---
title: 'I Blew Up A NEW Gaming Channel With YouTube Shorts'
source: 'https://youtube.com/watch?v=JaYQq0MT6tk'
video_id: 'JaYQq0MT6tk'
date: 2026-06-16
duration_sec: 0
---

# I Blew Up A NEW Gaming Channel With YouTube Shorts

> Source: [I Blew Up A NEW Gaming Channel With YouTube Shorts](https://youtube.com/watch?v=JaYQq0MT6tk)

## Summary

The creator shares their rapid growth strategy using YouTube Shorts to scale a new gaming channel from 3,000 to over 20,000 subscribers in 60 days. They detail how to structure shorts, optimize retention, and avoid common mistakes, emphasizing that Shorts are a powerful discovery tool for long-form content.

### Key Points

- **Channel Growth Results** [0:00] — The creator achieved 8.5 million Shorts views in 60 days, main video got 253,000 views, subscribers grew from 3,000 to over 20,000.
- **Myth: Shorts Only Create Short-Form Audiences** [0:52] — Most viewers watch both short and long content; Shorts viewers actively seek long-form videos from the same creators.
- **Myth: Shorts Hurt Long-Form Growth** [1:31] — YouTube's recent updates allow Shorts to coexist on the main channel, helping discovery and bringing new audiences without hurting growth.
- **Step 1: Niche Down for Shorts** [4:58] — Consistency in targeting the same demographic (e.g., fans of strategy games, Nintendo) is crucial. Upload 30 shorts on a single niche if possible.
- **Idea Generation Techniques** [6:48] — Use 'but' statements (e.g., 'catching shiny Pokemon but if I use more than 3 balls I have to kill it'), watch creators outside your niche, and use tools like VidIQ's idea generator.
- **Importance of a Strong Hook** [8:50] — The hook should convey the value/question in the first 2-5 seconds. Example: 'How many balloons does it take to make a yoga ball fly?' — answer immediately, then end the short.
- **Mistake: Adding Extra Seconds After the Answer** [11:32] — In a Wonder Trade short, saying 'it only took six trades' after revealing the dragon type caused a 5-second retention drop. End the short as soon as value is delivered.
- **Short Length vs. Retention Rules** [14:43] — Rule 1: Don't go under 25 seconds. Rule 2: Aim for 30 seconds with 90-95% retention as a minimum. Rule 3: For millions of views, 45-55 seconds with 85-90% retention works best.
- **Target Analytics** [15:42] — Aim for minimum 75% viewed vs. swiped, and 85-90% retention on 45+ second shorts. These are key for algorithm favor.
- **Why Some Shorts Stall at 1,000 Views** [16:18] — Even with perfect stats, if 800 of 1,000 views are from returning fans and new viewers swipe away, YouTube pauses distribution until it learns the right audience.
- **Editing is Essential** [21:50] — Auto-converting landscape clips to vertical without editing is lazy and ineffective. Use centered visuals, subtitles, and pacing cuts to keep the viewer engaged.
- **Research: Watch Shorts in Your Niche** [24:07] — Spend 1-2 hours per week watching popular shorts in your niche. Analyze shot timing, cuts, and hooks. One creator found they were over-editing by analyzing 110 shorts.

### Conclusion

Success with YouTube Shorts requires deliberate structuring—strong hooks, concise storytelling, and meeting specific retention/length targets. Consistent niche-focused research and willingness to iterate (even failing publicly) are the keys to viral growth.

