometimes to listen to their insights at certain hype points in games I previously played, and usually due to loneliness (i.e. parasocial relationships).
Regarding the last point, it also tends to be the reason I gravitate towards games with strong story, or MMOs. Feeling like I belong to a community keeps the loneliness at bay. Outside of games, I like to be in crowded areas, though not necessarily interacting with anyone.
My wife likes YouTubers but isn't a gamer. If I'm doing stuff with them I'm more likely to pick a video about games than a game.
My wife thought she was the same until suddenly it clicked and she realized she is in fact a gamer
Nice. My partner is more of a movie person and I'm more a games person, so I'll watch movies with her almost as a favour, and she'll return it by playing games with me lol.
There's an art to picking a movie or game for a choosie person, and we've both got pretty good at predicting eachothers' tastes in media.
We called my wife "fake gamer girl" for a while because we made a group chat back in 2020 with everyone in it to coordinate online games. They were there because she would play Among Us or Jack Box with us. It was very tongue in cheek. To be honest, they may have even said it themselves for the first time lol.
Absolutely can't stand watching people play video games. They play wrong.
And the only videos I watch of a game are ones to see what kind of game it is when I don't know too much beyond word of mouth "this game is great" kind of thing. Sure, you've described the game as an action-packed romp with tons of weapons and semi-open world, but the video shows it's a 2d side scroller with variations of the same 5 pixel "guns" that all shoot the same ball. Not interested.
Beyond that, I have no interest in watching videos. And if companies started trying to somehow cram even more ads into their games to advertise to people watching a stream then I'm even less in than before
They play wrong.
I feel that. A few times I had to stop the stream and play the game better myself.
I have to ask if you have ever watched professional level StarCraft 2. Because those people play at an insane level of multitasking and optimization and it is actually beautiful to watch in many cases. The stuff they do is often not even achievable by the average player. I'm sure there are other examples in FPS games and other genres, but what professional RTS players do definitely pushes the level of human cognitive ability.
The obvious barrier to entry here is knowing the game, as you can't really appreciate things fully unless you've played at least a little. But I'll say that I started off watching LowkoTV and he was entertaining enough to watch until I finally decided to try out the game, and then came to appreciate it even more after that.
Obviously using in game portals to related content creators to push more ads is idiotic, just saying the recognition of the importance of gaming content creators to the games themselves isn't inherently a bad thing.
Every teenager on YouTube has suddenly become a professional gaming industry analyst for EA, Microsoft, Ubisoft and Bethesda's failures, and could probably put it on a resume.
"The problem with the industry today...."
Fill in the rest with whatever and you've got hours and hours of angry, dissatisfied content for others to nod with.
"ABYSMAL! UNINSPIRED!"
That's the spirit!
That's because I suck at the games I like and need that hit of dopamine imagining I'm actually good at something
you only know you suck because of watching others. I skip that part :-)
Damn I feel that
You don't really know it until you stop watching videos for like a week. Suddenly you want to do your favorite things again; try things yourself again.
I'm always "why am I wasting time watching this when I could be playing a cool game?"
because i'm at work. or tired as fuck at the end of a long day.
That's partly because it's now more important to know what you're doing, than figuring out what you're doing, or just enjoying the fight. Unless you're willing to just tank insults while playing, and rebuild and retry with constant leavers, you have to study. Usually people try, but often they sit back and give in to "experiencing" games through video instead.
WoW for example has almost no tolerance for flawed teammates anywhere anymore, I've seen countless groups that would rather sit outside a dungeon for hours, than be inside it for 15 minutes too long.
And people no longer think "if you want good teammates, you have to build a team", they instead think that everyone who joins the random matchmaker has a responsibility to be good. It's rude to be bad at World of Warcraft.
Can confirm. This is me
I game while watching my favorite streamers!
Guilty
Cool 😎
The article didn't mention it but I'm curious what the breakdown is by age. I have to assume younger Gamers watch way more videos than older gamers.
Never watched a stream, never really understood the motivation. But i also don't consume social media (besides lemmy) or such and am generally anti-social, so that might be that. I would be infuriated if those people wouldn't do what I would do. Also the chat is... Annoying.
The wisdom of streams is simple.
I do shit with my life other than gaming. If I want to experience a cool game without spending the money and without investing the time to get good at the game, it's a no-brainer to watch a playthrough done by a professional gamer and a professional live commentator like the best streamers are.
That makes sense. As someone who never saw the appeal in watching sports, this is probably the same league. But somehow it's like watching porn when one isn't in the mood for actual sex 😁
This brings back a college memory - one dorm I lived in was so boring I once drew a crowd of 5 while playing solitaire in the common room. It happened another time when I was making a Halloween costume by drawing a giant Jack of Hearts on a bed sheet with markers, holding the actual card up in my hand as a guide - but that one was more understandable.
This applies mostly to young gamers.
fully agree
Sometimes watching someone play a game is more fun than playing the game. Markiplier shrieking his way through Subnautica was fucking hilarious. And I have a friend who doesn't play games but who watched an entire playthrough of Detroit: Become Human because they loved the story.
I’m part of this group and didn’t even realize it. But I have the most boring job in the world so I watch a lot of YouTube. Otherwise I never watch anything, especially at home.
I mean, have you played games recently?
Thats technicaly correct for me .I often play eu4 while i watch eu4 and spice it up with a bit of music in the background. Alghtough i do only watch gameplays of games im really into ( eu4 ,against the storm ) but generaly not skilled ( or patient )enough to do whatewer crazy shit the streamer is doing, rarely gameplays of games where plot is important in any way and when id do usualy its speedruns.
And videos complaining about videogames.
Thank god we have YouTube videos that tell us what games to like and what games to hate. Imagine we would have to make this decision on our own.
Reviews have actually saved me money. Time is limited, so I’m thankful to be able toto watch a review and be able to use that to help me make a decision about a game I’m on the fence with.
Because the new games are shit and the good old games you can't play on newer systems properly
Emulators are a thing, you know.
imagine if this was about football fans
The interesting part to me is that you can watch football even when/if you can't play football, but you could be gaming instead of watching.
Nah, I can't game while I'm doing the dishes but I can watch a video just fine
Watching sports is a useful activity when you confined to a hospital bed for a month or two as has happened to people I know. In one case they wouldn't be allowed to game, even sports were in danger of being too exciting for their condition.
Logic does not check out. Like they're both activities I can do on my couch? Okay sure, I guess. Just like I can watch a video about knitting even if I can't knit, but I could be knitting instead of watching!? Complete nonsense...
I can only watch so much football as can a rare other people like me. If I am watching football I want the view of one position. I don't care that the quarterback got sacked on the play, how did the running back avoid the defense in his attempts to become open for a pass - or some such that I want to emulate when I next play. (i think that is a likely thing - I consider football too dangerous to play so I'm guessing - in reality I'd prefer to see other sports that I'm likely to play)
edit: spelling
i can't make heads or tails of this reply :P
"how did the running back avoid the defense", i'm assuming there should be a "to" in there? who runs back? i can't parse it...