Frequently Asked Questions




What is "Let's Play Index"?

Let's Play Index is a database of let's players and reviewers organized in a way to help discover new and upcoming talent, rank content creators based on the games they play, and help them optimize their metadata. It relies on data pulled from YouTube and is then organized and mixed in with our own video game data and algorithms to create rankings, listings for obscure content creators, and reviews and let's plays for specific games.


How does Let's Play Index work?

Let's Play Index automatically pulls video data from YouTube to add new videos, update statistics like view counts, and to update metadata. The website adds additional information to these videos such as game, platform, and category data. This allows the website algorithms to aggregate the data and create listings to organize the data, as well as rank videos and channels based on criteria not necessarily found anywhere else. e.g. Most views on videos for a particular game, most liked videos on a channel, rankings for specific countries and their content creators, etc.


How does Let's Play Index associate a game, platform, and category to a video?

As with Google, YouTube, and every search engine out there, the website algorithms determine a video's game, platform, and category by looking at its metadata: the title, description, and tags. In order to determine these things, the video must have good SEO (Search Engine Optimization). Having good SEO means having a good title, a few paragraphs in the description, and relevant tags to go with it. For video game content, that means having the game name in all three places, mentioning the level or the character in question, and having well-defined multi-word tags.

There is no standard in place for how metadata should be filled out, so everyone's videos will be different and may or may not be detected properly. The inner-workings of search engines are kept behind closed doors, but SEO experts have determined best practices for helping your content rank in search. The algorithms here are based on these best practices for determining this additional data. For example, if your video has "minecraft lets play" as a single tag, your video will likely be detected as "Minecraft" as the game, and "Let's Play" as the category. Having "minecraft pc" will further re-inforce the fact that the game is "Minecraft", but also tells the algorithm that "PC" is the platform.


What types of channels are allowed on Let's Play Index?

We focus strictly on channels with video game content and the aggregated data around them. While we make our best effort to filter out and disable non-video game channels on the site, there is no guarantee that non-video game channels won't be added to the site, or removed in a timely fashion. For example, a non-video game channel may upload a video game-related video and be included for aggregation. Let's Play Index is intended to serve the video game niche, and non-video game channels do not serve that purpose.


How do I add my YouTube channel to this website?

There is a textbox at the top of the front page that allows you to add your YouTube channel. Enter your channel address and press enter. Your channel data will be pulled, and you will be re-directed to your channel page on this website.


How often is the information updated on this website?

Information on YouTube channels and videos are updated as much and as quickly as possible. Due to technical limitations, we cannot guarantee the information on the website to be up-to-date, or updated in a timely fashion.


I don't want my YouTube channel/videos listed on this website, how can I have them removed?

The website's algorithms are made to automatically do this. Add "#NoIndex" to your channel tags (or video tags if you just want individual videos removed from the site). When the site updates your channel or videos, it will see the #NoIndex tag and automatically flag it. Alternatively, deleting your videos/channel or making your videos private/unlisted will flag it as well. Only channels and videos fully visible to the public will be aggregated. The reverse is also true. Should you make a private/unlisted video public again, it will re-appear on the site when updated. Please note that this does not affect the visibility of your channel or videos on the YouTube website or applications.


The game/platform/category information on my videos are wrong. How do I correct them?

The functionality does not exist yet, but there are plans to have a "Development Area" where you can make site-specific modifications to your channel and video data, as well as other information such as game data. If you want the algorithms to correctly identify the contents of your video, the video's metadata must be very good and very accurate. In other words, it must have good SEO.


Are there any plans for new features for Let's Play Index?

As mentioned above, a "Development Area" is in the works to allow content creators on YouTube to make site-specific modifications to their channel and video data. Other ideas being thrown around include keyword research, console-specific statistics, and other such metrics that don't exist yet. We're developing new ways to better serve the video game community on YouTube, whether you're a content creator, data researcher, or just a fan of video games.