## Transcript

I had 8.5 million shorts views between
December 1st and January 30th and thanks
to those shorts views my main video has
received 253
000 views in that same period on a
gaming channel that started December
with roughly 3 000 subscribers and then
ended those 60 days with over 20 000
Subs this video is going to break down
everything I did to get those views
every failure I made how I learned from
those failures and how I now
consistently can get a hundred thousand
to two hundred thousand views a day from
shorts and how you can do it too but
first if that hasn't convinced you to
start using YouTube shorts let me dispel
a few worries myths and answer some
questions that might have been planted
in you from creators out there all of
your success were based on understanding
these few questions before we jump into
actually how to use shorts first will
shorts create an audience that only
watch short format content no very few
people on the planet only watch short
form format content and many people who
watch short format content will actively
seek out longer format content from the
same creators they watch there is a huge
demographic of people who watch short
format content and what you create will
influence the audience that you get
channels who produce long and short
format have seen far better growth this
year than those who only do one or the
other YouTube has even done study after
study to make sure this is true and I'll
add links in the description so you guys
can see that you're all good if you use
both number two shorts will hurt your
YouTube channel and limit your growth no
not at all maybe last year you needed a
second YouTube channel but with the
semi-new changes YouTube has made shorts
have their own place on your main
Channel now and they are fantastic for
helping your channel be discovered and
helping you bring those new audiences in
especially if you're a small Creator the
third thing I hear is my content just
doesn't fit in short format wrong every
type of content fits into short format
saying this is the same as saying I
don't know how to make my content fit so
I refuse to learn your content might not
fit right now but you can learn to make
it fit I just spent three to four weeks
trying different formats and figuring
out how to make a specific idea I had
work in a short format everything I
changed was failing over and over and
over until I figured it out and the
format the idea I wanted to use started
getting hundreds of thousands of views
you just have to put the work in Number
Four Shorts views are far less valuable
than long format views
yeah this is sort of true to truly grow
using shorts first you need to accept
that views on shorts are technically
less valuable and in the same vein you
need to understand that when it comes to
shorts if you're getting 300 500 or even
1500 views that isn't actually very good
you see on long videos you have views
and then you have Impressions
impressions are when someone sees the
video's thumbnail and a view is when
someone actually clicks that thumbnail
and watches the video on shorts they are
fed to viewers through a feed so no one
clicks it that means Impressions aren't
really a thing and instead you have a
different analytic shown in feed which
is how many times the short was shown to
people in the feed and then another
analytic swipe first viewed which is how
many of those people swiped away versus
how many stayed to watch if someone is
fed your short in the feed and they
swipe away well it's not a view but if
they stay a tiny bit longer and it
doesn't seem like it needs to be that
much longer then it becomes a view this
makes it far easier to get views and
because it's easier to get views we end
up with a larger view count than long
format easier views means less valuable
in a weird way but why is 500 or 1500
views not good well YouTube needs to
learn if you're short that you just
uploaded is Worth showing to people to
do that it has to show it to people
first so it will show the short to a few
hundred or even a thousand people as a
test of sorts now if those people swipe
away quickly or just don't watch the
entire length of the short give you a
good retention well then YouTube will
stop sharing that short with this in
mind you need to be more conscious that
views are less valuable because you'll
naturally get more views Than You'll
likely have ever had before but this is
where they have their own value growing
a Channel Growing a brand or growing a
business in the real world is all about
Impressions on you or your product the
more people who see you and the more
often those people see you repeatedly
means the more likely they are to engage
with your product which in this case is
videos but of course they have to be the
Right audience you're not going to try
and show your brand new Fried Chicken
business where customers can pick out
their live chicken they want to eat
strangle it themselves and then have it
served to them for lunch to a bunch of
vegetarians
which leads us to our first step and I
know this is pretty far in the video for
step number one but here it is the first
step is one that you are going to hate
to hear but hold on to me here because
the only reason you hate it is because
it's been explained to you badly I want
you to Niche down don't close the video
I know it sucks to hear but I'm not
