I've been watching videogamedunkey since I was a highschool freshman. I love his humour, style, and his insights in games and other media.
I second this, he's always been so unique and hilarious, yet oddly genuine.
Dunkey, Let's Game It Out, NakeyJakey, Digital Foundry, and Gameranx are the ones I watch most regularly.
The Architect of Games and Razbuten are fun ones if you like video essays, and Keenengraz is great for finding lots of insane free games to play. ThatGuyGlen has some cool, short docu-style videos on the making of indie games that are really well done.
I'm sure I'm forgetting plenty, but those are some of my favorites, for sure.
Id add Skillup and ACG to this list as well. For more technical DF style stuff, GamersNexus is the best PC gaming hardware channel on youtube
U Can Beat Videogames and quinbobin are two smaller channels I really like.
Also +1 for digital foundry. Great hosts who look at both console/pc games, old and new, with technical or general analysis
Videogamedunkey and NakeyJakey make some great/hilarious content.
There's also a soft spot in my heart for Jerma985 though these days he does twitch and only occasionally posts clips to his second channel.
Mandalore, Hbomberguy, AmbiguousAmphibian, Jwlar, The Dadliest Man, MattKC, Oxhorn, Joseph Anderson, Your Favourite Son, Summoning Salt, Noodle, Avalanche Reviews, Monty Zander, Boulder Punch, The Nth Review, King K
Maybe some others, but those are the ones that jumped out in my Sub list!
Gotta be SovietWomble and his "Random Bullshittery" episodes!
It's usually 10-20 minutes of high quality sillyness realesed every month or so, although he's been doing some longform video essays too in recent years
(Warning: occasional strong language)
Real Civil Engineer for messing about in building games like KSP, Cities Skylines
Let's Game it Out for breaking games
The Spiffing Brit for finding funny exploits
Video Game Dunkey for reviews.
I second Let's Game it Out. Josh is insane
A couple ones with longer videos, and some music-related channels are my (current) favourites.
https://www.youtube.com/@SummoningSalt/videos https://www.youtube.com/@Bismuth9/videos https://www.youtube.com/@ChurchofKondoh/videos https://www.youtube.com/@TheNobleDemon/videos
And also shoutout to TotalBiscuit. Still do miss his quality content. Haven't seen any channel nowadays come close to it.
Jacob Geller, although his videos are often about much more than just video games.
SummoningSalt has excellent history pieces on speedrunning. For comedy, I stick with the Game Grumps, they recently reverted to including game names in their video titles again. watching them is a wonderful way to decompress at the end of a long day.
I like DarkViperAU. He's a GTA5 speedrunner, something I had never followed, but his explanations and general style is great for me. His "one hit KO" series, where he attempts to complete GTA5 without taking any damage, is a fun place to start. https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLAnJ4ZuTYaeGOdVzYfhfZUgjVcyCeYVwO
shoutout to simpleflips
Northernlion is my favorite, and he absolutely pumps out the content. His banter is perfect for me.
Yeah I've been subbed to him since around 2012/13. Used to watch his Binding of Issac on and off where the banter was top tier as he got so good at the game it was all muscle memory.
I now watch his Super Auto Pets videos on and off as well which has replaced the Binding of Issac content.
In both cases he put out more content than I can consume so I'll always have content to watch.
They stopped in December just gone, but here is a site where playlists have been made for all the YouTube content.
I don't watch that much Youtube nowadays (don't have much free time), but when I do, I enjoy these channels the most:
- Girlfriend Reviews: Entertaining, funny, and wholesome reviews. Really like their dynamic;
- GPLaps: Very interesting simracing channel, you get regular simracing content but also some very interesting videos about historic races, cars, tracks, etc., that he recreates with mods;
- Kilian Experience whenever he feels like uploading. Has been branching to other stuff aside from gaming lately;
- LordKnight: Fighting game-focused channel. Initially subscribed because he was the Millia player outside Japan but switched to Baiken since. Still has good, insightful content.
On PeerTube, there's BoilingSteam, who mainly focuses on PC gaming on Linux. I'd like to get a better feel for what's on there regarding gaming channels and whatnot. If you know any you'd recommend, I'd really appreciate if you could mention them.
If you care about the technology behind games, Digital Foundry is fantastic
Wirtual definitely does a great job of the long form history focused deep dives on Trackmania.
Seconding the many people who love Josh, the mad genius of LetsGameItOut.
