It’s 2025, and gaming niches are dominating the YouTube sphere! As a gaming channel, you may wonder which games to try and how to make your content more engaging for your subscriber base.
Our blog has curated a list of the leading gaming categories, it will additionally guide aspiring YouTubers on various types of video content to experiment with!
Top Niches To Produce Best Gaming Content For YouTube
Along with trending YouTube niches, our list will also delve into their popularity and top influencers to inspire your video format!
Let’s look at the categories that have taken a grip over YT gaming!
1. Roblox – For A Children-friendly Gaming Channel!
Roblox is a virtual platform that allows users to develop their own games and invite other users to play or review them. They are mostly known for their 3-D cartoon-styled obstacle courses or roleplaying games.
- Date of Launch: Roblox was rolled out on 1st September 2006.
- Popularity: This gaming platform sees more than 70 million daily active users across the globe! With approximately 26.9% of active users, belonging to the European region.
- Growth Potential: This platform has seen its active users grow by 11.4 million since 2023.
- Renowned YouTuber: Flamingo is the most popular channel on YouTube that actively produces Roblox content. They have 12.6 M subscribers to date.
- Top Rated Games to Try: Tower Of Hell, Sonic Speed Simulator, and more!
2. First-Person Shooter Games – For Thrill-seeking YouTubers!
First-person shooter games usually equip players with guns to combat live opponents if multi-player, or to slay monsters possessing special abilities if single-player. Apart from guns there can be other weapons for the battles as well. But these games are designed in such a way that users feel as though they are fighting in first person. You basically get to see things “from the eyes” of your chosen character.
- Popularity: The market value of all the games belonging to this genre stood at 105 Billion in 2023.
- Growth Potential: The market value of this gaming category is predicted to grow at 6%.
- Renowned YouTuber: Ali-A is the leading YouTube gaming channel in this category, with a base of 18.9 Million subscribers.
- Top Rated Games to Try: Last-man-standing, Fortnite, and PUBG.
3. Adventure – For An Inquisitive Gaming Channel
What makes action-adventure gaming special is that it focuses more on narration and exploration, along with offering side quests that involve platform games, shooting, and puzzles! It’s a mix of all genres and categories, blended to come alive like an exciting journey where you get to play the protagonist!
- Popularity: The market value of this gaming category was estimated to be 16.2 Billion USD in 2023.
- Growth Potential: This gaming category has grown from 333.4 million in 2011.
- Renowned YouTuber: JuegaGerman is a renowned gamer channel on YouTube with a base of 50.1 Million subscribers!
- Top Rated Games to Try: Fall Out, Starfield, Wolf Among Us, and more!
4. Horror or Chase Games – Not For The Faint-hearted!
These games mostly evoke fear, either through monsters or atmospheric build-up! They have an intense storyline that completely immerses users. Players have to manage their health and resources while braving the monsters, unlocking mysteries, and finding ways to survive!
- Popularity: On the SteamDB website, horror games have been played 5.6 Million times, and their popularity isn’t going down anytime soon!
- Growth Potential: Constant release of high-profile horror games with costlier marketing activities (demo, trailer, sponsorships, merchandise, and alluring graphics), hint at a lot of growth potential! Terms like “horror games” and “scary games” also attract millions of searches on YouTube every month!
- Renowned YouTuber: Markiplier is the top gaming channel with 36.7M subscribers.
- Top Rated Games to Try: Silent Hill, The Last of Us, Granny, Evil Nun, Slenderina, Home Sweet Home, Saiko no Sutoka, and many more!
5. RPGs (Roleplaying Games) – For Gaming Channels Who Love Quests!
Roleplaying games feature branching dialogue options, where the outcome of the game changes based on the dialogue chosen. They also give you the ability to play from different characters’ perspectives as the storyline progresses! Players continually progress as they level up, attain skills, and discover secrets or hidden objects!
- Popularity: According to the official research published on Verified Market Reports, the market size for this category stood at 23 billion in 2023.
