The consumption of content produced by the video game industry occupies a predominant place on YouTube. So, in 2018, 200 million YouTube users consumed video game content daily on this platform. This type of content represents 50 billion hours of viewing, which is as much as the time spent by Netflix users. Video games are therefore at the heart of the concerns of the video sharing platform, whether in terms of turnover or the engagement of Internet users, according to Ryan Wyatt, the video game and virtual reality manager at YouTube. Moreover, it is also the only category that observes an increasing evolution in the number of publications in 2018-2019.
It therefore seemed legitimate to us to study the methods of distribution of YouTube videos by the main players in this industry. How do platforms, publishers and franchises communicate on this social network? What is the performance of their content and finally, how does the audience interact with this content? To carry out this work, we put together a dataset composed of 22,020 Youtube videos published in 2018, from 188 channels of the main video game platforms, publishers and franchises, on a European perimeter. This comprehensive data set has over 3.65 billion views and 9.8 million comments.
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A year of video games on YouTube From The Metrics Factory
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Platforms produce more videos than publishers
The three main platforms (Playstation, Xbox and Nintendo) animate 17 channels dedicated to their main markets daily (France, UK, Spain, etc.). For their part, publishers offer their presence on 171 channels, dedicated to markets or their main franchises. Platforms have fewer channels than publishers but on average, they publish more videos than publishers.
Average video publication by actor type
Playstation is the main video producer
During 2018, Playstation broadcast 3,457 videos combining a total of more than 284 hours of production with, on average, ten videos per day. 53.6% of its production are trailers compared to Nintendo (44.1%) and Xbox (41.4%).
The top 3 actors who have produced the most videos
As services for streaming and marketing games, platforms favor the distribution and relaying of trailers. Publishers are freeing themselves from communication focused on the effects of ads to build a complex discourse around their brand by diversifying their content. For example, Riot Games, the publisher of League of Legends, has accumulated several hundred million views on music videos and content designed to develop its gaming community.
Square Enix promotes its employer brand by presenting the jobs in the industry (“Meet the Team” series); Wargaming and Blizzard share behind the scenes of the development and evolution of their games through interviews with developers (“Developpers updates”, “Developpers diary”); all publishers whose franchises are invested in esports devote a large part of their productions to broadcasting and summarizing the championships.
Some actors use YouTube as a central medium in their activation strategy
Players such as Playstation, Ubisoft, Nintendo, Nintendo, Wargaming and Xbox broadcast large volumes of videos over a year, thus testifying to their intense activity on the Mountain View firm's social network.
Videos published by actors and the number of views and comments they have accumulated
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Platforms favor short formats
To communicate about video games, platforms broadcast videos whose duration varies between 30 seconds and 3 minutes. These are mainly video game announcement videos from various publishers. This represents 60% of the total volume of their broadcasts. However, they use long formats to communicate on other topics such as gameplay, interviews, etc.
Trailers contribute greatly to the visibility of games as well as to the performance of their publishers on YouTube. More than 1/3 of productions are trailers, and they contribute to approximately 40% of the performance in terms of views and comments. 80% of the visibility of Fallout 76 and Battlefield V games is linked to the broadcast of trailers.
Unlike platforms, the share of trailers broadcast by publishers is low. The diversification of their content leads to an increase in the average duration of productions. Some publishers, such as Ubisoft, Konami, Warner Bros, Warner Bros, Nintendo and Riot Games, do not hesitate to produce live esports tournaments or conferences, which last several hours. Mastering the distribution channel allows them to extend the duration of productions by producing innovative, sometimes immersive content formats, such as “gameplays”, videos in which designers or invited influencers decipher step-by-step their evolution in the gaming world.
Ubisoft produced a live that lasts more than 11 hours during the final of season 8 of the championship that it is organizing on the game Rainbow Six.
The video game industry intensifies its broadcasts during major trade shows
The majority of the YouTube channels in our panel are active all year round. As a result, they adopt a rigorous editorial agenda, rationalized by the release agenda, and showing strong seasonality. We note that major events and fairs dedicated to video games, such as E3 or Gamescom, are periods during which platforms and publishers intensify their publications.
Frequency of publications by actors according to dates
The main lessons to be learned from this study:
- Most publishers use YouTube as a central medium in their activation strategy.. Thus, videos from best sellers such as League of Legends and Fortnite frequently exceed one million views (1/2 billion cumulative views in 2018).
- Production/distribution methods vary according to the type of actor. Thus, the Playstation/Xbox or Nintendo brands are the main content broadcasters, but these videos are generally produced by publishers for promotional purposes.
- The trailer is the driving force behind franchise news. Sometimes taking innovative forms, this content contributes greatly to the visibility of games as well as to the performance of their publishers on YouTube. During this season, more than 1/3 of productions are trailers, contributing to 40% of views and comments
- The video game industry intensifies its broadcasts during major trade shows. Major events and fairs dedicated to video games, such as E3 or Gamescom, are periods during which platforms and publishers multiply their broadcast time.
- These actors preempt varied communication territories. : employer brand, development of the player community, corporate and financial communication... all while relying on the evolution of Youtube functionalities (livestream, influencers...)
A study carried out by Chandrache Golion, Jérémy Danulot and Erwan Le Nagard.
