Welcome to Streamers on the Rise, where we find streamers who are growing their channels, content, and audiences in extraordinary ways. Each week we’ll talk with a creator about what goes into livestreaming–both on and off camera.
Before you ask, we told KreekCraft that would be the headline for this feature, and we’re people of our word. It’s also true, but we’ll let him be the one to tell you that story.
If you’ve been anywhere in the Minecraft or Roblox space on YouTube in the past decade, you’ve probably seen Kreek. He started uploading Minecraft VODs way back in 2014, and in 2015, he expanded to streaming because he was having a bout of afternoon boredom.
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“I never imagined that I would be a streamer. In fact, whenever people told me that I should try streaming I was like, ‘I don’t really know if I like the idea of– it’s live and I can’t really edit stuff out. It’s scary. It’s way different than just recording a video,'” he says. But then, “I remember I did it one day because I was bored and I was like, ‘Whatever. Let’s just try it.'”
The stream went way better than he was expecting, and before he knew it, streaming had become a regular part of his content production.
For several years, he was Minecraft-only. Then Roblox became a thing–and, like with streaming, he kept having people tell him to give it a shot: “I remember one day there was so many comments in my chat. I was like, ‘Fine, we’re going to play Roblox.'” Again, it went well, and for Kreek, Roblox carried over one of his favorite parts of Minecraft–a collaborative atmosphere full of fan-made locations and experiences.
Kreek (with Karl Jacobs and Misfits) recently expanded into launching a game development studio, Pixel Playground, and with that studio is about to set off on a live stage tour–something he says is “paving new ground” for creators in the gaming space. With all this coming up, we thought we’d sit down with him and take a look back at his YouTube origins–and what his plans are for the future.
Check out our chat with him below.
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
Tubefilter: Hello! Just to kick things off, I figured you’d be a really interesting person to talk to in terms of having a traditional YouTube video career and then transitioning it to streaming. I just saw you tweet that you’re looking for more YouTubers to stream with.
KreekCraft: I can definitely talk a little bit on that. I started out as a video guy making YouTube videos. I never imagined that I would be a streamer. In fact, whenever people told me that I should try streaming I was like, “I don’t really know if I like the idea of– it’s live and I can’t really edit stuff out. It’s scary. It’s way different than just recording a video.” I remember I did it one day because I was bored and I was like, “Whatever. Let’s just try it.” I was streaming some Minecraft back in like 2015. Everyone loved it, I had a great time, and it just took off from there.
Tubefilter: See the things you do when you’re bored. It totally worked out.
KreekCraft: Yes, exactly. I got an entire career because I was bored one day.
Tubefilter: You would be surprised the number of people I’ve spoken to over the years who were like, “I was bored. I uploaded one video,” and now they have 10 million followers.
KreekCraft: Yes, for sure.
Tubefilter: So I’m familiar with you and your background, but if somebody’s reading this and they’re not aware of you, they haven’t seen your stuff, just give me a little bit of rundown about where you’re from and what you got up to as a kid in terms of hobbies.
KreekCraft: I’m from Florida, grew up in North Florida by Jacksonville. As a kid, I didn’t really do too many sports or anything like that. I was really big into computers, video games, stuff like that. GameCube back in the day, big Zelda guy.
Tubefilter: Oh, GameCube. Interesting.
KreekCraft: Just carrying that thing around to Grandma’s house and stuff, plugging it in.
Tubefilter: What’s your favorite Zelda game?
KreekCraft: Ooh, probably Wind Waker.
Tubefilter: Ooh, classic. Okay.
KreekCraft: Yes, for sure. I grew up playing video games and I actually went to online high school before it was cool to do so, mainly just so I could take programming classes that weren’t available at my local school because I was like, “I want to be a game developer. I want to program games one day.” Did that, did a lot of programming, a lot of computer classes and stuff.
I actually started making videos just so I could learn editing programs. People always ask me like, “Who was your big inspiration for starting YouTube?” There wasn’t really one singular person. It was mainly I just wanted to learn how to edit videos because I thought it would look good on a resume.
