In recent years, watching somebody else play a video game has grown incredibly popular in the online world. It’s so popular that the most subscribed person on YouTube runs a gaming channel, a channel with more than 30,000,000 subscribers.

For those who don’t enjoy it, it can be hard to understand why people don’t just play the games for themselves, instead of listening and watching somebody else do it.

The best way I can think to describe it is by relating it to sports. People enjoy watching sports and many of those people don’t play the sport themselves. So, instead of playing a video game, I can watch somebody else play it. It’s similar to watching ESPN and listening to the announcers give play-by-play. Not only that, but it’s much like listening to a comedic sports announcer. They’re funny, telling jokes and witty remarks (for the most part) while reacting to what’s going on in-game.

Not only do I find it more entertaining to watch a Let’s Play of a video game as opposed to playing it on my own, but it’s simply easier. You don’t really have to worry about filling your living room or bedroom with gaming consoles or trying to increase the performance of your computer. You also don’t have to worry about spending all this money on every video game you find interesting or every video game that’s suddenly popular. Today, video games are heavily centered around a story or plot, so there isn’t that big of a difference between watching and playing in most cases.

For example, the games The Last of Us and Beyond Two Souls: the focus of those games aren’t so much the actual gameplay, but more the plot and story of it all; how it all progresses and how the characters grow.

As far as who I’m watching goes, it’s heavily centered around those in a group known as Mindcrack. Having initially started their YouTube careers on one game, they’ve branched out and created a countless number of series both individually and cooperatively.

Although my interests tend to change as the years go by, this is one form of entertainment that hasn’t allowed my interest in it to fade. I learn new things from them whether it’s about pop-culture or what’s going on in the world that I may not have heard of yet, all while being entertained.