Wonder

Research Outline

Prepared for itay | Delivered December 5, 2020

World of Warcraft: Elements of Top Videos

Goals

Identify leading World of Warcraft videos and channels by popularity on YouTube and Twitch, along with whether top influencers utilize YouTube and Twitch separately or in tandem, to help determine common factors that increase the popularity of videos and inform programming decisions on a World of Warcraft channel.

Early Findings

Leading Channels on TwitchAsmongold is the top-streamed World of Warcraft (WoW) influencer on Twitch with 7,275,204 viewer hours. On YouTube, Asmongold has 440,000 subscribers and posts at least once a day. Asmongold's posts on YouTube appear to include some streams from Twitch and some new content.
Sodapoppin has the second-most popular Twitch stream with 5,072,075 viewer hours (not all of his content is World of Warcraft-related). On YouTube, Sodapoppin has 1.08 million subscribers and posts about once a month on a variety of topics. His posts on YouTube appear to be videos of him speaking.
The third-highest Twitch streamer that plays WoW is Quin69, with 2,329,620 viewer hours. On YouTube, Quin69 has 163,000 subscribers but has not posted for several months. 
Leading YouTube ChannelsBellularGaming is one of the leading YouTube channels for WoW with 599,000 subscribers. It releases content almost daily. On Twitch, however, Bellular has only 12,300 followers.
Preach Gaming has a subscriber base of 426,000 on YouTube. Its recent videos are all WoW-related. On Twitch, Preach Gaming has 215,000 followers.
Taliesin & Evitel is a leading YouTube channel for WoW with 290,000 subscribers. It releases content once a week. On Twitch, they have 76,300 followers.
Hazelnuttygames is a popular YouTube channel with 275,000 subscribers. 
On Twitch, she has 76,900 followers.
Hirumaredx has 254,000 subscribers on its WoW-themed YouTube channel, while on Twitch, the channel has only 2,300 followers.

Summary of Early Findings in Relation to GoalsThe research team began by seeking to identify what channels on Twitch and YouTube had the highest popularity. The top three Twitch streams were sampled, finding that only one (Asmongold) had active crossover activity with its YouTube channel. The research team then sampled leading YouTube channels based around World of Warcraft using this list as a starting point, with Preach Gaming being the standout for crossover content between the two platforms. Some of the most popular channels were noted above. 

The research team can continue collecting data based on the videos of these top influencers as requested. For a complete understanding of developing the best current material for a World of Warcraft channel, we recommend looking at the most popular videos from leading influencers as well as looking at the most recent content released by these influencers. We can also do in-depth studies of individual videos.