Gaming and esports

Gaming is one of the largest creator niches in the world, spanning let's plays, live streams, walkthroughs, reviews, speedruns, esports commentary, news and comedy. It has a young, highly engaged audience and a culture that values authenticity, skill and community. It also has lower ad rates than many niches, intense competition, and a set of issues that other niches do not face: game publishers' rights over the footage creators use, age ratings, in-game purchases, and the line between gaming and gambling. This lesson covers how gaming creators build audiences and earn, and the rules that are specific to the niche.

Formats and audiences

Gaming content comes in many formats, and each attracts a different audience. Live streaming on platforms such as Twitch, YouTube and Kick builds community through real-time chat, long sessions and regular schedules. Edited videos, including highlights, guides and video essays, are easier to discover through search and recommendation. Short clips travel widely on short-form feeds and can pull viewers to long content. Many successful gaming creators combine all three, streaming live and cutting the best moments into videos and shorts.

• Let's plays and live streams: entertainment built around personality and community.
• Guides and walkthroughs: search-driven content that answers specific questions.
• Reviews and news: timely content around releases, updates and industry events.
• Speedruns and challenge runs: skill-based content with dedicated communities.
• Esports commentary and analysis: content around competitive leagues and tournaments.
• Video essays and retrospectives: longer analysis of games, design and history.

Gaming audiences skew young, and a significant share are under 18. That shapes everything from sponsor choices to legal duties. Content aimed at children triggers stricter rules on data collection and advertising, as lesson 10 explains, and sponsorships for energy drinks, gambling-adjacent products or mature games need careful thought about who is watching.

Using game footage: publisher permissions

Every game is a copyrighted work, and gameplay footage reproduces its art, music and design. Creators can show games only because most publishers allow it. Publishers usually set out their terms in a video policy or content creator policy that says whether you may stream and monetize footage, whether you must credit the game, and what you may not do, such as leaking unreleased content or using the game's music separately. These policies differ: most major publishers allow monetized gameplay videos, some restrict certain uses, and a few have issued takedowns against creators who criticized their games, which drew strong backlash.

Read the policy for each game you cover, especially before monetizing. Watch out for licensed music inside games: in-game radio stations and soundtracks may include tracks the publisher licensed only for the game, which can trigger automated copyright claims on video platforms. Many games offer a streamer mode that removes licensed music. Embargoes are another common condition: review copies often come with a date before which you may not publish, and breaking an embargo can end your access to future review copies.

Where a publisher's policy does not cover a use, creators may rely on fair dealing in Canada or fair use in the United States, which lesson 3 explains. Commentary, criticism and review generally have stronger claims than simply uploading long stretches of unedited footage with little added. Publisher permission is far safer than relying on those defences.

How gaming creators earn

Gaming creators typically earn from a mix of sources. Streaming platforms share revenue from subscriptions, ads and virtual tips such as Twitch Bits or YouTube Super Chats. Video platforms share ad revenue. Sponsorships come from game publishers, hardware makers, peripherals, energy drinks, VPNs and apps. Affiliate links cover gear such as headsets, keyboards, chairs and capture cards. Some creators run merchandise stores or earn from game creator programs that pay a share of in-game purchases made with a creator's code.

Creator codes are a material connection. If you earn from purchases made with your code, you must disclose that clearly, just as you would a sponsorship. Encouraging viewers to spend money in a game, especially young viewers and especially on random rewards, raises ethical concerns covered below.

Age ratings and mature content

Video games in Canada and the United States are rated by the Entertainment Software Rating Board, or ESRB, which assigns ratings such as E for Everyone, E10+, T for Teen, M for Mature 17+ and AO for Adults Only, plus content descriptors and interactive elements such as in-game purchases. Online-only and mobile games may use storefront ratings instead. In Canada, provincial film classification bodies have historically recognized ESRB ratings, and major retailers enforce them voluntarily.

Ratings do not bind creators directly, but they matter. Platforms require age restrictions or content warnings for graphic violence, sexual content and other mature material, and repeated violations can lead to demonetization or strikes. Showing M-rated games to a channel full of young viewers also creates reputational and ethical problems, and sponsors may avoid it. Use platform age gates, mark mature content, and think about whether your content and your audience match.

Loot boxes, skins and gambling-adjacent content

Loot boxes are in-game items bought with real money or premium currency that give random rewards. Critics argue that they share features with gambling, especially when they are sold to children. Some countries have restricted them; Belgium, for example, treats paid loot boxes as gambling. Skins, which are cosmetic items with real-world value, have also been used as stakes on third-party gambling sites, and some of those sites have targeted young people and relied on creators to promote them without proper disclosure.

Canada does not have a specific law on loot boxes at the time of writing. Gambling is regulated by the provinces under the Criminal Code framework, and Quebec has seen class actions alleging that loot boxes amount to illegal gambling. Since 2021, single-event sports betting has been legal, and Ontario has run a regulated online gambling market since April 2022. Ontario's regulator, the AGCO, bans the use of athletes, and celebrities and influencers likely to appeal to minors, in online gambling advertising from February 2024. Promoting an unregulated gambling site to Canadian viewers can breach provincial law, and promoting any gambling to minors is prohibited.

Major streaming platforms have also tightened rules. Twitch banned streams of unlicensed gambling sites featuring slots, roulette or dice games in 2022, and platforms generally restrict gambling sponsorships and require age gating. Creators who receive offers from gambling or skin-betting sites should treat them as high-risk: check whether the operator is licensed where your viewers live, whether your audience is overwhelmingly adult, and what the platform allows. If in doubt, decline.

Esports

Esports, or organized competitive gaming, has its own creator ecosystem. Creators work as commentators, analysts, team content producers and community hosts, and esports teams themselves run creator rosters that combine competitive players with entertainers. Sponsorships in esports come from hardware, apparel, telecom, food and drink brands, and increasingly from betting companies where that is legal. Tournament organizers and leagues control broadcast rights, so creators who want to show or co-stream matches need permission, often through official co-streaming programs.

Esports careers can be short and unstable. Teams restructure, leagues change and games rise and fall in popularity. Creators who build their own audience and brand alongside any team role are more resilient. Contracts with esports organizations deserve the same care as any creator contract covered in CRE-330: watch the terms on content ownership, revenue splits, exclusivity, streaming obligations and what happens to your channel if you leave.

Community and safety

Gaming communities can be welcoming and creative, but they can also be toxic. Harassment, hate raids, doxxing and swatting have targeted gaming creators, especially women, LGBTQ+ creators and creators of colour. CRE-350 covered safety planning in depth. In gaming specifically, use chat moderation tools, follower-only or subscriber-only modes during raids, delays on live streams where location could be revealed, and clear community rules enforced consistently. Avoid showing your location, your home's exterior or details that could reveal where you live.

Creators also set the tone for their community. Behaviour that a creator tolerates or encourages, such as pile-ons against other players or slurs in chat, spreads. Many sponsors now check a creator's community health before signing deals. A well-moderated, inclusive community is better for viewers, safer for the creator and more attractive to brands.

Planning a gaming content week

Gaming creators who stream and upload need a schedule that balances live time with editing. A common pattern is three or four streams a week at consistent times, one or two edited videos built from stream highlights, and daily short clips. Consistency matters because live audiences plan around a schedule, and missed streams lose viewers to other channels.

Time spent live is only part of the work. Editors, moderators and clip channels can extend a streamer's reach, but each brings costs and agreements about pay, credit and ownership of edits that should be written down.