Top YouTube game channels now earn nearly 3.5 billion views every month

Online video industry outlet Tubefilter reports that the top 100 game-focused YouTube channels garnered roughly 3.5 billion views last month as the audience for both independent and industry-sponsored YouTube game videos continues to grow. That's nearly half of the 8 billion views earned by the top 100 channels across all of YouTube last month, and the same channel was #1 on both charts: game industry personality PewDiePie. According to data sourced from online video analytics firm OpenSlate, the remarkably popular Swedish streamer earned just over 311 million views last month. That's far more than publisher-backed competitors like Activision's Call of Duty channel, which garnered roughly 28.5 million monthly views on the back of a Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare trailer that prominently featured a digital simulacrum of Kevin Spacey. The business of being a YouTuber is starting to attract a lot of attention from major media companies: Disney recently spent $500 million to acquire PewDiePie distributor Maker Studios, while Warner Bros. recently invested millions in the game-focused YouTube network Machinima.