Tubefilter: That’s such a high school thing.
KreekCraft: I know, right? What better people to critique it than the comments of YouTube? Because they will tear that video apart. They did, and I’ve learned a lot from it. That’s why I started making Minecraft mod videos back in the day and then slowly started streaming Minecraft before the whole Dream era and everything.
Tubefilter: The before times.
KreekCraft: Yes. It was cool then, but it feels so weird talking about old generational Minecraft YouTubers like The Yogscast and stuff, the people I grew up with because now kids think of Minecraft YouTubers, you think of Dream, you think of Karl, you think of all those. I was streaming that, Roblox started taking off around 2016, 2017. I remember there was escalation of people asking me to play it, “Play Minecraft or Roblox.” I was like “I don’t know if I’d like Roblox. I don’t know, guys. Maybe I’ll play it when I hit a million subs or something, one time or something.”
I remember one day there was so many comments in my chat. I was like, “Fine, we’re going to play Roblox. What’s a game that looks cool?” The first Roblox game was Phantom Forces. I streamed that and I had a great time because I grew up playing Call of Duty and stuff. I had a really fun time. People loved it. It was just an immediate jump in audience engagement. Everyone loved it, so I started doing more and more Roblox until one day pretty much all I do is Roblox.
Tubefilter: Was there a natural transition for you from Minecraft to Roblox? Did you find commonalities that made you like Roblox?
KreekCraft: Yes. It’s interesting because in a lot of ways, they are very similar and they definitely share a lot of demographics. If you play Roblox, you’ve probably played Minecraft, and if you’ve played Minecraft, you’ve at least heard of Roblox and you’ve probably dabbled in it. They’re both very creative games. It’s not a game that you boot up and it’s like, “Here’s the objective. Go do this. Congratulations. Mission 1 complete. Moving on to the next one.” You have to be very creative and be willing to explore around.
It’s very– what’s the best word? It’s a game that’s very dependent on community. Minecraft has a really strong community of mods, cool maps, and stuff like that. Roblox is very similar with all the different developer games and events going on. It’s very community-driven.
Tubefilter: Absolutely. The community aspect is something that’s huge across both Minecraft and Roblox. I feel like it’s become such a social niche of YouTube and Twitch. It’s been really interesting to see.
KreekCraft: Yes. People just gather around. You have your giant communities and stuff. It’s great. I love it.
Tubefilter: What’s the split on your personal production time between streaming and producing VODs?
KreekCraft: That’s a very good question. Some days I have a lot of free time. Some days I don’t do much, and some days I’m working all day. It just depends. Some days I’ll wake up and I’ll feel like, “You know what, I want to record six videos today. Let’s do it.” Then some days I’ll wake up and I’ll just be like, “You know what, maybe like one. Maybe one video today.”
It’s a very creative job. There’s a lot of creativity that goes into it. You have to be feeling creative to really do it. In terms of the split between regular videos and streams, videos definitely take a lot longer than streams, even though a stream is like two hours. With a video, you might record 30 minutes, but then you have to figure out the editing. Overall, videos definitely take longer, and streams you don’t have to edit, so I love streaming.
Tubefilter: I wanted to go back to, you were originally put off by streaming because there’s no filter, you can’t edit, you’re just out there. How did you make the switch to be comfortable?
KreekCraft: My number one thing was insecurity, I guess, like, “Are people going to make fun of me by how I talk, the way I look, the way I act, or anything like that?” There was a lot of insecurity there and me being worried about that because in a video if I see a part that’s like, “I don’t really like that,” I’ll just cut it out. In a live stream, that doesn’t exist. It never really happens. After the first few weeks, there wasn’t really any– I don’t know if you want to call them haters or anything like that. Everyone was very nice and welcoming.
Tubefilter: On the internet?
KreekCraft: I know, right? On the internet, yes. Maybe YouTube just has a really good system that blocks out comments like that or something. There was one or two, but it was never a situation where people were just constantly talking about this or that or anything negative. Over time, it just wasn’t really a worry anymore.
