This has been percolating in my head for a bit but I always sigh a bit when a video game streamer makes it into general Reddit consciousness and there's always at least one BUT WHY DO YOU WATCH PEOPLE PLAY VIDEO GAMES ANYWAY

me, a clown who watches people play video games a lot and occasionally pays them money for it: yeah I don't get it,

We had one console and two controllers to share between three siblings when I was a kid, so I watched my brothers play a lot. I think that's part of it for me.

I also got into speedrunning in particular because I like watching games that gave me trouble as a kid just get completely destroyed.

also, sometimes a game isn't something that I personally want to play but still sounds cool to watch, so I watch someone who does want to play it

or I know I'd be bad at/have a bad time with a game that I really do want to play, so I find someone who's good at it and has a great time with it and enjoy the game at it's best instead of being unhappy

Agreed

Like, I don't know Link to the Past or Pokemon well enough to be able to effectively play rando, but those are the ones I watch the most

plus sometimes it's fun to watch someone play a game you already play yourself just to see what other people get up to

or watching a streamer play something makes you go "actually, this game is really cool and right up my alley, I think I'll go buy it, I'm so glad this streamer showed it to me or I might have never learned it exists"

For me, I think it's all of the above on top of like... if it's a game i like/know of, I want OTHERS to like/know about it and share the same experiences I once did

Getting to watch their journey through it is just as much fun as replaying it

100% I used to watch my brother playing games growing up, and I still enjoy watching others play. Especially if they're knowledgeable about the property/series and can talk about it and tell you things you might not already know