Fellow gamers and streaming fans listen up! YouTube Shorts represent a huge chance to grow your gaming channel and unlock new revenue streams.
Shorts distill the most intense gaming highlights, epic soundtrack remixes and LOL community memes into snackable 15 to 60-second videos optimized for mobile viewers.
The short-form content is exploding – YouTube reports over 30 billion daily Shorts views. For gaming creators, Shorts helps reach wider audiences outside existing loyal fanbases. The potential to gain millions of views and subscribers quickly is real.
But which gaming niches will score you views, subscribers and cold hard cash with Shorts? I’ve explored the top moneymaking niches dominating Shorts – drawing out key opportunities for determined gaming creators ready to grind out viral shorts success.
Makeup & Beauty
Now I know what you’re thinking – gaming channels doing beauty tips!? But hear me out…
Beauty is YouTube’s second most popular niche after gaming itself. Over 201 million viewers consumed a staggering 634 billion beauty videos views in 2021 (Pixlee).
With a huge ready viewership, adapting top gaming memes and trends into the beauty space can make Shorts pop off. Take popular TikTok dance moves and trends – gaming channels could put their own spin, scoring cross-channel appeal.
Case in point – popular Fortnite gamer Loserfruit attracted 13 million views with her Short adapting gaming as beauty makeup. Collabs with gaming merch creators on themed makeup kits and cosplays also offer monetization upside.
For girl gamers especially, using beauty and gaming crossover memes scores views while cementing gaming identity. Hashtag obsessively too – high volume searches for beauty, makeup and skin drive discovery beyond regular gaming niches.
Loserfruit scoring 13M views blending gaming x beauty (YouTube)
Viral Challenges
Challenges and memes intrinsically thrive across gaming communities. Adapting viral TikTok and YouTube challenges as gamified shorts guarantees views.
Driving in-jokes into IRL stunts and gaming crossover events equals big viewership (and hospital bills). back in 2021, over 184 billion views were logged for challenge hashtags like #InMyFeelings and #FlauntYourWealth (Hubspot).
But beyond outrageous stunts, Quick scoping trick shots, no-look gaming highlight reels and rage game remixes makes easily digestible shorts. Polls asking viewers “hardest button smashes” and “favorite game glitches” turns comments into engagement gold.
Meme formats like “When your mom…” work amazingly morphed for gaming. For instance:
When your mom yells dinner’s ready just as you’re about to grab the gold chalice to complete Level 57 😤
This evergreen meme format effortlessly localizes for gaming laughs. The Playing Crazy channel nails this – drawing 190k views and viral shares for its humorous shorts.
Making shorts highly relatable for gamers guarantees views and communities eager to share them. Rinse and repeat formats continually once traction kicks in.
Travel & Exploration
Gameplay often transports us to spectacular fantasy realms and far away lands. This innate sense of exploration makes travel shorts very shareable.
Gaming travel content historically performs extremely well on YouTube. Popular serial gaming tourist Beardmeetfood logs 2 million subscribers after explore Japan and Southeast Asia through a gaming lens.
Niche down further by blending food, gaming culture, virtual reality and comedy sketches. At 430 billion views annually, food is YouTube’s most watched niche (Backlinko)!
Top opportunities here:
- Local gaming stores tour shorts in Tokyo, Seoul, LA.
- Testing VR travel adventures and flying simulations
- Food challenges featuring iconic game powerups
The formula? Bring gaming in-jokes into experiencing exotic attractions for culture shock laughs. Munching down on Pac Man-inspired burgers or Christmas dinners as health potions make novel shorts.
Brand sponsorships with tourism boards and travel services offer lucrative backend monetization too. For globetrotting gamer creators, shorts unlock bringing viewers along to experience your adventures first-hand!
Gaming food tourist Beard Meets Food scores big views (TheGeekiary)
Unboxing & Reviews
Unboxing coveted collectibles, showcasing legendary hardware rigs and reviewing new games makes reliable content gaming fans crave.
Tech unboxing alone draws 273+ million views per day globally (FinancesOnline). Shorts made snappy technology unboxings and reviews even more irresistible.
Top gaming hardware companies like Razor sponsor shorts creators to feature new products. Collectible buyers also pay thousands for exclusivity showcasing rare, autographed merchandise.
With over 40% of viewers distrusting creators who haven’t personally tried products (Mediakix), shorts now expectation same authenticity traditional reviews enjoyed.
Keep gaming hardware reviews candid – showcase glitches, hardware failures and driver issues. Transparency builds authority and trust with audiences. Epic wins reviewing just released games and consoles scores major viewership as gaming communities evaluate potential big ticket purchases through your shorts.
Sponsorships, bespoke commissions for merchandise creators and affiliate sales of awesome hardware offers solid monetization. For gaming channels with hardware hookups, shorts provide your portals to flaunt the magic!
