A GUIDE TO THE GERMAN GAMES INDUSTRY

Erik "Gronkh" Range (here with
two of his fans at gamescom
2016) is regarded as one of the
founders of the German
Let's Play scene.
GENERATION YOUTUBE –
GERMANY'S LET'S PLAY SCENE
As early as in 2006, the first German creators of web videos laid the foundation for a growing scene
in Germany, which focuses on comedy, lifestyle, beauty and video gaming. What started out as a
hobby scene has now turned into an actual industry with a star culture.
The "Let's Play" trend has long established itself as
an independent entertainment format in the German
"Generation YouTube" and is used by almost 15
million people these days. Both the video platform
YouTube as well as Twitch as a live-streaming provider
are fixed components of today's digital entertainment
program for gamers.
The operators of successful Let's Play channels in
Germany earn their living with their gaming videos.
For example, they use the opportunity to generate
advertising revenue and sell merchandizing articles.
Another source of income are fee-based channel subscriptions
of the Let's Players. The following results of
a data collection carried out by the market research
company YouGov shows just how successful the
scene is in Germany:
• 1.15 million Germans declared that they make completely
voluntary donations to their favorite Let's
Players. This corresponds to 8 percent of the total of
15 million Let's Play users in Germany.
• 3.6 million Germans (25 percent of the German Let's
Play audience) consider it possible to support Let's
Players financially through donations.
„Let's Plays are well established today as a
new entertainment format. Millions of Germans
enthusiastically watch their favorite
Let's Players on YouTube, Twitch and co., and
rightfully so."
(Felix Falk, Managing Director of BIU – the German Games Industry Association)
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