On Twitch and YouTube, many content creators are currently playing strange games, completely outside of AAA or AAAA games, but viewers seem to be more interested in that than current, hyped games.
What kind of games are these? Supermarket Simulator, Kebab Chefs! – Restaurant Simulator, Beer Factory or Internet Cafe Simulator 2 are the opposite of the current hyped games on Steam. The titles are all simulators that simulate life surrounding the respective profession.
It’s hardly about realism, variety or graphic novelties. With similar graphics and unusual mechanics, they lure players into their world. In addition to their actual functions, many of the games also have additional features that have nothing to do with the actual gameplay, such as gambling or fighting against NPCs.
HandofBlood is one of the content creators who always entertain their viewers with simulators. You can see more about him in our video.
HandOfBlood: The most important things about YouTubers and Twitch streamers in under a minute
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Thanks to humorous videos, the genre is growing more and more
How do the games become famous? The reason for the success of the games is probably due to content creators on Twitch and YouTube who have made it their mission to immerse themselves in the everyday life of simulators and to entertain their viewers in various ways.
The creators of the videos use different approaches, but what they all have in common is that there are usually only individual streams or videos per game, in which the clichéd everyday life of a person in the respective profession is depicted. Sometimes the influencers’ own experiences or stories from their lives are included.
Here you can see a video that is an example of the type of simulator videos.
How are the videos received? The videos are well received by the community. The YouTube channel PietSmiet, among other projects, now publishes more videos about simulators such as Beer Factory. In the comments, viewers are happy about the videos about the simulators.
Under the YouTube video about the Beer Factory, @groebaz76 writes: “I love it. Pedda [PietSmiet] Gaming alone is always pure entertainment.”
Kevlovic writes under the same video: “Cool video! Hopefully there will be a few more videos and Peter with this simulator [PietSmiet] comes to build his beer empire.”
How big is the hype surrounding the games? Measuring the hype of an entire genre is not easy. What is striking is that simulator games are currently among the “trending games” on SteamDB. The supermarket simulator, for example, has a steadily growing trend of currently over 16,000 players.
Other games can also see player growth following streams or YouTube videos. However, the hype surrounding the respective game usually only lasts for a short time. After 24 hours, the number of players often drops again. The PietSmiet video, for example, helped the game Beer Factory gain a new number of players, before the number of players fell again since then.
We have already reported on simulators in the past. One company found American Truck Simulator so realistic that they were now looking for drivers for their real trucks.