- Growth Potential: This gaming genre is expected to grow by 10%. You will never run out of content ideas with these games!
- Renowned YouTuber: WolfheartFPS is the biggest RPG YouTuber with 219K subscribers!
- Top Rated Games to Try: Fall Out, Dragon Age, Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney, and more!
6. Survival Games – For A Gamer Channel That Wants To Survive All Odds!
A post-apocalyptic world where the player has to survive scarcity of resources or brutal enemies and explore their surroundings! These games feature endless gaming maps, which means that your characters can cover scores of areas, and there will be no end. You are not achieving any goal or objective; there’s no story progression. You are just surviving every passing day as problems around you become severe.
- Popularity: According to a report from Sensor Tower, this gaming category ranked 7th in terms of popularity amongst mobile users!
- Growth Potential: Based on historic trends of Sensor Tower, this market will see a growth of 100-300%!
- Renowned YouTuber: Wally1k is the biggest YouTuber in this niche with 446k subscribers!
- Top Rated Games to Try: Minecraft, Rust, Raft, and more!
7. Puzzle-Based Mystery Games – For YouTubers Who Love Strategizing!
These games integrate a fascinating storyline with puzzles! Puzzles can take the form of riddles, missing items, word games, matching items, tile pairing, or just any challenge that involves a problem-solving element and audiovisual cues!
- Popularity: According to Sensor Tower, puzzle apps rank 3rd on revenue charts and in the top 4 for downloads!
- Growth Potential: According to Statista, this market stood at $8.6 billion pre-pandemic in 2020 and grew to $9.1 billion in 2022 post-pandemic. So, this market will see constant growth in popularity, which will hence give YouTubers a lot of games to experiment with!
- Renowned YouTuber: Techno Gamerz is the most popular YouTube gaming channel with a base of 40.5M subscribers! They haven’t restricted themselves to any specific genre, but most of their video content involves mystery puzzles!
- Top Rated Games to Try: Among Us, 60 Seconds, Shinkansen, and more!
8. Virtual Reality Games – For A Futuristic Gaming Channel!
Virtual reality games blur the line between reality and fiction! They can be of any genre or category, as covered above, but what distinguishes them from the others is their interactive elements. For example, monsters could track your screams based on your headphones and locate the hiding spot of your virtual gaming character. Or you may have to make a certain movement with your gaming console in real life, so that you are actually able to strike your opponent virtually!
- Popularity: The market is currently more concentrated in a few regions, such as America, Europe, the Middle East, Africa, and a few Asian countries. Hence, there’s a lot of curiosity around these games!
- Growth Potential: This market is predicted to grow by 25.7% by 2032!
- Top Rated Games to Try: Resident Evil, Job Simulator, Detroit, Momo, and more!
9. Platform Games – For YouTubers Who Want To Flaunt Their Precision!
Platform games often have leveled platforms, either stationary or moving, for the players to cross. Players can perform actions like running, jumping, or even climbing in order to overcome obstacles!
- Popularity: Market value, in this case, doesn’t denote YouTube popularity! The market of these games has seen a massive decline among buyers, but many YouTubers continue to engage with these games. They play these games and test their limits, in the process creating a funny video for their subscribers to enjoy!
- Growth Potential: In 2006, the market size had witnessed a drop of 13% from its initial market size of 15%. But these games offer a lot of potential in terms of entertaining viewers or developing video challenges!
- Renowned YouTuber: DGR is one of the top influencers who specializes in platform gaming videos on YouTube. He has amassed 627 K subscribers.
- Top-Rated Games to Try: Mario, Sonic, and much more!
While these niches present a lot of potential for gaining subscribers, buying YouTube subscribers can actually lead to better results.
10. Speed Run
Speed running, as the name suggests, means finishing a game at a lightning speed. So, whether it is a game, level, or mission, you will finish it off quickly, moving on to the next level or mission. You can even invite other gamer friends to try to beat your time and score.
