As anyone who watches gaming content on YouTube knows, the platform is full of channels doing longplays and showcase style content. From a list of bosses in the latest Zelda game to all the tracks in a Mario Kart 8 expansion, YouTubers like ProsafiaGaming, BeardBear, aWiibo and Mario Party Legacy have made their living showcasing them all, and in a clean, easy to understand format unhindered by most editing or commentary.
And that made us wonder… what goes into one of these channels? What’s it like playing through these newly released games to get footage up and available on launch day? Do these folks have press connections or inside help?
Well in today’s interview, we’re gonna find out. That’s because as the title suggests, we’re interviewing aWiibo, the creator of a popular Nintendo YouTube with over 125K subscribers. Time to see what he has to say about his work, Nintendo and the YouTube business as a whole!
Starting with a bit of personal background. So, who are you? Who is aWiibo?
I’m a Youtube Creator with a passion for videogames. I am no confident person, but i’ll try to answer these questions as honestly as I can.
Where did you get your username?
Amiibos used to be my favorite Nintendo accessoire, and the Wii used to be my favorite Nintendo console. So I tried to mix these two words and came up with aWiibo.
What was your intro to gaming? Like your first ever video game?
The original Super Mario 64. Loved it as a kid, not so much anymore these days. Camera controls aged pretty poorly. But I suppose I didn’t know any better when I was younger.
And what ones are you playing at the moment? Anything exciting?
Chocobo GP. On my third or so playthrough now. I suppose I love karting games a little bit too much.
Currently, aWiibo is playing a lot off Chocobo GP, a recent racing game spinoff based on the Final Fantasy series
Any games you’re interested in playing later this year?
If you really want me to mention about a hundred games here, then give me a bit. Haha – But the games I am looking mostly forward to are Starfield and Zelda Breath of the Wild 2.
Like many of us, Awiibo is very excited for BoTW 2
Regardless, let’s talk about YouTube now. What made you decide to start a channel?
That’s a difficult question, I actually had no real reasoning for starting aWiibo if I have to be honest. My channel started from some random Mario Kart DS Boss Rush video, which I mainly made because I wanted to test my 3DS Capture Board. At the time, I had no real reason nor inspiration to properly start a channel. I then tried to upload a few more videos. Which were pretty much also video quality tests and those videos I actually privated later on. I suppose I was just enjoying the little amount of free time I had messing around with video editors and capture cards.
Why one without any commentary, rather than something like a LP channel?
I have a really monotone voice, and I am not a very funny person. On Youtube, having a monotone voice with pretty much no energy or some sense of humor to back you up is a no go. In my opinion anyway. And besides that, I am way more comfortable not screaming into a mic while I am playing through a videogame.
Were there any other creators that inspired you here?
YTSunny, who is actually a very good friend of mine. He is in the same niche as me, pretty much all my inspiration came from his channel when I just started out.
Still, how do you get these videos done so quickly? Do you speedrun every new game Nintendo releases?
Too much free time I suppose haha. Broken street dates also. Balan Wonderworld for example I played through in one sitting. Which is extremely unhealthy by the way, and I often question myself why I don’t take any breaks. It’s just one of my personal issues, if I start with a game, I can’t stop.
How about review copies? Do you receive any of those?
Yes. But for Nintendo titles I just rely on broken street dates.
What games have been your favourites to make videos about and why?
Mario Kart games or any kart racer have been an absolute blast to record. I’m most certainly not the best at this genre, but I’d say i’m slowly learning.
Any least favourites?
Super Smash Bros. I love those games, but I am not good enough at fighting games to properly showcase anything. Which made recording anything just a chore, I was second guessing literally anything. And my lack of self confidence definitely wasn’t helping in that regard. I’ve uploaded some videos on Smash Bros in the past, but ended up taking down most of it. Fighting games were never one of my “skills” haha.
How about your favorite videos? What ones are you the most proud of?
That’s a tough question, because truth to be told, I am not very proud of anything I uploaded before 2021 – However I’d say my “Miitopia Switch Tower of Despair Final Boss” video. I was one of the first channels to upload this, which I totally didn’t expect given the hype of the game. It just felt nice uploading something that wasn’t previously uploaded a dozen times already.
Similarly, any you don’t care for any more?
Everything from before 2021, unfortunately. But mostly my SpongeBob boss rushes. It took me a long time to properly understand watermark sizes, so a lot of those videos were literally just experiment videos with a watermark the size of Tokyo. It’s honestly really unfortunate those videos got so many views. But I appreciate those that could ignore the watermark, and I understand those that left the video because the watermark was in the way of the subtitles. Haha.
Do you try and avoid spoilers with thumbnails and stuff? Prosafia Gaming and others like them get a lot of heat due to that…
I usually try to, but I often do such a miserable job at avoiding thumbnail spoilers. This is not because I want to spoil people, no… I really don’t. its mostly because its hard to come up with a thumbnail that works for everyone. I am however pretty confident on a thumbnail template that I recently created, and I will make use of this template when I am covering new releases. I’m pretty confident that spoilers through my thumbnails will be minimal now. Thumbnail spoilers are unfortunately a big problem on Youtube right now, especially in the no commentary niche. I’d wish I could say I didn’t have a part in this, but honestly I do – But I am working on changing my ways at least.
