Of 2015: The Most Viewed Videos (on my channel)
It’s time for that most important, self-aggrandizing category of them all: The Most Viewed YouTube Videos (on my dinky little channel). Dinky as it may be, my channel has generated more views, visits and money in the last two years than GameLuv has in ten. I should really process every thought I have for a written post into a video. But as much as I struggle to form coherent sentences sometimes (how is this one so far?), video takes a lot more time to create. Even with my spartan, just-hit-record-and-go setup I can easily spend an hour before things are ready to roll.
In honor of the video work I did manage to do here’s a look at some stats and 2015 record holders. Individual views were up a surprising 111% over 2014 with 358,330 views total. That adds up to 985,984 minutes watched. Nearly a million! Just on my junk! For most of the year I felt pretty bad about my output but looking back at the totals makes me feel accomplished and immensely appreciative for all who found my little corner of YouTube.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZHkggENob74
My top video was a 2015 debut which is great to see because it’s usually things from years past. Besiege: Choppers, Tanks and Worms hit early enough in the game’s hype cycle to get a lot of attention and 35,830 views. It also generated a lot of scorn as people found it after the game had been updated and ridiculed me for not using tools that weren’t in the version I was recording. Good ol’ Internet hatred.
The Battletanx “Snuggle Bear” commercial that was #1 in 2014 has slipped a spot but still managed 31,479 views. According to Google’s new stat the average viewer watched 110% of the video, meaning a lot of people played it multiple times. Thank you 3DO, Battletanx and Snuggle Bear, I couldn’t have done it without you! It might also be a lesson that brevity is king on YouTube. The Average Percentage Watched for nearly all my other videos tops out at 80% and most of them fall below 50%. I know my stuff usually runs long and I need to chop it up into chunks at the least.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vg3lfJiPhwU
Next up is another returning 2014 record holder: Body Harvest Pt. 01 with 9,369 views. People continue to be fascinated by would-be Rockstar’s, would-be Grand Theft Auto but most of them don’t stick with me for long. The entire series was viewed another 15,560 times in 2015 but maybe it’s good that it’s a smaller number. I still haven’t been back to finish the game after ditching everyone in the infamous Part 10.
Finally, Number 5 is another singular track in a series of mine: 21 – 204863 from Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain with 6,002 views. It probably got the most views because the numbers in the title — 204863 — tie into P.T. and Konami’s cancelled Silent Hills project. If people didn’t find it for Metal Gear, they found it for Silent Hill. It’s included in my playlist of the in-game music that’s hidden on cassette tapes. It doesn’t appear on any of the available soundtracks but it’s some of my favorite music from the game. I turned my little passion project into a series of videos and if you add them all up this would be #2 on the list with 43,272 views.
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLns_aA1IgZuJX88QhrXv9dHmFN35hRGdU
It didn’t make the top spot but one thing I wanted to call out was my Delisted series. After a few of the folks at US Gamer tweeted links to my playlist, the series of 55 videos jumped up to 11,414 views in 2015. Of everything I’ve recorded it might be the most important to me. I’ve become increasingly interested in the preservation of games and recording the titles I have access to seems the least I can do. I would love to be able to turn just this part of my channel into my day job or use it to get into more meaningful preservation work.
