Game Theory: How PewDiePie Conquered YouTube
Why Hacker News recommends it
HN commenters cite it as an analysis of PewDiePie's popularity and of how YouTube's recommendations favored gaming content.
What it is
The Game Theorists analyze how PewDiePie rose to become the most subscribed channel on YouTube. The video looks at why let's plays and gaming channels thrive on the platform.
Recommended by 2 HN commenters across 2 different months, 2014 to 2017.
What Hacker News said
Recommends Houshalter · 2014-05 · on “Check your Google history”
There is an interesting theory on how that happened: [this video] Basically Google changed their algorithm to recommend videos based on time watched instead of just views. Which massively favored let's plays because they are so long. They also promote channels based on geographical location. Pewdiepie had an advantage somehow because he had a fanbase in Sweden and moved to Italy. This might also explain parent comment's problem (recommendations favoring let's plays because they are longer.)
Recommends Kronopath · 2014-06 · on “YouTube's Biggest Draw Plays Games, Earns $4 Million a Year”
Here's a video with some interesting theories about how PewDiePie, and other gaming channels, are so popular because they're effectively hyper-tuned for Youtube's promotion algorithms: [this video]
Cites Spellman · 2015-07 · on “YouTube gaming star PewDiePie 'earned $7M in 2014'”
Plus he has moved to 3 different countries, picking up viewers from them all. And how YouTube's Recommended Videos system works. Here's someone's analysis of why he got so popular. Looks, editing skills, and personality also helped build him a niche. [this video]
Cites cerealbad · 2017-11 · on “The jobs of the future are already here, and some are weird”
[this video] (12mins) [LINK] (13mins) if you prefer to read instead. Online Multiplayer Video Games: Peak Daily Users 5,000,000 League of Legends (Riot Games 2009, Free / Cosmetic microtransactions) 2,552,565 PLAYER UNKNOWN'S BATTLEGROUNDS (Steam / Bluehole Inc. 2017, $30 / Cosmetic microtransactions) 727,479 Dota 2 (Steam / Valve Corporation 2013, Free / Cosmetic microtransactions) 547,883 Counter-Strike: Global Offensive (Valve Corporation 2012, $15 / Cosmetic microtransactions) -in-built audience of about 500k-5million -low barrier of entry high skill ceiling -former professional players stream their games daily and give advice -livestream audience of 10k-20k concurrent viewers -streamer can e