Egoland: the gaming community assembles

^{image source: Aroyitt Gaming/YouTube}

In January, over 70 of the top gaming creators from both Spain and Latin America came together in a shared server for the survival game, Rust, in an event named Egoland. The event represented a massive moment for the Spanish-language gaming community, with Egoland videos reaching over 280M views in January. It also created an unprecedented spike in views and popularity for Rust. Most importantly, it presented a new opportunity for widespread collaboration and creativity among these creators.

Top Spanish creators like Ibai, Auron and TheGrefg, as well as established gamers in Latin America such as MissaSinfonia, Ari Gameplays and ElJuaniquilador, took part in this event. Egoland was a multi-platform experience with livestreams taking place on Twitch and each creator featuring their own recaps on YouTube throughout the duration of the collaboration. Those first Egoland clips became some of the biggest view-drivers for videos related to Rust with Rubius Z’s explainer reaching over 5M views followed by Mikecrack’s announcement topping 4M views.

With the Rust server as the canvas, the creativity displayed by the participating gamers became the source of unexpected moments of community. Creator Ibai presented his “Rust Dates,” a restaurant experience where players, like creators Alexby and Aroyitt, could meet for a date; and luzugames shared his take on “The Gladiator Tournament”’ with participants Ander Cortés and elxokas getting to the final. Viewers were hooked, not only by the competitive nature of the game, but also by watching existing and newly formed relationships evolve between the creators.

The Rise of Rust

The effect of the Spanish-language gaming community focusing its attention on this game sparked an interesting phenomenon. The survival game, which premiered in early access in 2013 and was released in 2018, registered a growth in average daily views of 270% globally in January 2021 when compared to the same period last year.

The volume of views was not the only thing that changed. The geographic center of those views also shifted. Last year, it was common to see the top-viewed videos of Rust coming from the U.S. and the U.K., from creators like GranpaGrenade, Welyn, Blooprint and Oblivion. But in 2021, Rust’s top viewed videos are from Spanish and Latin American creators. Rust’s most-viewed videos are now those related to the first Egoland experiences of creators such as Rubius, Mikecrack, Ibai and Auron, reinforcing the growing influence of Spanish-speaking countries on the game on YouTube.

Egoland demonstrated the power of this new kind of collaboration. As with last year’s surprise hit, Among Us, and its adoption by Korean audiences who would later add to the global interest of the game, creators have once again embraced a relatively unknown game in the region and, by playing it together, were able not only to increase its presence on the platform but directly influence the number of people playing it outside of that moment.

The event also is the latest to show how Spanish-speaking gaming creators are at the forefront of a new era of collaboration. From a record-breaking 100-creator Fortnite tournament in 2018 to the four seasons of Karmaland in Minecraft and its spin-off, Calvaland, Spanish-language gamers have created many epic partnerships. The increasing frequency of these server-based, gaming community moments shows how creators -- especially Spanish-language gaming creators -- are evolving collaboration, especially in a moment when gathering physically with your friends to play might be off the table.

Karla Agis, Trends Manager for Spanish-speaking LATAM