YouTube Millionaires: Drift0r Thanks His “Top Tier YouTube Subscribers”

By 01/28/2016
YouTube Millionaires: Drift0r Thanks His “Top Tier YouTube Subscribers”

Welcome to YouTube Millionaires, where we profile channels that have recently crossed the one million subscriber mark. There are channels crossing this threshold every week, and each has a story to tell about YouTube success. Read previous installments of YouTube Millionaires here.

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One of the most interesting parts of the YouTube gaming community is the way it is divided into hyper-specific subgenres. Sometimes, the creators we feature in this column specialize in one particular gameplay element within a single game, and Drift0r fits that descrption. A BroadbandTV partner, he is known for analyzing guns within the Call of Duty series and all its related offshoots. Few people known CoD like Drift0r, and his fans–who now number more than one million–appreciate his expertise. He spoke to him about the consistent growth of his channel.

Tubefilter

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Tubefilter: How does it feel to have one million subscribers? What do you have to say to your fans?

Drift0r: Getting to one million subscribers has been a long term goal for years and it feels good. I feel like I have accomplished something and added some stability to my life. However, I also feel a new challenge is ahead of me…getting to 10M! I would like to thank my fans for supporting me this whole time. The channel really is all about them. Dedicated fans are the backbone of any YouTube channel/personality.

TF: How would you describe your typical viewer?

D: Speaking both from statistical probability and my observations, a typical viewer is a college aged male who lives in a large US or UK city. Because of the content on the channel, they tend to be slightly smarter than the average YouTube viewer and more patient. They also tend to be abnormally generous. I think I have top tier YouTube subscribers.

TF: How did you get your start with Call of Duty gun analysis?

D: I started doing gun analysis in CoD after getting into a huge argument with a friend who insisted that FMJ adds more damage to your weapons. I knew that it did not but needed to prove my point. I went online, found the data, and constructed some tests to prove the point. Then it occurred to me that thousands, if not millions of other players probably had this same misconception. I was developing another show at the time tentatively called “Devil In The Details” about CoD Easter Eggs. However, a show about stats immediately struck me as more promising and probably easier to produce so I came up with “In Depth” and decided to try to demystify CoD to the best of my ability. It was hugely successful.

TF: How much in-game research do you do on a weekly basis?

D: This varies wildly from week to week. Some topics are very straightforward like “How much damage does a grenade do?” A question like that can be answered from a stat chart online. That will take almost no research and only require a few minutes to test/verify. However, other topics such as “How does skill based matchmaking work?”, or “What is the angle reduction when shooting through walls?” have no previous research to pull from and tend to take weeks. Those episodes take a very long time to make. Most normal episodes can be tested for in less than 2 hours.

TF: You’ve been on YouTube for a long time. What, in your mind, the most significant way the platform has changed over the past decade?

D: The most significant change in YouTube is not with the platform but rather with the audience and the community around it. YouTube used to be this quirky little website that played videos easily instead of downloading huge video files embedded into a webpage. Then it became a time wasting hub and now it is at the forefront of new media. Some YouTubers are treated the same way as traditional celebrities and their content is considered of equal value to television shows. Many YouTubers are able to make a full time living or even a very rich living off of the platform. As more and more people quit watching cable TV, they increasingly go to Netflix, Hulu, and YouTube. The amount of people who watch YouTube with the same dedication that they used to apply to TV shows is shocking!

TF: Aside from the Call of Duty series, what other games do you enjoy?

D: Aside from CoD, I love League of Legends. That game is a serious addiction for me. I’m so bad at LoL but I enjoy playing it so much. I also enjoyed the Overwatch beta as well as Oculus Rift games.

TF: In what ways have you managed to diversify the types of videos you post on YouTube?

D: The channel is mostly CoD but I have tried to include my wife’s cosplay, my two doges (like the meme doge), my friends, and a small amount of philosophical thought. The background of it all is still CoD but I try to enlighten others and get them to think outside the box a bit. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn’t.

TF: What’s next for your channel? Any fun plans?

D: I’m going to be livestreaming a lot more in the future. YouTube Gaming has been surprisingly successful on the channel and I plan to expand upon it. I’m trying to live stream at least three times a week right now but might bump it up to four or five depending on how things go. My fans seems to really like the streams, they are fun for me to do, and honestly a lot easier than produced content. We will see how it goes in the future.

On Deck (channels that will soon reach one million subscribers): How to Cake It, SkizzTV, FaZe Blaziken

Epoxy-Logo-grey-textThis installment of YouTube Millionaires is brought to you by Epoxy, the premier company that helps multi-platform creators and digital networks distribute videos, engage with fans, measure success, and grow their communities across the social web. Check out Epoxy’s new Sharing Studio, a place for quickly creating and distributing native social content from your YouTube channels.

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