You don't really know it until you stop watching videos for like a week. Suddenly you want to do your favorite things again; try things yourself again.

Expensive as the games are these days you gotta do copious amounts of research before plunking down those bennies

My wife likes YouTubers but isn't a gamer. If I'm doing stuff with them I'm more likely to pick a video about games than a game.

That's because I suck at the games I like and need that hit of dopamine imagining I'm actually good at something

I don't watch streams, but I do watch a lot of Let's Plays (i.e. Materwelonz, WoolieVersus). Sometimes to watch them play games that I normally wouldn't, sometimes to listen to their insights at certain hype points in games I previously played, and usually due to loneliness (i.e. parasocial relationships).

Regarding the last point, it also tends to be the reason I gravitate towards games with strong story, or MMOs. Feeling like I belong to a community keeps the loneliness at bay. Outside of games, I like to be in crowded areas, though not necessarily interacting with anyone.

Never watched a stream, never really understood the motivation. But i also don't consume social media (besides lemmy) or such and am generally anti-social, so that might be that. I would be infuriated if those people wouldn't do what I would do. Also the chat is... Annoying.

The article didn't mention it but I'm curious what the breakdown is by age. I have to assume younger Gamers watch way more videos than older gamers.

I game while watching my favorite streamers!

Can confirm. This is me