One of the questions we get asked most often is whether there's a minimum follower count required to become a verified creator on PlayIndies.
The answer is no.
In fact, we've approved creators with a few hundred followers while declining others with audiences many times larger. At first glance, that probably sounds backward, but the reason is simple:
Follower count tells us where a creator has been. It doesn't tell us where they're going.
We've spent more than a decade creating content ourselves while also working alongside thousands of creators through game launches, marketing campaigns, and community programs. We've been on both sides of the table. We know what it's like to chase those early milestones, wonder why one video took off while another disappeared into the void, and slowly build a community over time. We've also spent years helping indie developers decide which creators are the best fit for their games.
When we review an application, we aren't asking, "Is this creator big enough?" We're asking a different question:
If we trusted this creator with a game key today, do we believe they're heading in the right direction?
Sometimes it's obvious. We open a channel and compare what they're making today to what they were making six months ago. The editing's better. They're more comfortable on camera. Their thumbnails make more sense. Their community is more active. Nothing changed overnight. But it's clear they're heading somewhere.
That's what gets our attention.
We'd much rather support a creator who's clearly moving forward than one whose channel has looked exactly the same for the last two years.
That philosophy sits at the heart of PlayIndies. It shapes how we review creator applications, but it's also influenced how we've approached creator campaigns for years. It's easy to assume bigger always means better. If one creator has 500,000 subscribers and another averages 200 viewers, the choice seems obvious.
But marketing rarely works that way. Reach and influence aren't the same thing. If you'd asked us ten years ago, we probably would have chased the biggest creators too. Now we'd ask a completely different question: who is their audience actually listening to?
At PlayIndies, we have a phrase we come back to all the time:
A large army of small voices.
It usually gets a laugh when we say it out loud, but after years of running creator campaigns, it's become one of the ideas we believe in most.
Why spend time working with dozens of smaller creators instead of putting all your effort into landing a handful of massive channels?
Because they do different jobs.
Large creators are fantastic for awareness. They can put your game in front of hundreds of thousands of people in a single upload. We often think of them as billboards. They're highly visible, they create excitement, and they can introduce your game to a huge audience almost instantly.
Smaller creators often serve a different purpose. They're more like a trusted friend.
Their viewers know them. They recognize familiar names in chat and the comments. People come back because they trust them. They ask for recommendations, and when that creator gets excited about a game, it doesn't feel like an advertisement. It feels like someone they trust saying, "I think you'd really enjoy this."
A few years ago we ran a campaign where one of the biggest creators generated the most views, but a collection of creators averaging only a few hundred concurrent viewers collectively drove far more wishlist additions. It was a great reminder that influence and audience size aren't always the same thing.
We've seen that happen more than once, and that's why we don't automatically equate audience size with value. If you're building a community that trusts your recommendations, you're building something developers genuinely care about.
Something we see surprisingly often is creators trying to appeal to everyone.
We get it. A new game comes out, everyone's talking about it, and suddenly it feels like you need to cover it too. Then another game releases the following week, and another after that. Before long, you’ve got a channel full of unrelated videos aimed at completely different audiences.
Here's a question we think every creator should ask themselves:
If someone watched five of your videos or streams in a row, what would they say your channel is about?
Before you publish your next video or go live again, ask yourself that question. If the answer isn't immediately obvious, that's probably worth thinking about.
You don't have to dedicate your channel to one game or even one genre, but people should have a reason to remember you. The creators who build loyal communities usually become known for something. Maybe they're the person people watch for indie horror. Maybe they always seem to find the next cozy game before anyone else. Maybe they're the strategy creator whose recommendations never miss.
Then there are follower and subscriber counts.
It's easy to obsess over because it's visible. Everyone compares it. But it's actually one of the least interesting numbers we look at.
We'd rather see a creator with 50 viewers who genuinely trust their recommendations than a creator with 50,000 subscribers who barely notice when a new video goes live.
The same goes for community.
The creators who remember regular viewers, reply to comments, and make people feel welcome are often building far more influence than their numbers suggest. That's exactly the kind of audience indie developers love reaching because those viewers are actually listening.
That's why PlayIndies doesn't have a minimum follower requirement.
We've seen too many talented creators prove that a smaller, engaged audience can create far more value than a much larger audience that's stopped growing. At the same time, we sometimes decline applications from creators whose channels have shown very little audience growth or engagement over an extended period.
That's never intended to discourage anyone. We know firsthand how much work goes into building a channel and a community, and we know growth is rarely a straight line.
Our responsibility is to make sure we're connecting indie developers with creators who are actively building an audience and giving developers confidence that their game will reach people who genuinely care about their recommendations.
If that's where your channel is heading, keep going.
Keep experimenting. Keep learning. Keep making your next video or stream better than your last one.
We've been doing this long enough to know that there isn't a single formula for growing a channel.
Looking back, the creators who've impressed us the most aren't always the ones who grew the fastest.
They're the ones who kept improving.
Six months later, their videos are better. Their community is stronger. Their audience trusts them a little more than it did before.
That's momentum.
And after more than a decade as creators ourselves, we've found it's one of the best indicators of where a channel will be six months from now.
That's what we look for when we review applications, and it's why we'll always value momentum over follower count.
Follower count is a snapshot. Momentum is a trend.
Want more tips?
Our Resources section is regularly updated with guides, tips, and educational content to help developers and creators get the most out of PlayIndies.
