The cancellation of essentially everything fun during lockdown meant that we had to find new ways to entertain ourselves, or ramp up the amount of time we’ve spent doing things we already enjoy. Gaming has been a brilliant antidote to our newfound national boredom.
Gaming’s popularity reached new heights in 2020, raking in £4.2bn in revenue – up 14.5% year-on-year. And many of us decided to take our new gaming habits to a new level and start watching other people play over the internet. According to Stream Elements’ State of the Stream report, in January 2021 more than two billion hours were watched across Twitch’s thousands of streams, a whopping 117% increase on the January previous. Facebook’s own livestreaming arm, Facebook Gaming, saw similarly impressive results with more than 400 million hours watched in February 2021 alone.
The streaming boom of 2020 has created an even wider audience for consumer tech brands to tap into. Partnering with the most influential streamers and content creators is a no-brainer – with the most successful streamers pulling in thousands of viewers per stream (some of which last for hours), it’s a golden opportunity to have your latest product on display.
Those watching might want to kick off their own channels, and will need good kit to get started. And those who already stream will be looking for ways to upgrade their set-up with higher-quality cameras, microphones, headsets and more.
The opportunity is there for brands that make streaming kit, of course, but the potential for product endorsement goes further. There’s the chairs streamers sit on; the tables they perch at; the studio monitors each side of their screens; the lighting and accessories that adorn their gaming spaces. And there’s no reason a pair of hi-fi headphones couldn’t do great service on the streamer’s bonce, supplanting the usual gaming accessories brands.
With this uptick in live gaming expected to last beyond lockdown, the time is right to jump on the bandwagon. To help get started, we’ve compiled a list of the UK’s up-and-coming streaming talent, plus a couple of established names who could be an instant ticket to rewarding exposure. Check them out on the next page.
Streamers to watch
- Platform: Twitch
- Followers: 8k
- Bio: Hannah (or Lomadia) is a variety streamer who prides herself on fostering a safe, inclusive space for her LGBTQIA+ viewers. Expect plenty of action and RPGs.
- Platform: Twitch
- Followers: 7k
- Bio: Ben takes very much a community approach to his gaming. He regularly gets his community involved in streams playing games such as Minecraft and WWE.
- Platform: Twitch & YouTube
- Followers: 2k (Twitch) & 4.5k (YouTube)
- Bio: Stephanie is the founder of NNESAGA, the U.K’s upcoming gaming & entertainment platform dedicated to championing diversity and inclusion. She has worked with a number of big brands (Playstation, Microsoft, Gamespot and more) to help tackle the issue of diversity prevalent in the gaming and create opportunities for POC gamers.
- Platform: Twitch & YouTube
- Followers: 2k (Twitch) & 1.63k (YouTube)
- Bio: Bob is a full-time content creator, designer and marketer of 15 years. He often streams multiplayer and RPGs, as well as creating free overlays and Twitch tools to give away to his community.
- Platform: Twitch & YouTube
- Followers: 3m (Twitch) & 7.05m (YouTube)
- Bio: Tommy is the U.K’s biggest Minecraft streamer, attracting hundreds of thousands of viewers to his streams at a time. He saw a meteoric rise to fame, and looks sure to be a worldwide name in no time.
- Platform: Twitch
- Followers: 294k
- Bio: Brian “Limmy” Limond is a Glaswegian comedian known for his outrageous viral videos and popular BBC Scotland programme. However, in recent years, Limmy has been building a huge following on Twitch, streaming a variety of comedic games.
- Platform: YouTube & Twitch
- Followers: 7k (Twitch) & 510k (YouTube)
- Bio: Randolph is a popular UK artist who has also branched out into Twitch and YouTube, streaming mainly Pokémon and battle royale games. As well as that, he streams his Pokémon card hunting journey as he continues his quest for rare “shineys”.
- Platform: Twitch & YouTube
- Followers: 21k (Twitch) & 4.57k (YouTube)
- Bio: Danille is a Twitch ambassador and full-time content creator on Twitch. She’s known for building unique mods to help black and POC Sims players recreate themselves in the game, as they typically struggle to find appropriate skin tones or hair textures in the base game.
- Platform: Twitch
- Followers: 4m
- Bio: A vastly popular and charismatic professional Fortnite and Rocket League player, currently signed to the FaZe Clan eSports team.
- Platform: Twitch
- Followers: 3k
- Bio: A variety streamer on Twitch who got into PC gaming after her Xbox 360 was taken during a burglary four years ago. Expect survival, horror and RPGs, alongside a welcoming community.
This article features in our second instalment of Recharged bought to you by Nelson Bostock and our sister agency, Fever. To download the full copy of our exclusive magazine all about the new abnormal) in consumer tech comms – click here.