If you’ve read my bio page, you know that I am a poor college student: with no money to feed my love for video games. It’s a goddamn tragedy I tell you. So, to keep myself occupied and up to date on my favorite franchises, I turn to YouTube, where many gaming channels have great fan-bases, stupid humor and fun gameplay of some of my favorite games. Here are some of my favorites that I hope you’ll enjoy.
Note: A lot of these channels may have foul language or “rude” humor in their videos. I love it, but if you’re not into that then these videos may not be for you. Hey, it’s worth a try though, right?
1. Achievement Hunter
Created by Rooster Teeth, a production group that produces shorts, podcasts and animations, "Achievement Hunter" is a YouTube series with a huge fan base and a variety of different series. If you don’t believe me on their popularity, you’re missing out on conventions like RTX and Let’s Play Live where fans from around the country, and the world, get tickets to see these goofy YouTube gamers. Not only that, but "Achievement Hunter" has grown their family to involve other YouTube gaming groups, making it all the more exciting to watch. Their humor may or may not be to your taste, but with their variety of shows and activities worldwide, you might be able to find something new and entertaining to fill your time. Though their fan base is on the younger side, they’ve recently started their own video podcast called Off Topic, which is a bit less joke-y and a bit more talk-y, which I feel appeals to older crowds. Click here to watch.
2. Game Grumps
"Game Grumps" is a channel that features 2 guys on a couch just recording themselves playing games, making jokes and doing improv comedy. The idea was originally conceived by Arin Hanson and Jon Jafari, but is now carried out by Arin Hanson and Dan Avidan. "Game Grumps" has over three million subscribers and has started featuring more special guests like Steve-O and Jacob Anderson, aka Raleigh Ritchie, from Game of Thrones. With mini-series like "Guest Grumps" and "Grumpcade", both of which feature other popular stars and YouTube stars, "Game Grumps" helps build the popularity of tons of individuals. These two also have some somewhat crude humor, but their laughter brightens my day and their light tones can really alter a bad mood. They also have great abilities as voice actors, making their comedy even greater. Arin and Dan have also formed a video game themed band called Starbomb with one other member named Ninja Brian. Click here to watch Game Grumps or click here to check out Starbomb.
3. Cryatoic
"Cryaotic" is a channel featuring “Cry Plays” where a soft spoken Twitch gamer uploads his Twitch gaming steams to YouTube. I like this channel a bunch since I’m not the best at keeping up with Twitch streams, which are live at certain times and run very long. Cry plays a variety of games, some mainstream and some less known indie games, with a soothing tone and a soft type of humor. Cry is one of the few gamers that has kept his face hidden from the public and is featured in fan art as wearing a drawn mask. Only some of his fellow gaming buddies have seen his face…mysterious. Click here to watch.
4. Funhaus
"Funhaus" is formally known as Inside Gaming and was recently brought into the "Let’s Play" family I referred to earlier, bringing about their name change. Their audience is slightly older, and their most popular shows include playing random games on Steam and trying out a binder full of demo disks given by fans. They also have a series of hilarious drunk gaming, and their series "Open Haus" is around 10 minutes of answering questions from their audience members. Their videos are often very audience based, either showing off fan art or reading comments, and I feel that these types of shows really hype up audience members to remain active as community members. Their collaboration videos with Achievement Hunter have made me all the more interested in their videos, and their rivalry with other gaming groups is entertaining to see. Click here to watch.
5. Best Friends Play
The Best Friend Zaibatsu was my first encounter with gaming channels on YouTube. Born as “Two Best Friends Play” by two of the members, Matt and Pat, the group grew to include two other friends, Woolie and Liam, and became “Best Friends Play". Machinima hosts their series, and Matt’s channel TheSw1tcher has full play throughs of games and reviews. Two Best Friends Play will always be my first love. Their humor is silly and filled with references to some of my favorite series and movies, and they're also very informative gamers. Previously, several of them were game testers, so their information on many game series is expansive, as is their knowledge on how certain games should run. All four have unique personalities and their friendships show through to make them a great channel with funny individuals. Click here to see the Two Best Friends Play show or click here to see more recent videos from the group on TheSw1tcher.
6. The Know
"The Know" is a source for gaming, technology, and science news and is also a product of Rooster Teeth. Some of their videos are simply to hit the highlights about upcoming conferences like E3 or as reviews on games. Other videos are a bit longer with more content and character. In particular, "The Patch" is my absolute favorite podcast on YouTube and is an active show on The Know. There’s so much news and content featured on The Patch that really goes in depth and shows off the knowledge on the gaming industry that these podcasters don’t always show. I loved getting a piece of knowledge on the gaming industry without making it my whole life trying to follow the history of a franchise; The Know does that for me. Click here to watch.
If you made it all the way through this article, then congratulations! I know many of you may have been bored by this, but if you genuinely enjoyed this, I hope you look into these channels and find out what interests you. Thank you for reading and I hope you soon find gaming to be as much fun as I do!