As for commentary, no one come close to the great Noah Gervais, who does long (and I mean looooooooooooooooong) form essay videos.
I love KatherineOfSky, Let's Game it Out, Summoning Salt and recently started following Real Civil Engineer.
Except for Summoning Salt that makes INCREDIBLE documentaries about speedrunning, the others play the kind of games I enjoy playing, so I enjoy watching them too: building games, tycoons and all the like.
You basically hit 3/4 of my list here.
- Let's Game it Out - Josh is a gaming goblin and i'm here for it.
- RCE - He's hit or miss since his popularity really spiked, but his Infra and Mini Metro/Highways playthroughs were always fun to watch
- Summoning Salt - Great docu-style videos on speedruns. Shame his channel got hit for a 1-second clip of someone saying 'fuck'.
I also enjoy Vinesauce and his gaming corruptions.
Insym is great as well for his horror-style longplays.
Real Civil Engineer started popping up in my recs out of nowhere – he's fun! Made me want to download Mini Metro again (and do super not great at it again).
Josh Strife Hayes makes really good videos about mmos and retro games ( on his other channel ). I love the constructive criticism he gives devs and his sarcastic delivery.
Robbaz - He is a Swedish guy I have watched for a very long time now. He has the ability of turning what could be mundane games to watch, into wild and crazy stories. Highlight series he's done are Skyrim, Kerbal Space Program, and The Sims.
He posts a lot less than he used to on YouTube, but they're great everytime he does.
Pre-warning - His videos contain a lot of dark humour, so may not be for everyone.
My top two are:
- Many A True Nerd
- GmanLives
MATN is pretty chill and wholesome and funny. GmanLives focuses mainly on FPS games, but they have funny honest opinions about what they are checking out and they do some nice retrospective videos as well. I also like TK-Mantis for his Fallout stuff as well, decino for his Doom deep dive videos, and Accursed Farms for his game dungeon series.
I really love That Trav Guy, he makes super interesting and entertaining videos on the history behind and gameplay of games and game series, his MegaMan X6 video got me to finally finish the game after struggling with it since I was like 6. I also follow him on Twitter and he just seems like a swell guy!
I've been keeping up with Thabeast721 in his quest to beat every N64 game ever made (and he means all of them) It's very fun seeing some of the more obscure games and how he manages to figure out some of the Japan only games.
DougDoug is my recent favorite! He consistently has some really unique and creative ways to play games, videos are tightly edited, and he's funny af. https://www.youtube.com/channel/UClyGlKOhDUooPJFy4v_mqPg
Jeremy Parish makes weekly videos covering the entire retro game history for a various retro consoles. He's been at it for years and is very entertaining to listen to! The history and development circumstances he describes make even old shovelware fun to hear about.
The three gaming YouTubers I watch most right now are Hutts, ProJared, and jacksepticeye.
None of them take themselves too seriously, and love a good laugh. There's a mix of long form and short form content there, but it's all unscripted and most of it is largely unedited.
The ones I've been watching most recently have been No beans and Kaif, Wirtual and his casting vods for TMGL, and the odd Jacksepticeye or Markiplier when i see their vids.
CJUgames, Many A True Nerd (MATN), ManlyBadassHero, and Markiplier are my favourites. Except for MATN, they all focus on horror games. I like MATN for his strategy game playthroughs, such as Civ or Xcom.
This one is a little niche, but Harstem is a Starcraft 2 pro player who does a couple great series of videos related to the game. He's a lot of fun to watch because he has a deadpan sense of humor and an incredibly chill voice.
I'd start with his "Beating Grandmasters with Stupid Stuff" video where he pretends to be AFK. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FLKc5wwo7a0
Ive been watching oxhorn recently he does narrative videos for the fallout franchise that are great and interesting
AstralSpiff and backseat streams are speedrunners that absolutely wreck games in ways no creator ever intended
Karl jobst and summoning salt are good at narrating speedruns and speedrunning history
Fondly remember the yogscast I think they still do TTT videos
If you want a really good narrator of an old game krugsmash is your man/dwarf he does great with dwarf fortress
For video game development there's horrorscoped
I swear I have the weirdest watchlist lol Ive been mainly watching youtube politics and yet I have all these too XD
I don't watch that much gaming related YouTubers but I usually like the content from Bricky, Mandalore and ambiguousamphibian.
