Tyumen Gamer Earns 900,000 Views and Monetizes Nostalgia on YouTube
A few years ago, the YouTube channel of young blogger Shozy Snake took off. The author — his name is Daniil — creates video essays about computer games from the 2000s, where he discusses gameplay features, game development, and how the games have aged by 2020 in an ironic manner.
The genre proved to be very popular — now the videos garner hundreds of thousands of views, and soon the channel attracted advertisers and, consequently, income. Then Daniil started inserting jokes about Tyumen and footage of Tyumen streets into the videos. It turned out that he is a resident of our city. We spoke with Daniil about his channel and earnings.
Irony and Nostalgia
Daniil hides his exact age and appearance — he says he is «a quarter of a century old». He explains that sometimes de-anonymizing bloggers has led to a loss of views, so he is in no hurry to show himself.
This is not really necessary for him — the blog format implies that users will watch gameplay and visual jokes: memes, references, and so on. The first video appeared on the channel three years ago.
At first, the guy posted videos of various formats on the topic of computer games, until he found his niche — retrospectives on 2000s game development. He borrowed the format from fellow bloggers.
— There was a blogger Neopoznan, he made a video «I Played All the Boomer Parts of Need For Speed», then NAGIB_PRO constantly did marathons on different game series. In general, the format already existed. And I was just walking around Tyumen, I had only about five thousand views per video at that time. I thought: «Why hasn»t anyone told about Call of Duty like this? It«s an epochal game series.» Inspired by these bloggers, I also made a review, — said Daniil.
The video unexpectedly took off, garnering over 900,000 views to date. The format proved successful, and Shozy continued the series of videos on old games. Now the channel has more than 20 such videos, and each collects hundreds of thousands.
The secret to the success of this format is nostalgia among young people for their childhood in the 2000s, the author believes.
— [The blogger] plays through all these old games of one series, and you think, like, cool, I played one of them 20 years ago. It will be interesting to watch a review of this game. And here you have an hour of a charismatic person telling you about everything. And even if only five or ten minutes are devoted to your childhood game, you«ll watch the rest for the company, — Daniil reasons in a conversation with 72.RU.
How Videos Are Created
Daniil learned to edit videos on his own using guides on the internet. He uses the DaVinci Resolve program. He says everything can be found on YouTube now: how to set up voice recording, how to edit video.
— Basic skills are enough to do interesting things in a video editor if you just show creativity. I watched blogger Skillz, who talks about music. He has a very simple, even primitive editing, which is easy to recreate, but it looks stylish, — the Tyumen resident says.
However, creating a video takes him up to a month. All because of the chosen format: he needs to play through a large number of games, which can be quite lengthy. The production process for a video on a game series looks like this step by step:
Playing through one game — at least two days.
Preparing the script — four days.
Recording voice — about an hour.
Editing — three days.
In total, 11 days are required for approximately 20 minutes of content. As a rule, Daniil uploads this video to Boosty — a platform for voluntary donations to content creators. However, on YouTube the videos are longer, so he plays through several more parts, and everything repeats.
Another two days go into creating the cover and recording the advertising integration — thus the production cycle takes about 25 days. All this provided that Shozy works from nine in the morning until evening — just like in an office. Except he doesn«t write reports, but plays games and writes scripts.
Tyumen Appeared as a Joke
Since Daniil creates entertainment content, his reviews are full of jokes and references understandable to his audience — young men aged 25 to 35. Sometimes it«s sarcasm, self-irony, or black humor.
— Every two to three minutes in the script, a joke is needed. Sometimes it«s difficult — you go through different options in search of non-obvious parallels. I had an example of a black thing about a famous rapper (we will not cite it for ethical reasons. — Ed.). When I came up with it, I started walking in circles around the apartment, anticipating the viewer»s reaction. I thought: «No, well, this is just a blast,» — the blogger shares.
He says his sense of humor was shaped under the influence of the series South Park, once-popular bloggers, and his father. In conversation with the young man, it«s sometimes hard to understand when he»s joking and when he«s answering seriously. Daniil has a lot of ironic attitude towards himself and others.
By the way, it was precisely for a joke that a mention of Tyumen appeared in one of the videos. After that, Daniil started mentioning his city in videos regularly.
First Ad and Earnings
The first advertisement appeared on the Shozy Snake channel a year ago in a video about Max Payne, when videos surpassed the 200,000 view mark. This was an integration in which Daniil talked about a role-playing online game.
— A manager just wrote to me, like, let«s work together. And I agreed. That»s how it usually happens: managers write to bloggers who they see potential in for further view counts. I don«t remember exactly my percentage from the integration, seems like 80%, — he told the journalist.
Daniil registered as self-employed and pays taxes, so he strictly complies with advertising laws. Otherwise, he could face a large fine. He notes that everyone who shoots family-friendly content on YouTube works openly. Therefore, he has no advertisements for, for example, casinos or integrations of other illegal and semi-legal formats.
This allows the Tyumen resident to earn good money. He found it difficult to name the exact amount, as income can vary from month to month. Here is what he says about his income:
— It«s not small money, but not big either. Based on my friends, some got an education, some didn»t, but we are all plus or minus in the same digital range considering our age. Well, like the average in Tyumen.
— If we believe official statistics, then our average salary is 90,000 rubles (approx. $1,200 at current rates). Is that close to what you get?
— Well, close, but that«s the average. Probably need to look at the median salary. I think I»ll be around the median. Let«s say, it»s enough to live on.
In addition to advertising, income comes from Boosty, where regular viewers support Shozy with rubles. Donations on the platform bring him an additional about 15,000 rubles (approx. $200 at current rates). By the way, the blogger also has a small Telegram channel, but there is no advertising there — only memes, stories about life, and communication with subscribers.
Parents Didn«t Understand Until Money Appeared
Friends supported the guy«s venture. Misunderstanding was only from the parents, but Daniil understands them.
«They are already many years old, it»s hard to explain to them what YouTube is, for example. But, when I started earning, they took it with understanding. However, all this took years. [Monetization] is a long and gradual process. There was no such moment when everyone told me: «Wow, well done, found how to monetize the blog.» It all started with Boosty, then the first advertiser appeared, then the second,« — recalls Shozy.
Now the Tyumen resident continues to create new videos. Currently, he is making a video about Spider Man. Despite the fact that YouTube in Russia is «slowed down» and practically doesn«t work without various tricks, he does not plan to change platforms.
We asked him how he feels about these restrictions and whether he fears that he will have to switch to a new platform.
— Yes, everyone has already adapted, it«s fine. It depends on the target audience. And all my viewers use YouTube, on similar platforms there is no interesting content for them. Moreover, since nothing depends on me, I don»t fear anything, — Daniil reasons.
Earlier we told about another Tyumen resident who started earning on games — though he doesn«t make videos, but professionally engages in esports. His name is Daniil Maskutov, he is 14 years old. Read his story via the link.