Despite efforts to minimise spoilers, some of Awiibo’s video thumbnails are more spoilery than others…
Do Nintendo or any other companies ever try and take down your videos?
Yep. Modding videos. Nintendo really isn’t a fan of those.
Are you surprised how well your channel did? How does it feel to have over 120K subscribers in such a crowded niche?
Yeah I was really surprised it actually started growing in 2020, I honestly expected it would never do much considering how oversaturated the no commentary niche is. Which would have been perfectly fine with me. I mostly do this as a hobby.
Do you run the channel as a full time job now?
Yes. But that is only because I have no other source of income at the moment. I used to have two revenue sources, but if I find a job that is more healthy for me and that I can do part-time, I would go for it. Youtube being my only source of income still doesn’t sit right with me, not even after all these years. It’s just a huge gamble because it can all be taken away by them with the simple push on a button.
From what I hear, you’ve been looking for a change recently when it comes to the style of your content. What kind of videos are you thinking of making more of?
Right now I have been mostly covering family friendly games, in the future I really want to try to expand to less “friendly” games. I have a passion for both, but lately it’s proven very difficult to boot up a Mario game every single day. It’s just very exhausting being stuck to covering the same type of games for five years, to say the least.
Are you trying to build more of a fanbase as an individual artist/creator that people watch for the personality rather than just the content? I’ve seen quite a few people in your area make that shift…
No. I’m not. I’d wish I was confident enough for that, but I am perfectly fine with people watching my content because the game is good. My personality is not interesting enough for most people to care. And that’s perfectly fine.
Recently it seems you’ve started up a text based gaming site called Sekai Guides too. What was the reasoning behind that?
Well, this website is mostly a collaborative effort. I am not the only person working on this. Basically, my friend and I needed to try something new. We’ve both been doing the same stuff for years, and we have never tried writing text guides and covering games that we previously haven’t been able to cover. It’s been an absolute blast so far. I haven’t had so much fun in a long time if I have to be honest. It was just very refreshing doing something else that isn’t making Super Mario video #1000 for once.
Do you have any plans to make the site stand out more? The gaming media world is a packed place, with some seriously tough competition…
We started a Youtube channel on the side. My friend and I have more experience in the Youtube world than we do when it comes to building and growing a website, however re-directing traffic from the Youtube channel to the website has been a good decision so far.
The Sekai Guides YouTube channel has been a marketing focus for the site
How’s the project doing so far? Is the site doing well traffic/revenue wise?
What I can say is that its no real money maker so far, and that’s perfectly fine. That’s not the main objective at the moment, and I am not sure if it will be anytime soon.
Do you have any other interesting ideas in the pipeline? Perhaps for non YouTube/website related projects?
Not really, no. I’ve been thinking about getting into programming, but with my lack of time it’s been difficult to get into that properly.
Finally, what advice would you give someone looking to start a successful YouTube channel and why?
If you are looking to get into gaming content, I suggest you start now. The gaming niche is more oversaturated than ever, I am speaking about both no commentary and commentary here, and this growing won’t stop anytime soon. In fact, I expect it will be very oversaturated and almost impossible to grow within a few years. You have to think outside the box at first. Starting your channel with a video that has been done a hundred times already won’t do you any favors and it will prove growth very difficult at first. Personally, I started with covering some games and topics people barely covered on Youtube before.
The best advice I can give is, don’t expect anything at first. Don’t think your videos will get 1000s or 100000s of views. It will likely not happen before you have built a proper audience. Growing is a very difficult and tedious process. Just focus on making content people search for, such as new games or popular trends. Your audience will find you given time. Also, breaks are fine, but don’t overdo them. It’s good to stay consistent. As consistent as possible in fact.
I had the advantage of previously working in marketing, so it’s safe to say I understand the Youtube algorithm and SEO a little bit better than most. However, I also consider myself very lucky. Without luck, I don’t think I would have ever gotten beyond 100k, heck… 50K subscribers. Ha ha.
Thank you for having me.
No, thank you for agreeing to the interview Awiibo! It was a pleasure talking to you about your YouTube channel, and it was interesting to hear your thoughts about your channel’s progress and situation as a whole.
And you’re 100% right about not expecting anything to begin with too. Like it or not, YouTube is a marathon, not a sprint. Unless you’re extremely lucky, you won’t reach a million, 100K or even 10K subscribers in the first week, months or even year. Instead, it’s a gradual process that you’ll get better at as time goes on, and one which if you’re lucky, might end up making you successful somewhere in the long run.
So stick to it. If you’re a YouTuber, keep posting those videos, and build up a schedule over time. Eventually, you should find the audience you’re looking for.
Regardless, hope you enjoyed the interview folks! If you want to watch Awiibo’s videos or follow him on social media check out the links below, and if you want to give your thoughts on anything, leave them in the comments below or on our Discord server today!
Awiibo on Social Media