With horror games finding a pseudo-home on streaming sites, there was a considerable effect on their sales figures. While the original approach was arguably more effective in providing a memorably terrifying experience, it didn’t sell as much as well as the response-oriented template. As this progressed, the idea of carefully implemented scares fell to the wayside. The demand for this type of content drove developers to create similar projects designed for such reactions.
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In turn, many more streamers adopted the formula, played the same games with the same reactions. Reactions played a huge role in this watching grown men shriek in abundant terror at the scares played in front of them became a staple for many Youtubers. For example, PewDiePie’s first video where he plays Slender: The Eight Pages has amassed over 13 million views. Youtubers would see their views spiking significantly when playing these types of games. Streamers and Youtubers have arguably played a substantial role in this evolution. Said frenzy tends to be over rather quickly, however, before the game calms back down and sets itself up for the formula to be repeated. Many developers discarded the nuanced approach, opting into building a similarly eerie atmosphere for the player, but rather than unnerve them over time, they chose the easier route of jump-scares and loud crashes, sending the player into a brief frenzy. As the genre evolved further, some of this subtlety was lost. Games from franchises like Silent Hill provided the player with a grossly uneasy world to be immersed into, with unapparent fears never more than an arm’s reach away.
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While there are no glaring issues with the idea, there is one particular genre streaming has had a sizeable impact on story driven horror.įor years, many horror games relied on the psychological to unnerve their audience, creating a lingering atmosphere of uncertainty. Ninja, who surged to the forefront of streaming, is a case example of the concept’s popularity, sitting comfortably with a following of just over 14.6 million followers on Twitch (at the time of writing).
![slender the eight pages pewdiepie slender the eight pages pewdiepie](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/mmCedp5EYis/maxresdefault.jpg)
Streaming platforms have become a hub for gamers to share recorded gameplay with a highly attentive audience, and the medium has only increased in popularity. Further changes were implemented with the emergence of Twitch in June of 2011. When YouTube was created in 2007, nobody could predict the effect it would have on how people interacted with games. “Such success would have been considerably more difficult had audiences not grown to love it through YouTube playthroughs.”