People are more interested in watching Minecraft than Frozen or Beyonce on YouTube

May 2024 ยท 2 minute read

Minecraft was the second-most searched term of 2014 on YouTube, beating out the likes of Disney's animated movie Frozen and singer-songwriter Beyonce, according to Google.

In a post on Think With Google titled "Think Gaming Content is Niche? Think Again," insights lead on pop culture and gaming Gautam Ramdurai explains that video games are "tightly woven" into the fabric of pop culture. Ramdurai lays out the top YouTube queries of 2014, revealing that Minecraft was ranked only below the broad umbrella of "music."

Trailing behind it are searches for "movies," Frozen, Drake and Beyonce. PewDiePie, who makes about $4 million a year from Let's Play videos on YouTube, follows. Some of the most subscribed gaming channels on YouTube include PewDiePie, Machinima and Sky Does Minecraft.

"Sometimes watching someone else play a game can be as much fun as playing yourself," Ramdurai wrote.

"In a recent Google Consumer Survey, viewers often cited the 'reactions' and 'commentary' of the YouTube creator as a big draw for this kind of content. One respondent said, 'It's a shared experience with a favorite creator.'"

For more of Ramdurai's insights and the complete list of top searched items, check out the full post.

Microsoft purchased Minecraft developer Mojang in September of last year for $2.5 billion. Telltale Games, the developer of titles such as The Walking Dead and The Wolf Among Us, is currently working on an episodic, story-based series called Minecraft: Story Mode.

Recently, former Mojang owner Markus "Notch" Persson outbid parties such as Beyonce and Jay-Z on a $70 million Beverly Hills mansion.

ncG1vJloZrCvp2O9sLjYoKanZpOkunB%2Bj2psaGlfbHx4gY9xaW1rX6K2r7HCq5ifrF2uvLbA1JucZquVlr%2BktIyfqaiylaN6o7HYqKWcnQ%3D%3D