Unboxing streams like LG‘s build suspense and sales (PC Mag)
Anime & Animation
While more niche, anime represents YouTube’s 5th most-viewed category. 154 billion anime content views were logged in 2021 (Statista).
Anime gaming crossovers, recreating signature moves in games engines and modding classic titles with manga characters builds strong viewership between niches.
Top opportunities here:
- Recreating and modding anime fight sequences, costumes and special moves in games
- Adapting anime theme songs for gaming medleys and remixes
- Cosplay shorts displaying intricately crafted anime character outfits
Events like Comic Con see amazing engagement and views for IRL anime cosplay paired with gaming themes. The Anime IRL channel as gained 128k views adapting anime tropes into real life comedy skits.
For gamers already invested in niche anime titles, bringing references and inside jokes into shorts drives big view counts thanks to loyal built-in fans. Memes mashing together famous anime catchphrases with famous questlines and loot drops effortless tick both interests too!
Sci-Fi & Pop Culture
What gamer wasn’t inspired by dazzling sci-fi adventures and pop culture phenomena growing up?
Having YouTube’s 4th largest audience, blending gaming, sci-fi and wider pop culture makes for highly consumable Shorts spanning diverse interests.
Opportunities here include:
- Fortnite x Star Wars skins and however mashups
- Building fictional vehicles and weapons from movies in Roblox
- Recreating pop culture fashion in IMVU for shorts
YouTubers like Shamook achieving huge notoriety inserting pop figures like Tom Cruise into gaming worlds. Inserting your own gameplay and cosplay persona into wider pop culture phenomena is highly shareable.
For multimedia pop culture fans, recreating iconic movie scenes and lore in gaming engines satisfies multiple interests groups while unlocking gaming views from casual stream fans. Shorts provide the perfect format to condense these mashups into snackable moments.
How-To Tutorials
With over 201 billion collective views, How-To tutorials rank as YouTube’s 3rd most searched category behind music and gaming (Think Impact).
Tutorial videos attract 100 million views every day, from fixing appliances to mastering software (Think With Google). For gaming creators, How-To shorts reaching wider interests unlocks new viewers.
Niching down into highly specific game techniques, speedrun tricks and clearing difficult quests attracts serious gamers eager to skill up. Complex mods, growing Twitch channels, mastering meta techniques all resonate.
Wider hobby tutorials also work incredibly effectively when localized to gaming themes – from cosplay prop building to cooking health potions. DIY crafts attract vast viewership, with unboxing-style shorts showing creations coming together proving very popular.
The key is condensing advice so entire techniques and tactics are communicated through concise edited shorts. Varying shots between over the shoulder instructions, screen recordings of software and YouTube Editor callbacks to reference steps keeps things dynamic.
Clear, upbeat background music tracks and vibrant visual text callouts detailing progress helps engagement too. Slice longer tutorials into quick tips chapters – seeding your Channel with Evergreen How-To content.
Final Tips for Gaming Shorts Domination
Optimizing your gaming shorts approach is crucial – relying simply on raw gameplay and music isn’t enough. You need strategically grab attention and trigger the recommendation algorithm.
Laser Focus on Shareable Moment
Study memes going viral across gaming subs on Reddit, Discord and Facebook Groups. See which in-jokes and gaming meme formats resonate strongest. Remix and localize these memes with your personality and games your community loves most.
Time trending memes into publishes perfectly with new releases, in-game events and announcements that compliment your adaption.
Killer Clickable Thumbnails
Brain hack interest by clearly depicting the unexpected mashups, wacky concepts and OH WOW moments within your shorts using vivid thumbnails. Use contrasting colors that pop against the dark Shorts UI backgrounds and heap on the text callouts promising must-see moments.
SEO Optimized Descriptions
Loading titles and descriptions with meme names and viral gaming keywords drives external traffic to your shorts from search. Rope top meme names, franchise titles and trending events into captioning for the algorithm to index and recommend you higher.
Lean Into Effects
Leverage effects tools aggressively, amplifying moments through slow-mo, zooms and reaction graphics. Meme zooming effects on punchlines moments or faking cracked screens on epic gameplay glitches cues emotional responses.
Cross-Promote Aggressively
Share shorts simultaneously across Twitter, Reddit, Instagram, Discord servers and Facebook groups to drive external viewers. Adding @Mention overlays of gaming personalities and tags builds association with creators enjoying high engagement.
Analyze Performance Obsessively
Review daily analytics for your top shorts closely through YouTube Studio – doubling down frequently on meme formats, niches and promotion strategies showing positive momentum with views, comments and sentiment.
Stay on the pulse of virality by reacting fast to emerging trends – capitalizing quicker then niche competitors chasing views.
By relentlessly focusing on shareability, promotion and reactiveness around meme trend, determined gaming creators can build devoted Shorts audiences and unlock lucrative sponsorships.
Bring your passions to YouTube Shorts and let’s make streaming history together! Just remember – views first, monetization later!