telling you to play just one game or
make one type of content I am telling
you to make a type of content for a
specific audience a key demographic as
it's called if you upload 30 shorts
across two months that's a short every
second day and every single one of those
shorts is on a different topic or a
different game or it's aimed at a
completely different demographic you'll
have far less success if any success at
all to be honest but if you upload 30
shorts across two months all targeting
the same demographic of people the same
audience well you'll have far more
success let me give you an example of
demographics so you understand I'm not
telling you to just be boring and focus
on one thing for gamers it could be
Nintendo games like Point Crow small ant
or alpharad or you could do strategy
games like real civil engineer or
ambiguous amphibian or you can get into
competitive Shooters like tens or indie
games like Northern lion or dangerously
funny horror games like Markiplier or
lonely shark take note here none of
these examples are picking one game to
play they're picking a genre that has a
shared player base if someone is
interested in Rim World they'll probably
be keen on Project zomboid people who
like Zelda probably like Mario just
remember not to get too specific or the
viewer base will become too small and
you'll have much less growth but
starting specific isn't bad because
you're able to expand later maybe for
now I'll just play Pokemon but in the
future future I'll be able to expand to
playing Zelda and Mario once you have
your demographic you need to start
thinking up ideas and how you're going
to structure the idea for a short
personally I find the best performing
shorts are questions challenges or ideas
that can be conveyed to the viewer in
roughly two to five seconds and they
have to be an idea that keeps them
watching to see the ending hey I'm LJ
from the future sorry to interrupt I
just wanted to say that I'm about six
seven months past filming this video and
it's the 12th of July and I'm still
getting 100 000 views every single day
on my channel and I haven't uploaded in
about a week now I'm about to show you
examples of some amazing shorts that
have had brilliant ideas attached to
them but I realized I didn't give you
any strategies or tools to brainstorm
your ideas so really quickly the first
way I brainstorm ideas is with my butt
you take something you love say for me
catching Shiny Pokemon and then you add
a butt and fill in something that makes
it more interesting catching Shiny
Pokemon but if I use more than three
balls I have to kill it or beating Dark
Souls but twitch chat can turn off my
controller the second way plain and
simple watch shorts watch content absorb
content take notes the entire time
you're absorbing that content a great
concept is to look at creators outside
of your Niche and bring those ideas into
your Niche for me I made a Pokemon video
about surviving 100 days and that idea
actually came from the stardew Valley
Community a different community and
finally using tools you can use things
like chat GPT or all sorts of stuff to
generate ideas but specifically I've
been using vid iq's daily idea generator
you type in some keywords or an idea and
it spits back a dozen different ideas
based on high performing content and it
also generates personalized ideas every
day based on your channel and its best
performing videos in that topic I'm not
sponsored by vid IQ I've used the free
version for about six years now but I've
been in talks to partner with them for
ages because I wanted to get you guys a
big discount and we succeeded if you use
the link in the description right now
then you can get their paid version for
just one dollar it's canceled anytime
and it's a great tool for beginners and
again their free version exists and I've
used it for years it's a great app I'm
really Keen to see your butts in the
comments and okay let's look at how
ideas can make or break your entire
shorts retention rate I have three
examples for you the first is Jessa a
creator with around 11 million
subscribers who does IRL content in the
vein of Mr Beast the example I'm showing
you is titled how many balloons does it
take to make a yoga ball fly and he
established that by shockingly saying it
in the first six seconds this will
increase his viewed verse swipe
statistic which I personally aim to make
sure that I have a 75 minimum on all of
my viewed verse swipe statistics I do
aim to get 80 as my real goal but 75 is
the minimum for it to do well in the
algorithm I find now the rest of Jess's
short is adding more and more balloons
until the yoga ball flies away and with
each time more balloons are added he
gives a quick reaction so that it's not
just a boring number counting and
instead he includes his personality and
breaks up the pacing of the short now
once the question is answered once the
yoga ball has started flying what does
he do does he hang around telling people
why it worked does he ask for people to
like And subscribe no he ends the short
the moment he has given the answer the
moment he has given the viewer the value
they were watching for and has answered
that question because the moment people
get what they want they will swipe away
this Creator is aimed at a different
demographic than you most likely but
don't let that cloud your judgment the
structure is important for every