I also feel like the more you do YouTube, I don’t know if this is a good thing or a bad thing, but the more you do YouTube, the more I guess “thick skin” is the term. You get so exposed to stuff that things like that don’t really bother you anymore. Someone can tweet me something mean like, “You have a huge forehead,” or something. It’s like, “Whatever.” It doesn’t bother me anymore.
Tubefilter: I feel like it’s thick skin. Then your confidence grows.
KreekCraft: Yes, definitely.
Tubefilter: It just doesn’t matter anymore. You’ve got bigger things to worry about.
KreekCraft: I just go along with it, for sure. I shaved my head. People used to make this joke that I was going bald. Not true, by the way. I don’t even know where these kids came up with that. It became such a running joke that I literally shaved my head for a sub goal.
Tubefilter: Owning it.
KreekCraft: Yes, play along with it. I literally became bald because a bunch of kids on the internet bullied me into doing it. It was great.
Tubefilter: That’s going to be the headline for this story, I hope you know.
KreekCraft: That sounds good to me.
Tubefilter: Do you stream on both YouTube and Twitch? I know you have a Twitch channel.
KreekCraft: Actually, I don’t stream on Twitch. I dabbled in it a little bit. During the pandemic, I dabbled in it here, but I don’t now.
Tubefilter: Really! You have a decent amount of followers over there.
KreekCraft: I do, yes. The idea was during the pandemic that the YouTube streams would be the big focus, and then the Twitch streams would just be like, “Let’s hang out and just do stupid stuff.” I didn’t really care if it did well or not, I was just hanging out and having fun.
Tubefilter: Obviously, you have a large platform on YouTube, but is there something else that makes you want to move away from Twitch?
KreekCraft: There’s different demographics. I have a lot of YouTuber friends like, “I want to start streaming. Should I start streaming on Twitch or some other platform or YouTube?” It depends what you’re doing. Roblox‘s demographic, very heavy on YouTube, very heavy on TikTok, not so much on Twitch. If I was playing Call of Duty, that’s definitely a demographic that’s probably more in line with Twitch or platforms like that. It’s interesting.
Tubefilter: I think we’ve covered this a couple of times, but Minecraft, ever since its beginning, it helped build YouTube into what it is today. I think it’s still pound-for-pound the most popular game on YouTube.
KreekCraft: Yes. I think it’s like GTA, Roblox, and Minecraft, not in any specific order there. Those are the top three I think.
Tubefilter: It’s amazing, the longevity. I was curious, I did see your tweet that you said you wanted to start collaborating more on streams and doing more IRL streams as well. I’d like to hear about what you’re interested in in terms of streaming.
KreekCraft: This past weekend, I did an IRL stream at Roblox RDC. Met a bunch of YouTubers there, and we did a lot of fun stuff. It was the first time ever doing anything like that. I didn’t know how I would like it or how my audience would like it because usually I just sit here and play video games at my computer desk, but it was a lot of fun. I had a great time. The audience really enjoyed it. Now it’s like if I can get a bunch of YouTubers together and we can hang out in real life and do more IRL fun stuff, sounds great. I think the audience would love it.
Tubefilter: How did you handle the tech for IRL streaming? Was it complicated?
KreekCraft: I had some people helping me, but mainly just the IRL backpack thing, like, “Great. Let’s do that.” I’m very computer-savvy, so I probably could figure it out and stuff, but I have a pretty busy schedule too, so it’s like whatever is easiest and just works, let’s just do it.
Tubefilter: IRL streaimng, It seems like something so many people are interested in and then it’s so complicated technologically to get started.
KreekCraft: It is. There’s a lot of, “Can I go here? Is there a connection here? Is there cell phone coverage here?” You have to worry about battery life on all the different equipment and stuff. There’s a lot that goes into it.
Tubefilter: I don’t know if you have a way to track this, but do you feel like there’s a lot of crossover between people who watch your VOD videos and then people who come to your streams?
