It’s the last thing you’d want to do at a friend’s house, but online it seems to be all the craze: watching other people play video games. No, there’s no extreme twist — they don’t usually wear a crazy outfit, or do it while under the influence (usually); the craze of Let’s Play is quite literally simply watching people play video games.
Now, of course, the popular Let’s Players have interesting personalities. Many people may look up Let’s Plays for gameplay examples of a video game they are unsure of buying or potentially to watch someone react to an extremely frustrating game, but the personality of the player is what sells the appeal the most.
PewDiePie, the most successful YouTuber by far, has been the subject of psychological analysis to discover why he has been so successful. His primary content is not skits or in-depth critical analysis: it is merely himself playing video games. Or at least that’s how he gained his following.
Nowadays he does more skits and viewer-related content — countless things he can get away with, including asking his fans to mass-dislike his video or joking that he will delete his channel at 50 million subscribers. However, this enormous fan base amassed from his personality which was displayed in his ecstatic playthroughs of countless video games over the years, and it has paid off, as he earned around $12 million in 2015.
Countless other YouTube stars have risen to YouTube fame in a similar fashion. Whether it be Markiplier or jacksepticeye, all these people have to do is play a video game to amass millions of views. Their personality alone is so incredibly appealing to their audiences that merely watching the YouTuber react to a game instead of the viewer playing the game on their own is worth their time.
This has certainly done much good, not only for the YouTube community, but for the world. Markiplier, for example, has done multiple Make-A-Wish visits, to the extent where he was actually given the celebrity of the year award for 2016.
PewDiePie, Markiplier, jacksepticeye, KickthePJ and Emma Blackery have worked together to do hours and hours of a charity live stream for RED to fight AIDS. These YouTubers have shown that their personalities are worth watching, and that’s why people stick around.
Marco Omta is a sophomore studying music production. Please note that the views and opinions of the columnists do not reflect those of The Post. What do you think of let's plays? Email Marco at mo183714@ohio.edu.