demographic no matter who you are the
second example is from my channel where
my Niche is Nintendo and Pokemon the
short I am showing you is Wonder trading
Pokemon until I get a dragon type and
this has 1.5 million views by now it
might be higher than that actually using
a similar structure I established the
challenge in the first five seconds by
simply saying saying how many trades
will it take to turn my Pokemon into a
and then a wheel starts spinning on
screen little subtitles start popping up
with potential options and then the
wheel lands on a dragon type and without
any delay I start trading Pokemon
randomly 10 seconds into the short now I
debated not including the wheel because
it does add five to eight seconds to the
intro but I actually found it was a way
to make the short far more engaging
people see the wheels start they see the
little jokes popping up and they stick
around to see what it lands on the
longer they stick around the more
they've already become invested and
they're likely to watch all the way to
the end from 10 seconds till 52 seconds
we are constantly trading Pokemon making
quick jokes about each random Pokemon we
get and at around 53 seconds I get the
dragon type and this is where I make a
slight mistake in this short I say oh an
axu that counts and then I say it only
took us six trades
saying all of this added five seconds
making the short 57 seconds long in
total and if we look at my retention
rate graph you'll see those five seconds
have a huge drop in retention because
people saw me get the dragon and they
swiped away if I had ended this short on
aksu that counts bam it ends there then
this short would have gotten even more
views due to having a higher retention
am I upset about getting almost 2
million views no would I be hyped if it
was way more because I cut earlier and
didn't waste time yes obviously you
don't have to do a question or challenge
video but these are a great way to show
you how a structure of a short can do so
much to boost retention rate let me
quickly show you another example I made
two shorts they're both the exact same
format as each other and I want to show
you just the intro of each and then you
need to pick which one has the better
viewed verse swipe statistic here is
option a day seven of surprise trading
one of every single Pokemon in scarlet
and violet here is the best of box 7 and
here is option b I caught every single
Pokemon in scarlet and violet and I'm
gonna want to trade them all including
legendaries right now so what do you
think oh that's right if you said option
A you're dead wrong option A has a major
issue the first being people think day
nine I haven't seen the first eight days
yet and they swipe away it's also more
confusing are we surprise trading every
Pokemon out or surprise trading to try
to get every Pokemon back it doesn't
make sense option b though had a 77
viewed because people didn't need prior
knowledge they didn't feel like they
needed to watch eight earlier days and
they understood the concept quicker and
easier and obviously clearer you want to
establish offered value provide the
content and then deliver on the promised
value and then you want to end before
the viewer even realizes the short is
over but that leads me to the most
common question how long should shorts
be be after all if you just ask one
question and answer it instantly in
eight seconds won't the retention rate
be amazing
well the answer is no the retention rate
on that will do terribly let me show you
our third example which is again
actually two shorts both shorts are the
exact same format Guess the Pokemon in
60 seconds or release a shiny they both
open the exact same way and they both
end instantly after value is given the
energy the editing everything about
these shorts is the exact same the first
short short a has a 110 retention rate
the second short short B has an 87
retention rate which one do you think
did better and got more views you'd
assume short a would have better
performance because of the higher
retention rate right well wrong that
short only got 7 500 views in total but
short B with an 87 retention rate has a
hundred and fifty two thousand views so
why did B do so much better well the
difference is the short length short a
is 12 seconds long long and short B is
43 seconds long thanks to this test and
test by my friend lonely shark we have
managed to figure out a few rules for
length and retention rate I've broken
these down into three rules specifically
rule number one don't bother going under
25 seconds unless you can make a short
people want to watch twice or engage
like commenting or sharing it before
swiping away and really do not go under
15 seconds rule number two the shortest
to aim for I find is 30 seconds and it
requires a 90 to 95 retention rate
minimum in order to gain traction as a
rough guideline rule number three for
millions of views I found that 45 to 55
second long shorts with a minimum of 85
percent to 90 retention rate will often
perform better obviously the shorter the
short the higher retention is required
so 45 seconds aim to get around 90 55
seconds you can go a little lower to 85
again these are just rough guidelines
but every every single channel that I've
worked with has said the same thing
getting a 75 percent viewed versus
swiped minimum and then getting an 85 to
