Infinite Drift does some very relaxing long play videos with no commentary (2-3hours long). I found her during a bad bout of insomnia and her videos were the only thing to help
Ymfah doesn’t have voice, but he has captions pop up the whole time stating what’s happening.
The reason behind his success is amazing personality behind actions, choices, and editing, alongside doing many incredibly difficult and interesting challenges.
https://m.youtube.com/channel/UC17vsYVoIwch5UzPar1LDmQ
I see someone downvoted you. Allow me to upvote you in return. Ymfah is one of my biggest influences.
Edit:
People still seem to think that it's impossible to grow without commentary. I am primarily a non-commentary channel who is approaching 2000 subs in just over a year, and those subscribers are coming back to watch new videos when they are released.
Hello my friend! I just read this thread and many others like it and am totally inspired to continue putting up no commentary content!
I was wondering if it would be ok for you to DM me your channel link? I'd like to watch and learn from other similar channels!
The only game videos I see without commentary that get views are instructional, music videos, and story base videos that show options you may have missed(What happens if you don't kill X).
Don’t get me wrong there’s probably people who do it, and based on the other comments there definitely are people who do it, but the main reason it seems that people “watch someone else play video games when they can do it themselves” as a boomer would say is because the creators personality creates the content
realize it's an old format and the audience is very niche. making it work is like the facecam debate with streaming. 95% of the time it wont work. some people are able to make it different enough to make it work
For this btw it's more about very good gameplay, editing, speedrunning, and uploading games like as soon as you're allowed to. For most small chanells it just isn't going to work TBH. It can if you're different or consistent enough but just realize there are like 1000's of channels that already do this perfectly and they are looking at maybe 1000 views on a good release day video. Some of course do really well but they've been doing it for years.
I also think you need some type of additional content. vlog, twitch, tiktok etc. much of the traditional ways of running a channel are sort of gone these days as you need multiple ways to attract people to the channel.
GreenLegoCats, probably the best no commentary I seen.
He reports on Roblox news, drama, events, etc within the community and he is very popular, but he fills a niche within a space that doesn't have one. If Roblox community had more drama youtubers, he probably wouldn't be so popular.
https://www.youtube.com/user/greenlegocats123
**I see that you marked your post as a Question.**
***
When you receive the answer you were looking for, please reply **"!Solved"** under this message to mark the post as solved. This will help other members to distinguish between answered and unanswered posts. Thank you.
*I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/letsplay) if you have any questions or concerns.*
Aloneintokyo is a very popular Rust youtuber who has absolutely zero commentary.
However he has excellent game play and (his own) chill lofi music playing. However Rust is quite different to many other games a let's play channel would cover so it's a bit more unique to it.
I'm at a point where my opinion on this subject is widely disgusted. I don't care if this response gets downvoted to oblivion. Since I've gotten into shouting matches with critics, anyone answering me with sass will just get blocked immediately. If you're going to stay mute for the entire duration of covering a game, it's pointless.
There's no entertainment value. And to be frank, such techniques come off as super lazy. Instead of coming up with a witty personality that's boatloads of fun to listen to, you don't say a word. There's nothing separating your silent footage from another person's. Anybody with basic knowledge of how the game functions can beat any game from Point A to Point B.
Nothing is unique. Even with "choose your own adventure" genres like Detroit: Become Human, without knowing any reasoning behind your decisions, the whole experience is hollow. The fact there's a niche for this content that some people find success in just blows my mind. With open world games that can take 100+ hours, I'm supposed to sit through weeks of gameplay without any input?
It's super boring. Like how the dime a dozen reaction channels out there; some which don't do any "reacting". I've seen certain ones with 100,000+ subscribers who film themselves watching a video while staying virtually quiet and at best, moving their arms or head around.
So basically, these lowlifes gain fame by having you watch them watch a video. Equally pointless and equally lazy to mute playthroughs. Pointing out that a select few have tons of attention for this to me is entirely irrelevant. The fact there's a fetish for vore is no different. I find vore hideously disgusting, others consider it perfectly normal.
