Most popular DCS Youtuber?

[Rudel_chw]

Hi,

Just noticed that @Growling Sidewinder has now over 400,000 subscribers .. hadn't checkd that in quite awhile and it actually surprised me, as it means that the DCS worlwide community is much larger than I tought. I doubt every member of this community is subscribed to GS, so that means that there are probably well over a million DCS users nowadays ... an incredible number.

Anyway, this means that GS is now the biggest DCS YT channel, here are some of the others ... ordered not by subscriptors, but by Views (which is what actually really counts):

 

 

 

Hope I didn't miss any important DCS channel 

 

Edited January 15, 2023 by Rudel_chw
Added more Youtubers suggested by users.

[Silver_Dragon]

I never reach 2000 subscripters...

[Sr.]

Most under-sub'd for pure useful and informative content...

 

Bogey Dope

 

[Rudel_chw]

7 minutes ago, Sr. said:

Most under-sub'd for pure useful and informative content...

 

Bogey Dope

 

ok, that was my bias showing … I don’t enjoy 60-seconds videos  however, will add it to the table tonight.

[TheFreshPrince]

Forgot one of the biggest - LongShot

Many people comment on GS videos that they are not playing DCS, but they still like the videos. So I'd rather say it's a potential DCS community

He got my into DCS as well.

Edited December 31, 2022 by TheFreshPrince

[Rudel_chw]

23 hours ago, Sr. said:

Most under-sub'd for pure useful and informative content... Bogey Dope

 

1 hour ago, TheFreshPrince said:

Forgot one of the biggest - LongShot

 

Thanks for the suggestion, have updated the Table 

[Beirut]

I remain a big Grim Reapers fan.  

 

But I think they've done themselves a disservice with the recent and seemingly endless series of "what if?" videos, many of them pretty useless, and they should get back to reviews and tutorials. I'd still say I have learned more from their tutorials than all other channels combined. 

 

I know many don't like the Grim Reapers, but they don't have 300k subs and 115 million views for nothing.

[vu733gt]

ralfidude  -   i think he was the reason I came to dcs long time ago. 

[Zad Fnark]

And here I am, just breaking 300.  

[BitMaster]

Am 4.1.2023 um 15:26 schrieb Beirut:

I remain a big Grim Reapers fan.  

 

But I think they've done themselves a disservice with the recent and seemingly endless series of "what if?" videos, many of them pretty useless, and they should get back to reviews and tutorials. I'd still say I have learned more from their tutorials than all other channels combined. 

 

I know many don't like the Grim Reapers, but they don't have 300k subs and 115 million views for nothing.

No other channel takes DCS to such extremes. It doesn't really matter if it's reality based or not, it shows how DCS performs, it's greatness and it's limits foremost.

If you like the content idea itself is a different thing.

 

[AndyJWest]

Popularity is rarely an indicator of usefulness.

[Rudel_chw]

35 minutes ago, AndyJWest said:

Popularity is rarely an indicator of usefulness.

but it does give an idea of how large the dcs user community is.

[WinterH]

I find myself missing the style and content of old, now mostly extinguished DCS youtubers like Bunyap, xxJohnxx, GrmlZ, pickinthatbanjo etc. Though we do still have a few like that.

To be fair however, I do rather like some of the current ones quite a bit too, like Casmo, xTerminus, Volk, RedKite etc. There are a few more highly helicopter-centric ones that I can't remember right now, but were also fairly in-deep and interesting content on helos.

DCS sure is becoming more and more popular last few years, with high production quality hype videos, more "crowd pleaser" modules, attractive graphics etc I kinda feel like user base is many folds greater than about half a decade ago. These days you can even find War Thunder youtubers covering DCS stuff sometimes, or publishing some DCS gameplay. With that game adding all the way up to 4th gen aircraft nowadays, I think it'll only bring even more people to at least checking out DCS when they want more beyond limitations of that platform for their favorite aircraft.

Besides, even among non simmers, DCS seems to have become a known quantity these days. There is a "potential community" that is even larger beyond the active users/customers. One metric I have is the Facebook group I am among the admins of, and we have close to 30000 members there, well 28.7ish right now, but I'd expect it to break 30k in a few months. And that's with Facebook being a halfway dying platform

I also smile when I hear people mention DCS in non related youtube channels like Linus' Tech Tips, InRangeTV etc

[Beirut]

3 hours ago, BitMaster said:

No other channel takes DCS to such extremes. It doesn't really matter if it's reality based or not, it shows how DCS performs, it's greatness and it's limits foremost.

