Vote up the gaming channels that you find most enjoyable
Twenty-six-year-old Felix Kjellberg has over 40 million subscribers on his Youtube channel, and most of them probably don't even know his real name. As PewDiePie, Kjellberg has created a video game review empire. In fact, PewDiePie is the number-one channel on YouTube. His videos accumulated over 10 billion views by the end of 2015. The problem here is, they're not all that good. There are so many YouTube gaming channels better than PewDiePie.
Known for his high-energy, relentless video style, Kjellberg mostly just plays video games and screams semi-coherently on camera. Unsurprisingly, some people find that irritating. But if you fall into that category, don't worry: there are a lot of gaming YouTube channels better than PewDiePie. There have been some YouTubers cropping up who have consistently been more entertaining than the leader of the “Bro Army.” Here are twelve channels that gamers should be watching that are more entertaining than PewwwwwwwwwDiePIIIIIIIE! (God, that's annoying.) Vote up the most underrated YouTube gaming channels.
Likely the most recognizable YouTuber on this list, Markiplier is a colorful character in more ways than his rotating hair colors. Primarily a Let's Player, he began playing through horror games such as Amnesia: The Dark Descent and shot to notoriety for his scream-filled Five Nights at Freddy's playthrough. Other Let's Plays include action, indie, and strange dating games.
What differentiates him from other YouTubers is that Mark Fischbach is refreshingly genuine. While some may have built characters up in front of the camera - and Markiplier does occasionally play to his ten million subscribers - Fischbach has exposed his real life struggles to his audience as if they were all his friends.
His plea to fans to never give up on their passions touched hearts across YouTube, and his real-life sorrow over the passing of fellow YouTuber Daniel Kyre was felt in the tears shed by those who knew him as well as those who didn't. His honesty and genuine compassion have been the basis for many of his Livestreams, raising nearly a million dollars for various charities.
Game Grumps is a Let's Play channel started by Arin “Egoraptor” Hanson and Jon “JonTron” Jafari, and though many bemoaned the loss of Jafari in 2013, the man who filled his shoes, Leigh Daniel Avidan, proved to be capable and then some. The chemistry was clear, and the gamersphere had an incredible bromace more bro-werful than Contra's Bill Rizer and Lance Bean.
Since its inception, Game Grumps has spun itself off into other shows on the Game Grumps YouTube channel, including Steam Train, focusing on PC and Steam titles, Game Grumps VS, focusing on multiplayer titles, and the free-for-all Grumpcade, giving Game Grumps fans something that many other channels often lack - variety. Hanson, Avidan, and the other Grumps across the channel may sometimes engage in sophomoric humor, but at least it's consistently funny. Plus, who wouldn't laugh at a well-timed fart joke?
Andy Farrant likes history and dressing up as a vampire magician. Jane Douglas likes science and runs a spam email scheme from her imaginary island nation of Janetopia. Mike Channell likes cars and completely ruining any and all stealth missions. Together they make up OutsideXbox, or Oxbox for short. Though the majority of their channel focuses on Let's Play footage and Best/Worst Videos, they also produce a short magazine show every week, appropriately titled Show of the Week.
An easy entryway into their channel is their annual Oxbox Xmas Challenges, where the three challenge each other to difficult and/or bizarre feats in some of the more popular Xbox games of the year, including wingsuit challenges in Just Cause 3 or taking out a whole outpost in Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain using only D-Dog.
Smart, clever, and with access to big events and releases before many others on YouTube, OutsideXbox is sort of like you and two pals playing video games, except they're all British and being paid (if you're British, pretend you're someone not British pretending to be British, and the comparison totally still works).
Rob Pearson, Dave Jackson, Nathan Ditum, and Hollie Bennett make up the British quartet known as PlayStation Access, and access is certainly what they have, ranging from the recent demo of upcoming JRPG I Am Setsuna to broadcasting direct from the Final Fantasy XV launch event in downtown Los Angeles, where clearly they were wearing hats as both game reporters and unapologetic fans of the series.
Passion resonates in everything they do, from Rob's dry but humorous take on past games in his Friday Musings to Hollie fangirling about anything RPG to Dave's gameness to do silly sketches and tally Metal Gear Solid references to Nathan's fascination with Destiny. But best of all is Delsin Rodent. How good is Delsin Rodent, PlayStation Access's resident mute badger puppet/running gag? He was nominated for a Golden Joystick, and though PewDiePie may have won, he (and his human subordinates) are now on a list of channels better than PDP.
Does Pewds have a mute badger puppet? No. No, he does not.
According to a 2013 Reddit AMA, Austin Hargrave thinks peanut butter is “aight.” But due to an early moniker of “Jiffy,” which evolved into “Jiffy Peanut Butter,” the name PeanutButterGamer came about. Like peanut butter, Hargrave will stick with you.
His channel runs the gamut from best/worst lists to a spinoff series on creepypastas in gaming called “The G Files.” Though his videos range from Triple-A titles to games bought at Goodwill, PeanutButterGamer is best known for his massive knowledge of the Legend of Zelda series.
Deeming November “Zelda Month,” PBG covers everything from hacking the Zelda games, debating whether Skyward Sword deserves the shaming it gets from fans, and even doing the unthinkable by daring to play that which gamers do not speak of – the Zelda CD-i games. PBG does it for us so we do not have to endanger ourselves by watching a disturbingly-animated Link talking about being so hungry he could eat an Octorok.
Currently one of the more prolific Let's Players, Chuggaaconroy, born Emile Rosales-Birou, should be watched, but not always at 100% volume. A high-energy player, Chuggaaconroy seemingly forgets he has a mic on him on occasion, but that's okay – we've all had moments of victory that deserve a lengthy shout from time to time.
CC's Let's Plays hit gamers right in the nostalgia-box, featuring games from the eras of the N64, Gamecube, and older Nintendo systems via Virtual Consoles. Newbies to his channel should check out his Let's Play of Luigi's Mansion. Come for the gameplay, stay for the atrocious puns.
Game Grumps is a Let's Play channel started by Arin “Egoraptor” Hanson and Jon “JonTron” Jafari, and though many bemoaned the loss of Jafari in 2013, the man who filled his shoes, Leigh Daniel Avidan, proved to be capable and then some. The chemistry was clear, and the gamersphere had an incredible bromace more bro-werful than Contra's Bill Rizer and Lance Bean.