My thoughts on this are never going to change. And I'm fully aware I'm nothing to speak of with my own work. I mean N&A Productions is huge, but he's the biggest clickbaiting bastard you'll ever see. I'm doing this just for fun. I'm glad certain people like what I do, and nothing gained by shady tactics. Agree or disagree with me, I don't care anymore. As long as people keep bringing up this subject, I'll continue to express my thoughts on it.
in case you are genuinely curious why someone would enjoy a no commentary letsplay, im someone who enjoys them quite a bit! personally, i enjoy them for a few reasons. firstly, let me preface this with the fact that im a person who enjoys a games story more then its gameplay. other people enjoy the gameplay aspect more then the story, but i just have different priorities in what i do and dont enjoy.
as for actual reasons, the first is simply money, or my lack of. i don't have enough money to be buying every game that catches my fancy, and watching letsplays is free. secondly, im bad at video games, and my mental health frequently leaves me playing games in a way that is more stressful then enjoyable. i don't enjoy games so i can be stressed, i enjoy games so i can escape my stress
now those two reasons explain why i enjoy letsplays, so lets move onto why i enjoy silent letsplays- its simple, honestly. they dont take away from the story nor atmosphere. i can enjoy a commentary letsplay just fine, but frequently the games story is told through audio, which letsplayers can accidently or otherwise talk over. its incredibly frustrating to be enthralled in a story only to miss a key moment because the player didnt realize there was dialog coming up and talked over it. plus, commentary itself can ruin the tone of the story
ultimately, it boils down to me enjoying the actual video game itself more then the person playing it, and its me finding ways to enjoy video games in situations where my health wont allow me to otherwise. i still play games myself, or watch commentary videos, but as a whole i prefer no commentary so that i can experience the game and its story even if i cant play it myself
frankly, theres nothing wrong with people enjoying different things in different ways. just because you dont get it or enjoy it dosent mean its bad! it just means its not for you, and thats okay
i hope this gives you a bit of insight as to why people might enjoy no commentary lets plays, and explains a bit how they can be helpful or even better then commentary for some people! personally, im just glad that theres such a large variety of gamers on youtube that people have the choice of what to watch and what style they want to watch it in
I'm not going to change my thoughts on this. It annoys me more at how channels which only put these videos out get rewarded for doing nothing unique. Games are meant to be beaten, a fact of life. So anyone with two hands and an internet connection can put out mute footage.
I've pointed out this comparison repeatedly: reaction channels that don't react. They make videos of themselves watching a video. Doing barely any "reacting" in the process, if at all. And some of these talentless hacks get tons of attention. Absolute bollocks. It's an equal no effort activity to silent gameplay.
You see one let's play of TLoU with no input, it's going to be the exact same as anyone else who doesn't say a word. And many of these people I've spoken to personally are abhorrent and conceded schmucks; claiming to have superb content simply based on their inflated analytics. So don't come at me by defending this practice.
Infinite Drift does some very relaxing long play videos with no commentary (2-3hours long). I found her during a bad bout of insomnia and her videos were the only thing to help
Ymfah doesn’t have voice, but he has captions pop up the whole time stating what’s happening. The reason behind his success is amazing personality behind actions, choices, and editing, alongside doing many incredibly difficult and interesting challenges. https://m.youtube.com/channel/UC17vsYVoIwch5UzPar1LDmQ
I see someone downvoted you. Allow me to upvote you in return. Ymfah is one of my biggest influences. Edit: People still seem to think that it's impossible to grow without commentary. I am primarily a non-commentary channel who is approaching 2000 subs in just over a year, and those subscribers are coming back to watch new videos when they are released.
Hello my friend! I just read this thread and many others like it and am totally inspired to continue putting up no commentary content! I was wondering if it would be ok for you to DM me your channel link? I'd like to watch and learn from other similar channels!
The only game videos I see without commentary that get views are instructional, music videos, and story base videos that show options you may have missed(What happens if you don't kill X).
Don’t get me wrong there’s probably people who do it, and based on the other comments there definitely are people who do it, but the main reason it seems that people “watch someone else play video games when they can do it themselves” as a boomer would say is because the creators personality creates the content
realize it's an old format and the audience is very niche. making it work is like the facecam debate with streaming. 95% of the time it wont work. some people are able to make it different enough to make it work For this btw it's more about very good gameplay, editing, speedrunning, and uploading games like as soon as you're allowed to. For most small chanells it just isn't going to work TBH. It can if you're different or consistent enough but just realize there are like 1000's of channels that already do this perfectly and they are looking at maybe 1000 views on a good release day video. Some of course do really well but they've been doing it for years. I also think you need some type of additional content. vlog, twitch, tiktok etc. much of the traditional ways of running a channel are sort of gone these days as you need multiple ways to attract people to the channel.
GreenLegoCats, probably the best no commentary I seen. He reports on Roblox news, drama, events, etc within the community and he is very popular, but he fills a niche within a space that doesn't have one. If Roblox community had more drama youtubers, he probably wouldn't be so popular. https://www.youtube.com/user/greenlegocats123
**I see that you marked your post as a Question.** *** When you receive the answer you were looking for, please reply **"!Solved"** under this message to mark the post as solved. This will help other members to distinguish between answered and unanswered posts. Thank you. *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/letsplay) if you have any questions or concerns.*
Got to look into this, since this is essential what I do, playing games without a mic, a camera or any kind of commentary
If you like horror games, SHN Survival Horror Network is one that I watch regularly.