KreekCraft: That’s interesting. I don’t know if this is accurate, but just the feeling I get is YouTube has three different content types. You have Shorts, you have VODs, and you have live streams. I feel like the people who watch the live streams, and this always isn’t true, but on just an average stream, the people who watch the live streams are probably the more dedicated fans. They’re probably watching it on their TV, maybe eating a snack or something on the couch while they watch it.
The Shorts viewers may not be as much of fans, they may not even be subscribed. They may just be going through, swiping through, and then VODs lie somewhere in the middle there. I definitely would agree that there are different demographics to each content type there.
Tubefilter: You’ve been on YouTube for so long. Have you seen your audience demographic shift at all, especially in terms of you moving from Minecraft to Roblox? Do you feel like the age range is somewhat the same, or how’s it working?
KreekCraft: It’s interesting. I feel like it’s definitely slowly gotten older, I guess you could say.
Tubefilter: People growing up with you.
KreekCraft: Yes, especially with Roblox aging up too. I wouldn’t say it’s at the level of Call of Duty or Apex Legends or something like that, but it’s definitely a lot older than, say, five years ago.
Tubefilter: It’s a good sign that people are clearly sticking with you as they’re growing up.
KreekCraft: Yes, for sure.
Tubefilter: I am curious, Roblox I know is aiming to capture an older audience now too, and break away from the stigma that it’s just a kids’ game.
KreekCraft: Yes.
Tubefilter: I’m curious about that aspect of things for you. Do you feel like there’s experiences and things you could build, or other people could build, that will take Roblox into that future?
KreekCraft: It’s actually funny because I always said that they should do that before they even do that years ago. Roblox is great, but obviously, you do have to grow with your audience at some point. Roblox came out in 2006, so if you started playing then, you’re probably an adult now. Having games that are appealing to you at each stage of your life there is I think cool.
I’ve played games from childhood to now. I’ve played World of Warcraft, for example, for over a decade now simply because it’s something that’s always engaging to me. I feel like it’s cool that Roblox is doing that and can be that for a lot of different people.
Tubefilter: Are you still interested in doing independent game development?
KreekCraft: Yes. Misfits Gaming, they contacted me last year and we basically formed a Roblox development studio. Karl Jacobs and I were the creative directors of it. It’s been a lot of fun. My original plan before YouTube, go to college, become a game developer. While we’re not actively coding or anything, obviously we do have a big part in it like guiding the flow of everything and stuff, and it’s a lot of fun. It’s very different than what my life has normally been for the past five years, which is wake up, record video, go sleep. It’s exciting and something new.
Tubefilter: It was really cool to see you guys launch Pixel Playground, but I didn’t know if you were actively involved in development, if you wanted to create your own games as well. Obviously, it’s a huge undertaking. I know you might be under NDA or there’s some spoilers, but how is Pixel Playground going so far?
KreekCraft: Good. Very good. We’re expanding the team still, making games. It’s going good. It’s going great.
Tubefilter: I know you probably can’t talk about much.
KreekCraft: It’s like, “What can I say? What can I say?” It’s going good.
Tubefilter: That’s good. Do you have any other projects you’re working on or any sort of plans or goals in mind?
KreekCraft: Yes. Something that we are doing, Karl Jacobs and I, Misfits, Pixel, we’re all doing a live tour thing. The first one’s actually starting next month. It’s interesting saying tour because whenever you hear that, you think of musicians and singers and stuff. How does that translate to people who play video games? We’re going to be putting on a little show. It’s going to be fun meeting fans and having a great time. It’s never really, as far as I know, been done in the Roblox space.
Tubefilter: Yes, I don’t think so.
KreekCraft: Kind of like paving new ground here, I guess.
Tubefilter: Give me a little bit of an insight into how you are planning to translate that to an IRL space.
