What are some good ways to improve audience retention for gaming channel

RobbieLizzie

RobbieLizzie

I Love YTtalk
Looking at my stats today, average watch time is 1:43. Now for a gaming channel, I can't really make videos that are 1:43 in length, that would be inefficient and say, Skyrim (for example) would have to be split into over 200 videos. So yeah, what are some good ways to improve the retention rate?
 
^^Cut out boring parts in a walkthrough or let's play video game. If there is anything boring cut it out!
 
Jaguar550 said:
^^Cut out boring parts in a walkthrough or let's play video game. If there is anything boring cut it out!
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That's something I can't do though, as I like my Lets Plays to have a complete feel to them and generally keep them under 20 minutes (top was 30 minutes or so), as a viewer of other peoples Lets Plays, I prefer the fuller ones and feel disoriented when large chunks of the Lets Play get cut out.
 
RobbieLizzie said:
That's something I can't do though, as I like my Lets Plays to have a complete feel to them and generally keep them under 20 minutes (top was 30 minutes or so), as a viewer of other peoples Lets Plays, I prefer the fuller ones and feel disoriented when large chunks of the Lets Play get cut out.
Click to expand...

You can always try to make your video's shorter(10 min max.) or speed up parts of your let's play.
 
Like what EnderZlayerx said, shorter videos may be helpful. Since you have very few subs, I'd suggest trying 10 minute (or less) videos instead. As your channel grows, your audience will be more faithful to you and you'll be able to stretch the time. Also, if you don't want to cut out boring parts then you need to not have boring parts. If you can't think of things to talk about on the spot, I suggest writing down some ideas beforehand to give yourself some topics.

Best of luck!
 
This is a difficult one.

Check your video up to the average cut off point.

What happens during that point?
No offence to yourself but are you boring to listen to?
Is the game play boring?
What is the game you mention?

Answer these questions and I will try help you further. Also don't forget that those stats are averaged.
 
Hmm some very good points. I will try and get some shorter videos by doing games that can be split into shorter stuff.
 
I don't think shorter videos will necessarily increase retention, views yes but not retention and one reason for that is 10 min watched time of a 30 min video is the same as 10 min watched time of a 10 min video.

My videos are mostly 30 min and have an average watch time around 9 min. So you should get atleast that.

just look at your analytics on every video and see when they leave. If all of them leave before the 5 min mark then you have to work on your content. They are simply not interested enough to watch it.

but if some of them stick to the end of the video then you might instead have a Title problem. If you have missleading titles and people think they will see something else they will leave early and kill your retention. Misleading titles might give views but low retention. (I haven't watched your titles so I don't know how they are)

like this, if 1 viewer watch for 30 min and 1 viewer leaves after 30 sec. then your total watch time will be 15 min

1 for 30 min and 4 for 30 sec, total watch time 6 min
1 for 30 min and 10 for 30 sec, total watch time 3 min.

and if you shorten your videos

1 for 10 min and 1 for 30 sec, total watch time 5 min
1 for 10 min and 4 for 30 sec, total watch time 3 min
1 for 10 min and 10 for 30 sec, total watch time 1,5 min.

short answer: thumbnails, titles, description and tags drive traffic (searches and suggested videos), content makes them stay (retention)
 
Often times long videos may have short retention through no fault of your own. Many times the viewer just realizes how long the video is and doesn't want to dedicate much time. You can get your % up by posting shorter entertaining videos, or your average time up by creating longer videos that are interesting throughout, but generally longer videos get worse %. Your personality is the only thing that will keep people around for a long video, so make sure you are entertaining.
 
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