To achieve consistently good speedruns, you need to be a qualified and highly skilled gamer.
- Popular Games: Super Mario 64, The Legend of Zelda, and Ocarina of Time.
- Popularity: It is an engaging form of entertainment that offers a unique thrill of competition and showcases the gamer’s skills.
- Renowned YouTubers: Summoning Salt, Karl Jobst, and Easy Speezy.
- Growth Potential: Since it provides a spectacle, it draws a larger audience base, keeping the viewers engaged.
How to Identify the Best Niche for You?
Here’s how to discover what works best for you:
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Know your Interests and Strengths
Choosing your ideal niche involves understanding your hobbies and passions. So, assess which type of games you like to play, and what kind of player you are. Are you an experienced level gamer or a beginner? Also, analyze what kind of skills you have to make your content stand out in the gaming community.
If you are genuinely interested in a specific niche, you must analyze how it will align with your passion and skills. Find a strategy that works in your favor.
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Analyze What’s Working
The following practical step is to check what kind of gaming content is in trend. Keep an eye out for the list of top YouTube gamers who are excelling exceptionally well on the platform. Once you’ve identified your niche, research competitors in that niche and the trending videos on their channels. You can use an online web tool, such as VidIQ or TubeBuddy, to perform competitor analysis. Observe their engagement and viewership. You must be able to balance your interests, passions, and trending topics in a way that is both personally and professionally rewarding.
Ways to Earn Money Across Different Gaming Niches
A gaming channel can earn through the following ways:
- Depending on your niche, there are several ways to make money on YouTube. Even though Ad revenue, Super Chat, and Channel Memberships are some of the common ways to generate revenue. So, your niche decides your ability to earn.
- For example, if you have a channel creating tutorials and guides, you have the option to earn from Sponsorships and Affiliate marketing. You can sell courses or secure a brand sponsorship for gaming gear to make a sale to a select few viewers, thereby increasing engagement.
- If you are a review-based channel, you can live stream and collaborate with other gamers in your niche to review a game. You can also get brand deals to promote a particular game.
Conclusion
Although this blog is detailed, it doesn’t cover every type of gaming content available on YouTube. It just covers the ones that are trending! Dive deeper into the gaming realm, and you might come up with an interesting mix of unique and fun content to fuel your gaming channel! Just keep your personal interests, category demand, and content scope in mind before choosing any niche.
If you want to join your favorite creators on their quest to scale YouTube, then you can promote your video on YouTube.
Frequently Asked Questions
Q1. How to grow a gaming YouTube channel in 2025?
As an emerging YouTube Gamer you just have to keep the following points in mind:
- Experiment with video content while keeping branding elements consistent, Such as the Logo, channel name, and narration style.
- Google Analytics is your friend, focus on watch time!
- Get Necessary Equipment for Your Games
- Find content ideas from Gaming Communities online or social media trends
- Upload every week.
- You can also explore AI YouTube Title Generator and AI YouTube Description generator to generate compelling videos.
Q2. Is a gaming YouTube channel worth it in 2025?
Although it is niche-oriented, starting a gaming YouTube channel in 2025 can prove to be a profitable venture. Gaming has enormous growth potential, so it is essential to have a unique and clear strategy that goes beyond simply uploading gaming videos. Target niche communities, host live streams on your channel, create content around trending games, etc, to lead you to success.
Q3. Who is the Asia No. 1 gamer?
“Jess No Limit” is among the top gaming channels on YouTube, particularly in Asia. He was the first Asian YouTuber to gain 15 million subscribers.
Q4. What is the most-viewed gaming video on YouTube?
CarryIsLive uploaded the most viewed gaming video, “CARRYMINATI PLAYS INDIAN HORROR GAME—NO PROMOTION.” It has attained 1 M views to date. It was a full-length livestreaming video that explored an Indian horror game called “Kamla.”
If you buy YouTube views, then your video can become the most viewed on YouTube in no time!
