Why do people watch other peoples streaming gameplay

It was explained to me using the analogy of watching sports: One of the most entertaining activities for a human is to watch other humans do things. This is why professional sports leagues exist. This is also why “Watching people play computer games” is a perfectly reasonable entertainment option, despite it not being your preference.

One reason is the same as people watching football or basketball, but rarely or never play themselves. These streamers are really skilled and it's interesting to see their skill level. Often times these are tournaments like e-sports, and this no different than any other sport.

Another reason is just entertainment value. The player is funny and interacts with viewers, or the game genre itself is entertaining to watch. For example horror games, it's fun to watch streamers get jump scared.

Yet another reason is to preview a game before buying it. I watch dozens and dozens of streamers, and at this point I think I watch more games (by title) than I play.

I'm not even near of being a representative of the group, but I will share my own motives and reflections.

For me, it's like watching a game of chess, or a match of basket-ball. I know the games myself and I know what it takes to play it at a high level (I watch mostly professional players). It's an act of learning sometimes, when your own strategies differ quite a bit from the player's and that can lead to some interesting reflections. Also, they are humans, and you can empathize with their joy when winning a game, or frustration when suffering from a bug or bad teammates.

Sometimes it's a spectacle, too, when the streamer puts on a show with an over the top personality. I don't really watch the kind of streamers that do "stupid" behavior, but you must be aware that they represent a sizable part of the gaming population and for them, it's normal to rage and stuff (not my kind of things).

Also, I can't play games for long (not so good internet + work + other hobbies) and when I'm doing other stuff, I will put a gameplay in the background as all the other video contents I consume require focus.

I think it depends on the person or the stream but I can tell you why I watch.

Occasionally I'll tune in for a big game and watch it the way people do sports, especially if my favorite team happens to be playing.

More often though, it just feels like a hang out the same way a podcast or talk radio can. Casual conversation with something in the game occasionally drawing attention.

I should say maybe I'm an edge case too. I probably only watch a couple hours a month.

Edit: ok I thought about it some more and I had one more thought.

Because there is a lot of it.

There are a few people I really like watching in interviews or give talks. But you'll find with any of that kind of content that you've watched it all after a few dozen hours max. With steamers there are hundreds to thousands of hours of content available for the person you find interesting to listen to.

I watch a lot of twitch that is the Retro tag / category. A lot of the good streamers in this category will play obscure old games usually on original Hardware and they have very good and respectable communities. Everyone helps each other out. The streamers don't compete for each other's viewers and there's a whole bunch of overlap. You could find really good communities if you don't focus on popularity. Macaw45 is one in this group and he'll get 800+ viewers regularly. Dukedonuts, dot_lvl, Maroony, doctorcdcs, retroIslandgaming, annK_, misterradon, dnopls, chuboh, sinatar... All really good people and great chats and great communities

It's nice watching RTS players who are way better than you, so you can learn to play better. And it can be a nice reminder that you can play RTS games, and have a positive and/or calm outlook, even when things are intense, and/or you're losing.

AoE2 and AoE4 both have thriving streaming communities with charismatic, highly skilled (et top 10 etc players) streamers. It also gives you a chance to interact with your game's heroes, sometimes play team games with them, ask them questions about the game, why they just did X etc.

I occasionally watch friends of mine on discord in the voice channels for the social element. I no longer play games but I don't mind watching while speaking with people I know and I'm also sometimes curious about what's going on on their end of the internet. Actually it's even more entertaining to watch friends browsing the web while they're talking to you lol you learn some things about them you normally otherwise wouldn't.

I could never understand why people watch soccer or any other sport. My father, kids and wife really enjoy watching soccer games and scream to the TV. Then I forced myself to watch a few games and while I was not specially bored it didn't produce any interest on me. Instead I have played an average of 18 hours daily of FPS/RPG/RTS 2D/3D since young, way less now that I'm older and boring.