90 retention rate on content that is 45
seconds long minimum and that's how you
get numbers but does this mean that any
short content that's too short won't get
views God no it's just far easier to
create a piece of content that is 45
seconds long and get 85 retention from
someone watching it once before leaving
than it is to make something 20 seconds
long and get someone to watch it two or
three times before leaving but of course
it's important to remember that just
because you reach these numbers doesn't
mean every single short will boom to
millions of views let's say You release
a short and it has 1 000 views and
you've successfully reached all of these
analytics it's 55 seconds long 95
retention rate 80 viewed versus swiped
you are crushing it so why is YouTube
not sending it out well it might be that
800 of your views are returning viewers
people people who have watched your
content before people who are invested
in you and your content but 200 viewers
are new viewers people YouTube tested
the content too and they swiped away
instantly or maybe they didn't watch
much which is what brought that
retention rate down YouTube doesn't know
if this short is good for new viewers so
they'll stop trying to show it to New
viewers right now until they know who
the right person is because it could
also be that YouTube just doesn't know
who your audience is yet which is why I
also recommend aiming for the same
audience every release because the
people who it's meant for will keep
watching it over and over and over and
it will know who to show the short to so
say we have the right length shorts how
do we increase the retention rate well
the first step is to obviously follow
the structure established earlier in the
video and cut anything that doesn't
align with the value you are setting up
the value you are promising at the start
this obviously takes practice so don't
worry if your first one you leave a bit
too much in just keep trying I still
mess this up weekly trying new things
but remember failure equals
opportunities to learn failure is
personal growth if you do it right other
tips for increasing retention well
remember where our eye is drawn you want
to keep your content centered and in the
middle of the screen especially for that
opening hook think about where we
naturally are looking on our phone
screens as we're swiping through and put
your content there an example if we look
at my Wonder trades short we have a
Graphic and my first subtitle in the
very center so the moment someone swipes
up and my short appears they'll start
reading it and then that first subtitle
they're reading well it actually moves
with an animation up to just below my
cam before the next subtitle Pops in
underneath where it moved to the core
content and the trades stay in the
center but we draw our eye to the rest
of the subtitles which keep popping up
in the same place so the viewer
continues to read them over and over and
over becoming engaged in the short which
leads to our next tip subtitles these
are mandatory on shorts and can be done
in almost every video editing software I
really recommend looking up how to add
your own text with your own editing
software so that you can add subtitles
as well just start simple add them word
by word and I promise you the more you
do it the faster you'll get at it and
the more Dynamic you can be with your
animations as well I promise if you just
work towards it you'll crush it next up
is sound design yes most shorts are
watched without audio AKA another reason
why subtitles are crucial but for those
who do watch with the sound on having
good sound design is crucial so consider
adding music or light sound effects
where possible so it isn't just your
voice or gameplay and please remember to
level your music and voice tracks
properly so people can hear you and
finally once you have cut the short down
to just the valuable Parts it's time to
make that more engaging visually by
adding Graphics or simple but effective
cutting for example when I was trading
to get a Pokemon smaller than a Jam Jar
I had it pop up an actual Jam Jar on
screen as a graphic and then later I
photoshopped potential Pokemon into the
Jam Jar to be visually more engaging
this might be a bit Advanced if you're
just starting out so instead you could
try to do something simple like when I
say a Pokemon Ash is caught Ash appears
in the edit so that people can go oh
that's a visual change it's interesting
to watch or if we're going even simpler
that's totally fine as well you can just
cut from wider shots to close-ups to
where the action is in my guess the
Pokemon shorts whenever I pick a Pokemon
to guess I cut and zoom into the footage
of me clicking on the Pokemon Sprite
that I'm going to guess and then I cut
right back out to the wide and if I'm
wrong I'll do the same thing to cut in
close to when it says that I'm wrong
doing this brings valuable information
to the center for the viewer and it also
means that your short stays energetic
and interesting it keeps the viewers
engaged without feeling bored and it
directs the eye with visual storytelling
so they don't get confused and lost and
swipe away if I stayed wide on those
guessing shorts you wouldn't be able to
see what I guess you wouldn't be able to
see that I was wrong or what moves the
Pokemon we're using it's all about
putting the information where they can
