BritVSJapan

Japan’s Biggest Let’s Play and Gaming YouTube Channels

Here is a list of Japan’s top 40 gaming related YouTube channels! Most of them are let’s play gaming channels and are great for helping your Japanese come along. Somethings to note: Japan’s gaming culture is different to the west, for example Xbox isn’t anywhere near as popular as it is in America and the UK so Nintendo and Play Station games are way more popular. PC games are of course, incredibly popular as well. Japan also has a very strong mobile game culture which you will know doubt see throughout this top 40 list of Japan’s biggest gaming YouTubers.

If you are learning Japanese and want to find more let’s players then the best way to search for them is to go to YouTube, type in the name of your game in Japanese and then type the word “let’s play” which is “実況プレイ” (じっきょうプレイ) or just adding 実況 after the name of the game will work perfectly fine as well.

Anyway, without further ado, let’s get into the list.

 

1. HikakinGames

First off we have HikakinGames. Hikakin is massive on YouTube, his main channel, HikakinTV, being the 2nd most subscribed channel on the Japanese side of YouTube. His gaming channel consists of a variety of games including Minecraft, Monster Strike, Splatoon, Zelda and many others.

Subscribers: 3,162,428

Video views: 2,751,539,307

 

2. 兄者弟者

Next on the list we have 兄者弟者 or “2BRO”.  Two brothers playing a variety of games, most of which are for slightly older audiences. Games include: Call of Duty, PUBG, Cuphead, Shadow of War and many overs.

Subscribers: 1,884,127

Video views: 1,482,005,752

 

3. ポッキー / PockySweets

One of my personal favorites. A brilliant and funny gaming YouTuber with a distinct voice. He speaks relatively fast so is great for intermediate and advanced learners who are trying to perfect their listening skills.

He often plays through entire games that have long stories like Biohazard and where possible will display in-game subtitles on-screen as well. His older videos also have subtitles which can be turned on in the YouTube player.

He plays a wide variety of games with each video he uploads usually being a different standalone game or a game from a series.

Subscribers: 1,675,902

Video views: 1,447,737,161

 

4. 赤髪のとものゲーム実況チャンネル!!

A very popular YouTuber who plays a lot of Minecraft. He also plays other games but if you love Minecraft then definitely check his stuff out.

Subscribers: 1,612,091

Video views: 1,479,193,474

 

5. カズゲームズ/Gaming Kazu

Kazu also has a variety of channels and is a very popular YouTuber in Japan. His main channel can be found here. On his gaming channel he tends to stick to mainly Minecraft videos as this suits his younger audience. He also plays other games such as Splatoon and Mario maker.

Subscribers: 1,177,787

Video views: 929,481,360

 

6. SeikinGames

Seikin is another really popular YouTuber in Japan with his main channel being the 8th channel with the most subscribers. He has a popular Minecraft series where he plays with his wife and also plays games such as Monster Strike, Super Mario Odyssey and even horror games.

Subscribers: 1,077,372

Video views: 396,916,233

 

7. キヨ。

A great channel if you enjoy horror games. Each video usually has at least 2 people playing and therefore brings about a very funny friendly environment. Some of the most popular games on this channel are: The Crooked Man, Liar Game, Friday the 13: The Game and GTA Online.

Subscribers: 1,055,132

Video views: 608,790,748

 

8. アブ -abu-

A gaming channel that isn’t just gaming. This guy also uploads a variety of other videos related to various topics such as food, his dog, DIY etc. However, his main videos are gaming and let’s videos so there’s no need to panic! Popular games on his channel include: Happy Wheels, Minecraft, Blue Demon 2 and Super Mario Odessey.

Subscribers: 1,021,174

Video views: 831,874,206

 

9. ホラフキン

Horafukin is one of my personal favourites. He often plays with a large group of friends which makes his videos a lot more interesting and as his group of friends are all absolutely hilarious, his videos are just gold. He also does let’s plays by himself but I find that his GTA5, Trouble in Terrorist Town and DayZ/H1Z1 games are what makes his channel so popular.

Subscribers: 904,726

Video views: 664,477,682

 

10. ぐっちの部屋(ミラクルぐっち)

Gucchi’s room plays a lot of mobile games as well as console/PC games. It seems his main game is Minecraft but he also plays Dragon Ball Dokkan Battle on mobile as well as Mario Odyssey.

Subscribers: 840,408

Video views: 1,566,959,535

 

11. レトルト

Retoruto plays a massive variety of games, from horror, to multiplayer games with other YouTubers to let’s plays. He literally just plays what ever he wants so you can expect a wide variety of games.

Subscribers: 819,507

Video views: 452,327,652

 

12. eguri89games

Seto Koji has a very popular main channel as well as a really popular gaming channel. Needless to say he has a bit of “character” to him and is basically just a middle-aged man who appears to still have the mind of child, which isn’t a necessarily a bad thing. Games include a variety of mobile games and VR games but his main stuff includes Minecraft, Splatoon, Super Mario Maker etc.