Especially ambiguousamphibian's pseudo philosophical challenges are always entertaining. People should check out his: "Kenshin - The Torso Squad Experience" series.
hmmmm I almost exclusively watch Youtube so I will put some of my regulars here with a focus on more positive non-toxic people for you guys in no particular order. they will be a bit reductive for brevity:
Day[9] - top of the list because he seems very well tuned towards what you wrote. a looooooooong time (like 15 years now ?!??) twitch variety gaming streamer, uploads full streams a lot. He constantly takes breaks for long winded rants about game design but honest to god the mans brain is a treasure, the videos always entertain through humor or learning, and ive been watching the guy since justin.tv, so let me tell you he is one of the very few genuinely good people in the space, especially for this long.
Funhaus - mostly tightly edited, almost all comedy focused, and while they use games as a bouncing board for the comedy theyre not often the actual focus of the videos. The cast has rotated through the years for many good reasons, causing changes in humor style but every person on the channel is still extremely funny with a tremendous group chemistry. another 10 year follow for me (if you include inside gaming) which leads me to
Inside Games - mostly focused on gaming news, and LEGIT gaming journalism, with deep dives and fun clown math. This is founded and headed by two of the former Funhaus members who left to return to their roots of the similarly named Inside Gaming, which predates Funhaus. Confusing, i know, but what you need to know is that you can get really concise, funny, good, non-toxic 'Gamer' news about gaming here weekly.
Alanah Games - mixed variety of content, but all focused on gaming. More deep looks at news articles, amazing interviews with voice actors. Alanah was a games journalist and writer for a long time, has a ton of experience and connections, and maintains a positive attitude the whole time. Really smart, and while i dont watch every video, there are definitely a lot that are worth watching. also yes, former Funhaus if you can detect a pattern.
Videogamedunkey - not very positive/non toxic and has had his controversies, but he does always put out very funny gaming content so he deserves a shout out.
Pestily - nearly exclusive tarkov streamer, but he has been branching out to very fun IRL content recently. If you have a mild interest in watching first person shooters, or have played/ do play Escape From Tarkov, hes simply the best for that. Easy to get overwhelmed with how much he uploads across all of his channels but if you can deal with that he is a genuinely good guy with fun interesting content on the regular.
Settled - if you have a mild interest in runescape or have played it extensively, Settled is a wholesome positive guy who plays runescape with truly deranged and extreme restrictions, making every video a true feat of human willpower. He is amazing at explaining things and very funny imo.
Dead or borderline dead channels with an amazing catalog:: Mans1ay3r- very very funny edited voice lines from video games, with manually rigged ragdolls.
Sovietwomble - he uploads so infrequently this is where he lives in my brain. But very funny well edited group gaming content.
Mr. Sark - super funny group content, less tightly edited that womble and never uploads anymore, but ill be damned if i havent watched every single video a few times. Sark is just a good funny neat dude.
Charborg - a lot more niche than the rest here, but Charborg has some true blue insane creative funny stuff. lots of pranks, weird roleplay, garbage garrys mod maps and roblox and Vr chat. a real underbelly of the internet stuff, without getting into the hateful areas.
DanielSL - apparently he streams a lot, but his YT is mostly dead. one of the greatest of all time trolls. calm, never breaks character, devious beyond imagination. He always gets his mark, and his power over other people scares me a bit. Riveting videos, top to bottom in the catalog.
Oh boy theres quite a few I watch but heres a few that people haven't mentioned yet.
Neocranium – Streamer but posts edited vods on his channel that are very entertaining. Also quite well versed in the art of 3d animating which they incorporate in their vids!
Valefisk – One man's ongoing mission to torment his friends via the medium of video and board games
Tehsnakerer – If you like your long video essays, I've quite enjoyed having this guy on. Covers a few more obscure games you might not have heard of too! Plus thanks to his series on the Yakuza games I now have like a 10% idea of whats going on in those games xD
I'm a Dark Souls addict, so Iron Pineapple, Ymfah, VaatiVidya, Lobos Jr, and The Backlogs are all weekly watches for me.
And of course the MVP, Dunkey.
I'm a big fan of Ryukahr. He's a super chill guy who mostly plays Super Mario Maker levels and is incredibly good at them.
I'm a fan of Vinesauce and Vinesauce-adjacent streamers (Jabroni Mike), but I occasionally enjoy other channels that people mention here, too
I miss Two Best Friends Play.
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