How to Grow a Gaming Channel in 2025

According to a study of 2023, India is the largest gaming market in the world with over 568 million gamers and 9.5 billion gaming app downloads.

Because of such a big market, we get a lot of opportunities to grow our gaming channel. But this big market brings one more thing with it.

And now that it’s 2025, it will be even more difficult to grow a gaming channel

And now that it’s 2025, it will be even more difficult to grow a gaming channel because a lot of new gamers are going to come on YouTube.

And so, if you are serious about your channel, then I recommend that you watch this video completely because today, we are going to cover a lot of important topics like viral ideas, types of gaming thumbnails, editing secrets of gaming videos, and branching out.

And I can confidently say that after applying these strategies on your channel, you will be ahead of every channel that is ignoring them.

Maybe you also think that making normal gameplay videos

Maybe you also think that making normal gameplay videos is the easiest way to start a gaming channel. I mean, you just have to turn on your screen recorder, play your favorite game, and there you go. Your video is ready to be made. But think about it once. Anyone can make something that is so easy to make, right?

And that’s why there is a lot of competition in these videos. Even if the competition is not high, why would I watch a random person with 15 subscribers play a game that I can play on my laptop? It would be so boring.

You have to add value to your gameplay to entertain viewers

You have to add value to your gameplay to entertain viewers and the simplest way to do this is storytelling. For example, I will not click on this video because I know that the player is going to play Minecraft the way I play it.

But if the topic is beating Minecraft but I can’t stop sprinting, then this gameplay becomes instantly interesting because the player is playing the game in a different way that I have never played. The challenge included with this gameplay adds storytelling to the video. As a result, you get 91,000 views in just one month. And yes, this creator has only 900 subscribers, so you can see how powerful it is to choose the right idea.

When you put in a normal gameplay

When you put in a normal gameplay, there is never a clear beginning, middle, or end. So it is difficult for viewers to know when something significant will happen in the video. There is no guarantee that something significant will happen because the player has no idea. And that’s why these types of videos are boring.

Whereas when you do this type of challenge, let’s say Minecraft Manhunt, then viewers know what stages the player is going to go through. Like escaping from hunters, collecting important resources, entering the nether, activating the portal. So like viewers know what to expect and at the same time they don’t. Because they don’t know how you will approach the gameplay and what will happen in your story. This builds tension to know what happened next. And that’s why it is fun to watch these videos.

Now understand what the problem is here

Now understand what the problem is here. All these trends like Minecraft’s SkyBlock Challenge, Free Fire’s First Gun Challenge, or Fortnite’s Only Chess Challenge. As long as you know about them, all the big creators of YouTube have already made videos on these topics. And that video idea becomes very saturated.

Which means little to no views. In this case, you have to add your own spies to the trend. For example, everyone plays Minecraft Manhunt, but Junkie changed the entire concept of this challenge. Hunters will not kill the player, but will try to save him.

Another example is Mario’s speedrun, but every 5 minutes, the HUD gets worse. There is nothing special about Mario Odyssey’s speedrun. A lot of people have done it. But if the HUD gets worse every 5 minutes, then that’s something really interesting. With these two examples, you would have understood how you can enter a saturated space and provide some freshness and get some views.

You can get inspiration from other games’ videos

If you want, you can get inspiration from other games’ videos. And you can apply that format to that game. Which you play on your channel. For example, Can I win without moving in Free Fire? If we want, we can apply this format to other games as well.

Like I got unreal without moving. Is it possible to beat Minecraft without moving? Roblox, but you can’t walk. In all these videos, there is a common format and that is that you can’t move. And so, you have to think creatively.

When you brainstorm video ideas, then think that the game that literally everyone plays, how can you play it in an unconventional way? And yes, don’t forget to take help of 4GPT in this. You will get a lot of ideas.

That a video’s thumbnail is one of the most important factors

There’s no doubt that a video’s thumbnail is one of the most important factors when it comes to getting views on YouTube. And this applies to all these niches, including gaming.

To deeply understand

To deeply understand what’s working and what’s not in the gaming niche, I analyzed more than 100 thumbnails from Minecraft to Free Fire, GTA V, Fortnite, and many other games. And here are some of my observations. If you’ve seen my previous video, you’d know that thumbnails have many different styles. And which one you choose depends totally on your video.

The first one is Moment Thumbnails

The first one is Moment Thumbnails. This style is the most popular in gaming videos, and it is the most powerful. Whether it’s an intense fight scene, an epic kill, or an interesting moment in the game where you’re stealing a card from the showroom manager. The aim of these thumbnails is to show the most interesting key moments of the gameplay and build curiosity.

The reason why these types of thumbnails give a very good CTR is because they leave viewers thinking. Which is the main purpose of thumbnails. Viewers keep thinking about what happened after this moment. Now it’s important to know that editing plays a very important role in these types of thumbnails.

Of course, you can directly take a screenshot from the gameplay and use it, but it’s not possible to get a perfect shot every time. That’s why creators recreate the scene with the help of editing and use it for thumbnails. For example, this thumbnail where the player is falling down.

This is a very good moment thumbnail because an interesting moment in the gameplay has been depicted here. But do you think this is a screenshot? Definitely not. Because of course, it is not possible to fall upside down like this in Minecraft.

And even if it is possible, it is very difficult to get such a perfect screenshot from the gameplay. Specifically, if we talk about Minecraft thumbnails, then you can use MyAnimator, which is a free animation software. With this, you can animate characters, mobs, and in-game items in 3D and recreate any scene.

If you don’t have a laptop or a PC, then you can use apps like Prisma 3D on your phone to make Minecraft thumbnails. Which is ideal for making Minecraft thumbnails. And the same applies to other games as well. Like GTA 5’s Rockstar Editor, in which you can create custom scenes by choosing characters and placing them in any time and environment.

Similarly, you can use spectator mode, which is a common feature of multiplayer games like BGMI, Call of Duty, or Valorant. This allows you to see the gameplay from a different perspective, which is not normally possible.

Then the next style of thumbnails, which is very popular, is reaction thumbnail

Then the next style of thumbnails, which is very popular, is reaction thumbnails. These are also just like moment thumbnails. They also have the face of the creator with a strong reaction. These thumbnails are very eye-catching, as human eyes are naturally drawn towards faces. But of course, not everyone can use this style.

I would say these are more suitable for personality-driven gaming channels, in which the reaction of the gamer towards the gameplay is the major part of the entertainment. For example, Technogamers. A personality-driven gaming channel, which is so successful because of Ujwal’s personality. They can literally play any game and get views easily. Because viewers watch his videos for him.

Now, the thumbnails of those styles that we have discussed so far, they work for gameplay videos

Now, the thumbnails of those styles that we have discussed so far, they work for gameplay videos. But what if you are making tutorials, news and updates, or any other type of videos? In this case, you can use the split-screen style of thumbnails. You have to show different features that have come in the new update of a game. Or you have to show the different steps of your tutorial. Or simply show an old versus new comparison.