How come Americans are so prominent when it comes to "Let's playing"?

[Deleted]

Hey,

Just curious to know if someone knows. I've checked A LOT of LP channels on Youtube and almost every time it's an US channel. I should clarify that by "Let's playing" I don't mean people like PDP. I mean those who LP acual console/PC games. I just got thinking about it and found it odd.

[Val the Moofia Boss]

Because kids here in the Americas are losing interest in the 99% of crap shows being shown on television, and being gamers themselves they find more enjoyment out of LP's the likes of Gopher. I suppose it's just that many of that demographic has either become LPers themselves or older gamers from the 70s and 80s who dreamed of being able to make money off of playing Super Mario Bros. are now realizing they can do it in this economic depression.

[Affixiation]

Because USA is #1

[Shelly]

Hey,

Just curious to know if someone knows. I've checked A LOT of LP channels on Youtube and almost every time it's an US channel. I should clarify that by "Let's playing" I don't mean people like PDP. I mean those who LP acual console/PC games. I just got thinking about it and found it odd.

Funny, currently my favorite "Let's Play" guy is a fellow called Christopher Odd who is from Toronto.

Anyway, if I was to hazard a guess I'd say it's because consoles are huge in America - though I don't have better worldwide numbers - if you know what you're doing it's pretty easy to monetize and figure out your self-employment taxes, youtube and google are American companies and in much of the country we have a very good infrastructure.

[OrcsRLame]

Some of my favorite LPers and and twitch streamers are Canadian or from a European country.

[Deleted]

Because USA is #1

I should have seen this coming But seriously, the US population is what... 315 million or something? While that's a lot of people, Europe does have a LARGE combined population as well. You almost never see a scandinavian let's player for example.

[Val the Moofia Boss]

I should have seen this coming But seriously, the US population is what... 315 million or something? While that's a lot of people, Europe does have a LARGE combined population as well. You almost never see a scandinavian let's player for example.

Gopher from Scandanvia and his 300k+ subscribers (For Steve!) would like to have a word with you...

[Templar 331]

Because kids here in the Americas are losing interest in the 99% of crap shows being shown on television

Not just kids. I canceled my Direct TV subscription because there's nothing on that interests me and I don't feel like paying them for the few things I might watch. And the Let's Plays are way more entertaining than what's on T.V.

[Poppincaps]

I should have seen this coming But seriously, the US population is what... 315 million or something? While that's a lot of people, Europe does have a LARGE combined population as well. You almost never see a scandinavian let's player for example.

For whatever reason, the US has always dominated western culture. Singers and rapper from the US are known around the world and many foreign artists endeavor to make it big in America. Although I honestly don't know why that is.

Also, size really has nothing to do with influence. Just look at Japan.

[Vankrys]

Firstly, English is kinda an universal language to communicate with the rest of the world, hence it is the official language of these forums. When it come to audio commentary, i like the person hosting the playthrough to speak and articulate proper english.

i, for instance, am french. While fluent in english, my speaking skills are plagued with a french accent, in way that i could never be a succesful streamer if it was something i would want to do. I could do it in my own language, which would limit drastically my audience to the point it would be difficult to make a living. That's why i think people whose english is their native language have an inherent advantage. USA, UK (such as totalbiscuit), canada (quill18) to name a few.

that being said, pewdiepie is swedish i believe, but he doesn't have a thick accent though.

[GennGreymane]

If I had to take a guess, 1 is English being pretty widely spoken, also youtube were a lot of this started is big in the U.S

[Nachturnal]

Probably has something to do with English being a universal language, sort of.

Also probably has to do with the amount of exposure people in the states get from T.V, Movies and the like. All that exposure towards entertainment seems to breed some rather unique individuals. Not to downplay the rest of the world. It just seems American media/entertainment has a far reach.

[haxartus]

If I make a let's play it would sound weird because I have an accent that is not American, so it wouldn't be watched very much.

[draganid]

because as much as people on the right and left would like to think, life in the us is pretty good compared to most places in the world. youd probably see more canadians if there was more of us in general doing lets plays.

[barackopala]

idk, there are some in my country, i just hate them tho, they produce quite a big pile of dooky, thank god they play on one of the worst gw2 servers =P

[May90]

Well, the US have more native English speakers than all other countries combined. And, since "Let's play" is an English sentence, well... Most people from non-English speaking countries do "Let's play"s in their first language, and sometimes they even write the phrase "Let's play" itself in their language, so it doesn't show up in the results of your search.

[Lotus Victoria]

I'd like to see this being a thing in other countries too. I'd love to make a LP Channel, but it will never work.

[GennGreymane]

because as much as people on the right and left would like to think, life in the us is pretty good compared to most places in the world. youd probably see more canadians if there was more of us in general doing lets plays.

a lot of Canadian youtubers though. Same difference IMO.

[Pony Soldier]

I find let's plays to be boring as hell. The only time I ever watch them is if I'm stuck in a game and I need to see a video of how to get past where I am. But to watch the whole thing? Hell no. I'd rather play the actual game than watch someone play it. Maybe like a quick 3-5 min video but I know there are some that go up to like an hour long and people actually watch the whole thing like some kind of TV show. Hey but if that's your thing though, whatever floats your boat.

I do like those funny fail videos though like what Rooster Teeth does where the game will have some sort of bug or glitch. I enjoy watching those.

[May90]

I'd like to see this being a thing in other countries too. I'd love to make a LP Channel, but it will never work.

I've been dreaming of making a "Let's play" channel for some time, but I honestly do not see it working for myself. First, I cannot talk straight for 1-2 hours without getting terribly tired and losing my voice. Second, the commitment of doing it nearly every day for people to keep watching me will probably make me enjoy the process less. Finally, there are so many popular LP channels nowadays that, to really compete with them, I would have to radiate a unique personality, someone people will remember after listening to or watching, someone like Day9 or boogie - I don't think I am that kind of person.