Subscribers: 780,240

Video views: 352,517,061

 

13. ぺいんとチャンネルゥ

Paint is yet another channel that focuses mainly on Minecraft yet also plays a variety of other games here and there. The other games that he plays consist of GMOD, PUBG and some horror games.

Subscribers: 770,909

Video views: 294,163,982

 

14. たくっち

Takucchi is an interesting channel. Although it’s obviously ran by someone, you never get to hear their real voice. Instead, each video is scripted and that script is ran through some form of text reader. I’m not sure I would recommend this channel for learners of Japanese. Popular games on this channel include: Mario Maker, Amazing Frog and Minecraft.

Subscribers: 755,827

Video views: 1,085,714,034

 

15. Nintendo 公式チャンネル

This is the official Nintendo channel for Japan but it isn’t all adverts for new games or consoles. They actually do let’s plays as well and they don’t limit themselves to just Nintendo games either. Games include: Pokemon Ultra Sun and Ultra Moon, Xenoblade 2, Super Mario Odyssey, Minecraft, Splatoon and even a variety of Nintendo’s mobile games.

Subscribers: 704,032

Video views: 354,940,000

 

16. パズドラ究極攻略TV

A channel dedicated to a popular mobile game called Puzzle and Dragons.

Subscribers: 687,559

Video views: 634,519,137

 

17. Hikaru Games

Hikaru actually got into some trouble and has been accused of stealing money from his viewers through a new company that he set up. Since this came to the Internets knowledge a few months back, he hasn’t been posting so only his older videos remain. The games he played consist of mainly Dragon Quest and Mario Maker.

Subscribers: 649,198

Video views: 623,635,720

 

18. モンスト（モンスターストライク）

The official YouTube channel for the famous mobile game, Monster Strike.

Subscribers: 648,897

Video views: 273,408,841

 

19. l0ve ch

Another one of my personal favourites. I don’t usually enjoy watching Minecraft let’s plays but due to the hilarious nature of Love and his best friend Megaru, I just can’t help but watch these guys. Love’s old channel was nearly entirely dedicated to Minecraft and can be found here, but this new channel of his has many other games as well. This is a high quality channel with great content that I highly recommend.

Old Channel

Subscribers: 589,577

Video views: 255,005,893

New Channel

Subscribers: 270,848

Video views: 27,009,407

 

20. ぎこちゃん

Gikochan mainly plays mobile games, such as Monster Strike, but also plays PC games such as PUBG and Dragon Quest Rivals. He also does live streams through YouTube.

Subscribers: 579,711

Video views: 421,340,033

 

21. みやゆう

Miyayuu is famous for GTA 5 videos and is another one of my favourites. He’s always testing study stuff within GTA and also introduces a wide range of mods. He also makes other videos for games such as SUPERHOT and Happy Wheels, but mainly focuses on GTA.

Subscribers: 549,546

Video views: 319,197,269

 

22. ポケモン公式YouTubeチャンネル

Pokemon’s official YouTube channel.

Subscribers: 519,765

Video views: 199,738,131

 

23. おついち Tube

This channel focuses on live streams but of course as they are done on YouTube, all their live-streams are saved so you can watch them even after they are finished. They play a wide range of very popular games including The Witcher, Until Dawn, Destiny 2, Call of Duty and even Star Wars Battlefront.

Subscribers: 496,085

Video views: 113,540,488

 

24. なうしろ – GameWith

Two guys, Shiro and Nau, who focus on playing Monster Strike. As you can probably guess by now, Monster Strike, or モンスト (Monsuto) as it’s called in Japanese, is incredibly popular in Japan.

Subscribers: 489,946

Video views: 333,326,006

 

25. ぽこにゃん

Another channel that likes using a text reader for the narration, which I am personally not very keen on. However, Pokonyan is very skilled at Super Mario Maker. Other games include PUBG, Minecraft, Monster Strike, Super Mario 3D Worlds as well as many others.

Subscribers: 489,322

Video views: 488,673,389

 

26. ろあのゲームチャンネル♪

The first Japanese female gamer on this list and the most popular female gamer in Japan. She also live streams and does other videos unrelated to gaming. The main games that she plays are PUBG, Monster Strike, Puzzle and Dragons, Splatoon and Super Mario Odyssey.

Subscribers: 479,006

Video views: 142,292,141

 

27. SRGAME

Another channel that focuses primarily on Monster Strike videos but he also live streams Lineage 2: Revolution.

Subscribers: 472,821

Video views: 303,770,036

 

28. あまり驚かないガッチマンはホラーゲームばかりやっている

A rough translation of this channel’s name is: “A real serious dude, that is difficult to scare, plays loads of horror games.” And it is exactly what it says on the tin. Perfect if you love horror games.

