What the thing is
A Let’s Play is a curated, edited video or screenshot series documenting a video game playthrough, anchored by the player’s subjective, often humorous commentary.
It is distinct from a walkthrough or strategy guide, which aims to be an objective source on how to progress, and from live streaming, which is usually unedited and performed on the fly. A Let’s Play tends to be a curated experience with editing and narration, and can be scripted. Some include a camera view of the player’s face.
Where it came from
It emerged from the Something Awful forums: the term was coined in 2007, rooted in a lost 2005 screenshot playthrough of The Oregon Trail, and formalised by Michael Sawyer (‘Slowbeef’) using Vlaphor’s earlier work on I Have No Mouth, and I Must Scream.
Recorded playthroughs with commentary were older than the name. Early examples include the French show Level One on Game One from 1998 to 2002, where host Marc Lacombe played early levels with added commentary, and the Japanese programme GameCenter CX, launched in 2003. Within the Something Awful forums, Sawyer’s adaptation became the format later users followed. He is also credited with the first video playthrough, of The Immortal, made alongside his screenshot playthrough. The forum then set up a process for making them and built a large archive, and video sites such as YouTube and Twitch later carried the format beyond it.
What it gets right
It treats gameplay as a narrative performance, not a technical task. It privileges personality, timing, and curation over completeness or accuracy.
Patrick Lee of The A.V. Club says a good Let’s Play stands apart from a plain streamed playthrough when the player knows the game well enough to offer better commentary, shares personal recollections of it, or plays a finished game under a self-imposed challenge such as killing no enemies. He argues this helps memorialise games, letting people who cannot get them because of age or regional restrictions appreciate more obscure titles. Presenters of earlier commentated playthroughs would often poll readers or viewers on in-game decisions, giving the audience a share in the play.
What it gets wrong
It displaces the game itself. The commentary and editing often override the original design intent, turning play into parody before it is understood.
For some games there is a commercial cost. Short, linear, narrative-driven titles can be watched in full without being bought. Ryan Green, developer of That Dragon, Cancer, used YouTube’s ContentID to take down some playthroughs that had no commentary and no link to the game. That drew complaints, and he later admitted it was not the right approach. He asked instead that Let’s Players use the game to start conversations with viewers. The copyright status of Let’s Plays also remains in question, and no known case has been challenged in court.
Why it matters now
It established the template for creator-led, edited, personality-driven digital media—long before algorithms prioritised raw stream data or AI-generated commentary.
Maker Studios’ Dar Nothaft described the most popular players as a kind of “professional fan,” and Felix Kjellberg, known as PewDiePie, monetised his Let’s Play videos to more than 40 million subscribers by September 2015. Business Insider reported that eleven of the twenty most-subscribed independent YouTube publishers in November 2014 produced Let’s Plays. Developers have noticed. Davey Wreden of The Stanley Parable built relationships with Let’s Play channels before release and believes that helped the game pass 100,000 sales in its first three days. Electronic Arts printed more copies of Skate 3 in 2014 after Let’s Plays kept the 2010 game in the UK top 40, with 2014 sales 33% higher than 2013.
Is it worth your time
Yes—if you want to understand how audience agency, editing, and subjective voice became central to digital media culture.
