A popular German gaming YouTuber shows how to stay relevant even after 13 years

PietSmiet has been active on YouTube for 13 years and is also successful on Twitch. In an interview with MeinMMO, Denis Bramin talks about how content has changed over the years and how you keep reinventing yourself.

Who is the person you are talking about? PietSmiet is a five-person gaming band that performs together on YouTube and Twitch. It consists of Jonathan Appelt, Denis Brammen, Sebastian Linsen, Peter Smits and Christian Schwanzhaus. The boys have been posting videos on YouTube since the fall of 2010.

It all started with Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2, but over the years many other games and formats have been added. With 2.47 million subscribers, the group is one of the most popular gaming channels on German-language YouTube.

In an interview, PietSmiet's Brammen spoke to MeinMMO about how to stay relevant even after such a long period in the business.

On Twitch, PietSmiet primarily organizes larger events such as her annual Friendly Fire with Gronkh charity campaign:

Often something new

This is how PietSmiet has changed: When Bramin was asked which change was the most important for Piet Smit in recent years, he explained that it could not be linked to one major event. Instead, the group continues to reinvent itself:

What we've noticed over the years is that there are always moments where we change our content very suddenly. Because we simply said, let's try something new now.

The first gaming videos on PietSmiet YouTube channel They are recordings of their matches in CoD. The group then began publishing Let's Plays for EVE Online relatively quickly. Other games such as Half-Life and Portal were added later. Individual episodes were very short, ranging from 10 to 15 minutes in length.

This then became a whole “let’s play,” Bramen explains. But there are also videos that are far from the classics: “I just play and let people watch,” says the YouTuber. It's more about taking the game to the point of absurdity.

According to Brammen, the current concept is: “More indie videos, less games, more gameplay, also in terms of quiz shows.”

Then there's Twitch: Although PietSmiet primarily consider themselves YouTubers, they're also active on the live streaming platform.

Tiwtch hosts large, lavishly produced live events like a camping trip or an e-kart tournament. Through its events, PietSmiet reaches tens of thousands of concurrent viewers (via Solly gnome).

do it

How do you keep renewing yourself? MeinMMO also wanted to know and asked how PietSmiet was experimenting with the new formats.

It's not just the five guys behind PietSmiet anymore: as Brammen explains, they have a team of 22 people, and there's a planning conference once a week. The rule of thumb is: “If someone has an idea, we make it happen.”

Many of the ideas only work mediocrely, but sometimes there's “something really cool,” according to the YouTuber.

Community also plays a big role: on the one hand, viewers decide the success of the format through their views. Fans can also have a direct impact. on PietSmiet website They can submit ideas for new formats, which are then voted on in a Reddit-like system.

Viewers can also submit ideas for game shows or quiz formats. Through this direct community involvement, the guys from PietSmiet are always able to give viewers what they want to see – and it's been paying off for over 13 years.

PietSmiet's surprise success was the “Kebab Chefs!” simulator, and as Brammen reveals, he can't explain why this game is, of all things, so successful among the many games that appear on Steam every day. This creates an interesting dynamic because such weird games can benefit from the attention of content creators: Twitch streamers make weird games popular for 24 hours and viewers love them.