KreekCraft: We have a lot of things planned, a lot of audience interaction. Both Karl and I are streamers, so audience interaction and engagement just comes naturally to us. Maybe we’ll have a segment where we take some audience members, put them up against each other in a Roblox game, whoever wins gets Roblox or something like that. Stuff that’s fun to watch and also engages the audience.
Tubefilter: How long is the tour going to be?
KreekCraft: We’re doing three cities, so we’re hitting Florida, we’re hitting Texas, and we’re hitting California. It’s basically over a month and a half, like three stops.
Tubefilter: Very cool. It is groundbreaking, I think, for creators who get popular playing games. They also deserve to be on tour and to interact with fans.
KreekCraft: Yes. It’s very humbling to think that people are paying money to come see me. If you would’ve told me whenever I was a kid that people would, “We’re going to pay money to come watch you play video games,” I wouldn’t have believed you, but here we are.
Tubefilter: That leads right into my next question, which is, what’s been your favorite part? I know it’s been like seven, eight years that you’ve been doing this.
KreekCraft: Yes.
Tubefilter: What’s been your favorite part of this whole experience?
KreekCraft: The greatest moments are whenever something big happens and we’re all in live stream just experiencing it together. The greatest example probably during the pandemic, one of Roblox‘s biggest games, Piggy, they had a giant true ending event, and everyone had to find the secret in the game that would uncover the real ending to the story. I think I had a hundred and forty-something thousand people watching live as we were all doing it together, working together, figuring it out, and just the level of hype and excitement there was really, really fun. Things like that is– those are the things I remember.
Tubefilter: Everything really comes back to collaboration.
KreekCraft: Yes.
Tubefilter: Do you feel like there’s something unique there with Minecraft and Roblox?
KreekCraft: Yes, 100%. If I’m doing a Roblox stream or something and I’m playing X or Y game, if someone else wants to hop in, one of my other YouTuber friends, generally, they easily can, we can just play the game together. That isn’t necessarily true for everything. It’s definitely very– freeing I guess is the term because it opens up so many different opportunities that you normally wouldn’t have in other games and stuff.
Tubefilter: You seem really experienced with collaboration. I just spoke to somebody, an up-and-coming creator, not for an interview, just personally who said that they are afraid to reach out to other people, other streamers to collaborate with. Do you have any advice for someone who wants to be more collaborative but is struggling to?
KreekCraft: You know, it’s interesting, because all of the people that I’m really close friends with, I never really DM’d them and was like, “Hey, do you want to do a stream together?” or something like that. It all just came naturally. One of my YouTuber friends, I think he raided my stream. He ended his stream, he raided mine, and his viewers over– and I was like, “Oh, that’s cool.” Then one day I saw him live and I was ending, so I did the same thing. From there, it’s just like, “Oh, maybe we can do this together.”
Tubefilter: Natural.
KreekCraft: Yes, just natural. I’m very shy, so the idea of DMing someone would be like, “Hey, do you do a video together or something?” If I don’t know them, it can definitely be scary. Most all my close friends and stuff, it just came from natural connecting.
Tubefilter: I got to say, you don’t come off shy.
KreekCraft: I try. I try.
Tubefilter: You originally started editing videos. Were you in front of the camera in those early practicing videos, or was getting comfortable on camera a process for you?
KreekCraft: Whenever I first started making videos, I didn’t do a face cam or anything like that. Occasionally I would if the face came was relevant like if it was a horror game or something. Whenever I started streaming, it was like, “I have to have the face cam,” because while you can do it without a face cam, and while people do it without a face cam, I feel like there’s that connection there that only exists if you have that face cam. Now I couldn’t imagine not doing it.
Tubefilter: Interesting. It’s so funny how many especially streamers I talk to who are like, “Yes, I’m so introverted,” and then on stream, you bring out that gregariousness and that interaction with people.
KreekCraft: Yes. It’s funny because I used to be way more– I’m still introverted in real life. I’m still shy and awkward at times, but YouTube has definitely helped that. I am nowhere near as bad as I was like six, seven years ago. It’s interesting how much it has helped that.