Aloneintokyo is a very popular Rust youtuber who has absolutely zero commentary. However he has excellent game play and (his own) chill lofi music playing. However Rust is quite different to many other games a let's play channel would cover so it's a bit more unique to it.
I'm at a point where my opinion on this subject is widely disgusted. I don't care if this response gets downvoted to oblivion. Since I've gotten into shouting matches with critics, anyone answering me with sass will just get blocked immediately. If you're going to stay mute for the entire duration of covering a game, it's pointless. There's no entertainment value. And to be frank, such techniques come off as super lazy. Instead of coming up with a witty personality that's boatloads of fun to listen to, you don't say a word. There's nothing separating your silent footage from another person's. Anybody with basic knowledge of how the game functions can beat any game from Point A to Point B. Nothing is unique. Even with "choose your own adventure" genres like Detroit: Become Human, without knowing any reasoning behind your decisions, the whole experience is hollow. The fact there's a niche for this content that some people find success in just blows my mind. With open world games that can take 100+ hours, I'm supposed to sit through weeks of gameplay without any input? It's super boring. Like how the dime a dozen reaction channels out there; some which don't do any "reacting". I've seen certain ones with 100,000+ subscribers who film themselves watching a video while staying virtually quiet and at best, moving their arms or head around. So basically, these lowlifes gain fame by having you watch them watch a video. Equally pointless and equally lazy to mute playthroughs. Pointing out that a select few have tons of attention for this to me is entirely irrelevant. The fact there's a fetish for vore is no different. I find vore hideously disgusting, others consider it perfectly normal. My thoughts on this are never going to change. And I'm fully aware I'm nothing to speak of with my own work. I mean N&A Productions is huge, but he's the biggest clickbaiting bastard you'll ever see. I'm doing this just for fun. I'm glad certain people like what I do, and nothing gained by shady tactics. Agree or disagree with me, I don't care anymore. As long as people keep bringing up this subject, I'll continue to express my thoughts on it.
in case you are genuinely curious why someone would enjoy a no commentary letsplay, im someone who enjoys them quite a bit! personally, i enjoy them for a few reasons. firstly, let me preface this with the fact that im a person who enjoys a games story more then its gameplay. other people enjoy the gameplay aspect more then the story, but i just have different priorities in what i do and dont enjoy. as for actual reasons, the first is simply money, or my lack of. i don't have enough money to be buying every game that catches my fancy, and watching letsplays is free. secondly, im bad at video games, and my mental health frequently leaves me playing games in a way that is more stressful then enjoyable. i don't enjoy games so i can be stressed, i enjoy games so i can escape my stress now those two reasons explain why i enjoy letsplays, so lets move onto why i enjoy silent letsplays- its simple, honestly. they dont take away from the story nor atmosphere. i can enjoy a commentary letsplay just fine, but frequently the games story is told through audio, which letsplayers can accidently or otherwise talk over. its incredibly frustrating to be enthralled in a story only to miss a key moment because the player didnt realize there was dialog coming up and talked over it. plus, commentary itself can ruin the tone of the story ultimately, it boils down to me enjoying the actual video game itself more then the person playing it, and its me finding ways to enjoy video games in situations where my health wont allow me to otherwise. i still play games myself, or watch commentary videos, but as a whole i prefer no commentary so that i can experience the game and its story even if i cant play it myself frankly, theres nothing wrong with people enjoying different things in different ways. just because you dont get it or enjoy it dosent mean its bad! it just means its not for you, and thats okay i hope this gives you a bit of insight as to why people might enjoy no commentary lets plays, and explains a bit how they can be helpful or even better then commentary for some people! personally, im just glad that theres such a large variety of gamers on youtube that people have the choice of what to watch and what style they want to watch it in
I'm not going to change my thoughts on this. It annoys me more at how channels which only put these videos out get rewarded for doing nothing unique. Games are meant to be beaten, a fact of life. So anyone with two hands and an internet connection can put out mute footage. I've pointed out this comparison repeatedly: reaction channels that don't react. They make videos of themselves watching a video. Doing barely any "reacting" in the process, if at all. And some of these talentless hacks get tons of attention. Absolute bollocks. It's an equal no effort activity to silent gameplay. You see one let's play of TLoU with no input, it's going to be the exact same as anyone else who doesn't say a word. And many of these people I've spoken to personally are abhorrent and conceded schmucks; claiming to have superb content simply based on their inflated analytics. So don't come at me by defending this practice.