Subscribers: 462,230

Video views: 153,683,066

 

29. スクウェア・エニックス

Square Enix’s official channel. They do a lot of live-streams where they introduce their games but they are less of a let’s play channel and more of just an official channel for Square Enix.

Subscribers: 449,872

Video views: 395,422,186

 

30. なっちのゲームチャンネル

Natti plays a wide range of different games and could be worth checking out if you enjoy the otaku culture of Japan. He plays games such as THE iDOLM@STER Million Live!: Theater Days, Pokemon, Puzzle and Dragons and Monster Hunter XX.

Subscribers: 435,695

Video views: 412,760,174

 

31. トムとマルクの実況チャンネル♪

As well as Monster Strike being a very popular game in Japan I think it’s also quite obvious that Minecraft is extremely popular as well. Tom and Maruku play almost nothing but Minecraft on this channel. They have a wide range of topics that they cover however, so if you are into Minecraft then this is one of the channels for you.

Subscribers: 413,478

Video views: 331,320,989

 

32. べるくら企画

This channel is a pretty interesting gaming channel. A wide range of popular and other more strange games are featured. Some of the more popular games include: Call of Duty, Super Mario Maker, Dead by Daylight, Skyrim, TESO and again, Minecraft. However, this old dude also plays some wacky games such as Goat Simulator and I am Bread.

Subscribers: 405,330

Video views: 203,107,313

https://youtu.be/f5NpPw_O7Xs

 

33. kosuke

This channel mainly revolves around mobile games such as Puzzle and Dragons, Monster Strike and Seven’s Reverse.

Subscribers: 400,047

Video views: 112,672,542

 

34. ちはやYTS3

I recently came across Chihaya due to his Mario Maker videos which are insane. I’ve played Mario Bro’s on Wii and I SUCK, so seeing someone dominate speed run courses that seem virtually impossible just makes my jaw drop. He also plays other games like Dragon Quest and Pokemon as well.

Subscribers: 391,505

Video views: 328,765,641

https://youtu.be/9ZQ9W0Fc30k

 

35. ☆気ままにダラダラ！showちゃんねる☆

A channel that mainly does Minecraft but that also plays other games such as Mario Odyssey, Rocket League, Call of Duty and Tom Clancy’s The Division and even GTA.

Subscribers: 387,730

Video views: 134,951,748

 

36. sasuke

Remember kosuke? This is his friend and yes, he also mainly does mobile games. This channel mainly revolves around Puzzle and Dragons and Lineage 2: Revolution.

Subscribers: 386,300

Video views: 196,729,833

 

37. あしあと

Ashi ato aka “foot print”, again, plays a lot of Minecraft. They also play a lot of other multiplayer games with their friends such as PUBG, GMOD and Dead by Daylight.

Subscribers: 383,728

Video views: 167,340,044

 

38. しゅーや

Shuuya plays Minecraft but also plays a lot of other games that most of the other YouTubers on this list don’t, for example, Animal Crossing and Attack on Titan. 

Subscribers: 376,834

Video views: 723,448,781

 

39. Gokou!!

Gokou is a YouTuber I used to watch a hell of a lot due to his great GTA content (I don’t know what it is about watching other people play GTA but I enjoy it more than playing the game myself, maybe I’m just weird). He also plays games such as Assassin’s Creed, Just Cause, Watch Dogs, The Walking Dead and even The Last of Us. 

Subscribers: 376,174

Video views: 277,127,080

 

40. あいたかはしくん

And last but not least we have a YouTuber who’s channel is dedicated to Splatoon. If you enjoy the Splatoon series then you will love this YouTuber.

Subscribers: 367,462

Video views: 146,669,146

 

And that just about wraps up Japan’s top 40 biggest gaming and let’s playing YouTube channels and YouTubers. If you want to find out more about Japan’s biggest YouTubers then you can check out my other post here: Top 10 Japanese YouTubers | Learn Japanese With These Japanese YouTube Channels!

Japan’s Top 250 YouTubers (by Subscribers)

If you want to find other popular YouTube channels from Japan then go to this link here. The list is organised by most subscribed but you can also use socialblade to look at video views and number of uploads. It can be a useful tool for looking up the most popular YouTubers in other countries as well.

If you guys have any other suggestions for your favourite Japanese YouTubers then leave a comment below so that others can find out about them as well 🙂

You can also find out more about Japan’s biggest YouTubers in the Creator Channel Magazines Volume 2 and Volume 3 found on Amazon. For some reason only these two are available outside of Japan.

If you are learning Japanese and aren’t quite able to understand these Japanese YouTubers yet then check out my tutorial on setting up Anki to help you learn Japanese via your favourite films, videos and TV shows. 

As always, thanks for reading!

Click here for more information on learning Japanese

マット

By Matthew Hawkins

2017/11/23

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