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How to get YouTubers and streamers to play your game

, founder of NextWishlist · Updated · 3 min read

100+contacts for about 10 videosPractitioners
10k–500ksubscribers: the channels that answer mostPractitioners
1–2 wksbefore launch: when to send keysPractitioners
On this page
  1. Who to contact
  2. How many, and what to expect
  3. The email
  4. When to send keys
  5. Tools that help
  6. Find the creators of your niche
  7. Where to find the right creators

Short answerContact many mid-sized creators who already play games like yours (10,000 to 500,000 subscribers), with a short personal email that leads with a key or demo link. Plan on 100 or more contacts for about 10 videos, and send launch keys 1 to 2 weeks before release.

YouTubers and streamers who play your genre are one of the strongest sources of wishlists, and a YouTube video keeps sending players for months. Most of them get many emails a week. Here is how developers get answered.

01Who to contact

  • Creators who play games like yours: look for videos of comparable games, especially "first look" and demo videos.
  • Mid-sized channels: 10,000 to 500,000 subscribers on YouTube, 50 to 2,000 average viewers on Twitch. Above that, you compete with publisher budgets.
  • Small ones too: in one documented case, a mid-sized channel brought about 1,000 wishlists in two days and drew bigger creators to the game.

02How many, and what to expect

Plan on 100 or more direct contacts for about 10 videos. Results vary a lot: one developer got 69 videos from 95 creators through an opt-in platform, another got no answer from 30 cold emails, and one of those creators covered the game two months later anyway. No answer isn't a no.

03The email

  • Under 150 words, from an address on your studio's domain.
  • Lead with the key or the public demo link, then a GIF or the trailer.
  • One personal line naming a video of theirs on a comparable game.
  • No press kit to unlock first, no call to book.

For the creators who want visuals for their thumbnails, keep a press kit ready: indie game press kit.

04When to send keys

  • Launch: start contacting creators about 3 weeks before release, send keys 1 to 2 weeks before, and lift any embargo at or before launch.
  • Next Fest: get your demo to creators 2 to 4 weeks before the fest.
  • Contact your whole list three times: at your demo, at Next Fest and at launch. Creators often come back to a game months later.

05Tools that help

  • Curator Connect, free in Steamworks: keys for up to 100 curators, 5 copies each at most, once your store page is public.
  • Keymailer and Woovit: platforms where creators request keys for the games they choose.
  • A Steam UTM link per creator: Steamworks counts the wishlists each video brings (logged-in visitors, within 72 hours). Videos usually show in your wishlist chart within 24 to 48 hours.

06Find the creators of your niche

NextWishlist finds the YouTubers and streamers who played games like yours, ranks them for your game, and measures in your wishlists what each video brought. Join the private beta.

07Where to find the right creators

  • Search YouTube and Twitch for the games closest to yours, and note the channels that played them recently.
  • Look at who covered the top games of your genre in the last months (top upcoming Steam games by genre).
  • Use creator platforms such as Keymailer, where creators find and request keys for games in the genres they cover.
  • Check each channel: recent videos in your genre, views that match the subscriber count, and a business email on the channel's About page.

Beware of requests for keys that come to you instead: many are resellers (Steam curators and key scams).

How to get YouTubers and streamers to play your game: quick answers

How do I get YouTubers to play my game?

Contact many creators who play games like yours, mid-sized channels first, with a short personal email that leads with a key or a demo link. Plan on 100 or more contacts for about 10 videos.

When should I send keys to streamers?

For a launch, contact creators about 3 weeks before release and send keys 1 to 2 weeks before. For Steam Next Fest, get them the demo 2 to 4 weeks before the fest.

What size of YouTuber should I contact?

Channels of 10,000 to 500,000 subscribers answer more than the biggest ones, and smaller channels can still bring wishlists and draw bigger creators.

What is Steam Curator Connect?

A free Steamworks tool to send keys to up to 100 curators, with at most 5 copies each, once your store page is public.

Sources

Valve's rules can change: the official Steamworks page always wins. Practitioner benchmarks are surveys of developers, given as ranges.

NextWishlist

Know which post, creator or subreddit brought wishlists.

Your posts and tracking links tied to your wishlists, the formats that work for games like yours, and the creators of your niche. NextWishlist is a Steam marketing tool for indie developers, in private beta.

Join the private beta