see it easily so they don't get
distracted but you might not feel
confident when you first start out you
might just be learning to edit don't
worry that's totally fine shorts are the
perfect learning tool for an editor it
teaches you how to tell stories in a
short space of Time how to convey
information value and you can make them
quicker than a full video meaning you
get more feedback faster and can learn
more lessons if you don't know I I
actually went to University for film and
digital media and in one of my very
first classes of my very first year at
that University our lecturer said that
we had to make a 60-second short film we
all lost our mind how were we meant to
do that how can we tell a story in such
a short space of time this was way
before Tick Tock this was way before
short this was early Vine days and
honestly we didn't think we'd be able to
make a short film in 60 seconds but
little did I know that activity of
forcing me to tell a story concisely in
60 seconds was more valuable than any
other editing class I have ever taken so
play with your style keep creating and
remember that you're trying to find your
own unique voice and share that with
people along the way you'll find an
audience learn a lot and probably make a
lot of mistakes which are all
opportunities to learn from which leads
me to the mistakes to avoid let's cover
a few of the small common mistakes
before I wrap this video up with the
most common mistake and the worst
mistake a shorts Creator can and will
make now again making mistakes isn't a
bad thing if I hadn't made the mistake
of editing and scheduling seven shorts
or 15 to 18 seconds long before going on
my honeymoon and then coming back and
having absolutely zero views then I
wouldn't have learned about how long
shorts should be or the correct
retention rates so I'm gonna say it
again that is mistake number one making
your shorts far too short without a
reason to watch them multiple times now
mistake number two that is putting
important information such as visuals
subtitles in places that will be hidden
behind the like dislike subscribe the
title at the bottom or even the mobile
phone speaker at the top while editing
you should use an overlay similar to
this Tick Tock safe overlay and remember
that anywhere gray is going to be is
hard for viewers to see your content
should be front and center in the middle
and upper third because that is where
our eyes are drawn to normally if you
want this overlay that I'm showing you
right now it will be hosted in our
Discord server which is Linked In the
description and mistake number three
just quickly before we drop the most
common mistake I just want to say again
edit your shorts holy crap oh no
seriously why is nobody editing their
shorts anymore blanket converting gaming
Clips or long-winded Rants and uploading
them is the laziest thing I've ever seen
I do not know what is going on it's like
the last two months there has been this
massive increase in people not editing
their shorts they just convert it to
vertical and push it out I'm losing my
mind Auto converting a landscape video
into vertical and posting it isn't going
to work it's not good why do I why do I
have to say this someone is someone
telling you guys not to edit your shorts
what's going on why is no one editing
their shorts anymore it was like
everyone was editing up until two months
ago and now all of a sudden all these
gaming creators are just not editing
their shorts
hold on please edit your shorts but
finally the emo most common mistake for
shorts is just not watching shorts in
your Niche seriously you'll never
succeed if you don't spend time
researching watching and most
importantly actually enjoying shorts
content in your topic search up your
Niche hit shorts and check out some of
the most popular learn from what they're
doing use them to inspire you teach you
and most importantly learn to respect
short format content short format isn't
worse than long format it's a different
format with its own unique value its own
challenges and its own things that it
can deliver and give to you once a week
I spend an hour or two literally just
watching shorts in my Niche and writing
out the things I notice the things I
like the other day I actually timed
every single shot I watched I watched
110 different shorts and I timed every
single one of them I counted how many
Cuts they had and how long each shot was
that's right I went a little bit too
aggressive but I learned something I
learned that I was over editing my
Shores I had too many Cuts in mind
compared to what other successful
creators were doing and that's why some
of my more intensely edited shorts were
failing all these Cuts were happening
constantly and people were falling off
because they couldn't follow along what
was going on so I had to slow my editing
down a little bit but essentially too
many people make the mistake of never
watching shorts in their Niche and so
they make terrible shorts that won't
work or they just upload boring unedited
Clips you can skip all of those hours of
failing with just one or two hours of
research a week and you'll be so much
better at being a content creator and if
you want to keep researching well click
this video right here it's hero here it
covers all the new YouTube features that
were added recently because you need to
know about them I'll see you guys next
week