If you like the content idea itself is a different thing.

 

 

Again, I'm a big GR fan. And while some of the "what if" videos are very good, some are not. When they test systems and scenarios it can very good fun and instructive, but some of it is just silly. But you're right that they show what is possible better than others.

 

I would like them to do more reviews and tutorials, but I think there was some kind of lovers spat going on, and whereas we should have had dozens of tutorials on the Apache, for example, we got very few. That's really a shame. Will probably be the same for the Strike Eagle and that's even more of a shame.

[Gasman6]

Grim Reapers's content is hit-or-miss with me. I enjoy the content that explores scenarios, and testing the limits of the DCS engine, but the tutorials I can not stand to watch. At least for the A-10 tutorials, while he does convey the most pertinent information, something about Cap's flippant attitude toward unfamiliar systems is grating. His delivery is much too excitable, like an announcer at the Kentucky Derby. On the other side of the spectrum, ralfidude's A-10 tutorials proved much more tolerable to my senses. I'm sure the man with the voice behind the Grim Reapers is a fine fellow, and I would probably enjoy his company, so long as he isn't trying to teach me anything! 

Edited January 8, 2023 by Gasman6
Corrected a mistake

[Hiob]

null

[Beirut]

2 hours ago, AndyJWest said:

Popularity is rarely an indicator of usefulness.

 

Then of course you have to define what usefulness means. It covers a lot of bases.

 

To their credit, the Grim Reapers have a crapton of tutorials, over a hundred each for the Tomcat and Hornet, many in exhaustive detail, with views from 20k to over 100k for each video. I think that qualifies as both popular and useful.

 

This is a good example. A one hour tutorial with 93k views. Popular and useful.

 

[freehand]

1 hour ago, Gasman6 said:

Grim Reapers's content is hit-or-miss with me. I enjoy the content that explores scenarios, and testing the limits of the DCS engine, but the tutorials I can not stand to watch. At least for the A-10 tutorials, while he does convey the most pertinent information, something about the Scottish man's flippant attitude toward unfamiliar systems is grating. His delivery is much too excitable, like an announcer at the Kentucky Derby. On the other side of the spectrum, ralfidude's A-10 tutorials proved much more tolerable to my senses. I'm sure the man with the voice behind the Grim Reapers is a fine fellow, and I would probably enjoy his company, so long as he isn't trying to teach me anything! 

Caps not Scottish as far as I know. 

[Gasman6]

28 minutes ago, freehand said:

Caps not Scottish as far as I know. 

Forgive me, I was confused; the Scottish man was the one Cap deferred to in some of the A-10 videos when he did not know something. Cap is most certainly an Englishman.

[Beirut]

22 hours ago, vu733gt said:

ralfidude  -   i think he was the reason I came to dcs long time ago. 

 

His "A-10C for Dummies" tutorials are the stuff of legend. 

[Bucic]

https://www.youtube.com/@Hellreign82

?

[Hiob]

Certainly not "popular" by the numbers, but this guy deserves all the praise and recognition (and a subscription) from the DCS community for this video alone:

 

[Aquorys]

Certainly not "DCS YouTubers", but I am somewhat surprised that some of the more well-known (ex-) fighter pilots, who have at least occasionally posted DCS-related videos, were not mentioned, e.g. youtube.com/@CWLemoine with 388k subscribers, youtube.com/@HasardLee with 255k subscribers or youtube.com/@thereadyroom7201 with 25k subscribers. Apart from occasional DCS content, they have a lot of interesting content about flying in general and also some of the real world aircraft that DCS features in-game, including interviews with (ex-) pilots of other aircraft, or even former instructors of the SFTI (aka "Top Gun") and WIC programs.

[C3PO]

I love GS and MW.

On 1/10/2023 at 1:20 PM, Aquorys said:

Certainly not "DCS YouTubers", but I am somewhat surprised that some of the more well-known (ex-) fighter pilots, who have at least occasionally posted DCS-related videos, were not mentioned, e.g. youtube.com/@CWLemoine with 388k subscribers, youtube.com/@HasardLee with 255k subscribers or youtube.com/@thereadyroom7201 with 25k subscribers. Apart from occasional DCS content, they have a lot of interesting content about flying in general and also some of the real world aircraft that DCS features in-game, including interviews with (ex-) pilots of other aircraft, or even former instructors of the SFTI (aka "Top Gun") and WIC programs.

But little directly related to this sim. I personally think Hasard Lee is excellent.

[BuzzU]

I watch who I like. I don't give a squat about a list.