When i was a kid me and my 4 siblings would often have to take it in turns to play single or 2 player games. In the mean time if you weren’t playing you would watch the others play. It was exciting rooting for one player or another, it was great when something funny happened, or when someone did something amazing, whether on purpose or by accident whilst button mashing. Even single player adventure or rpg games were fun to watch. It was kind of like watching a movie. You were there for the fun bits, the exciting bits, the sad bits, the shocking bits. Even watching, you are part of it.

Admittedly, despite this, i initially didn’t find this sort of content appealing as i thought there would be something different with me not being in the room and it not being my siblings. But after watching a streamer who makes other, non-game content do a few multiplayer games with other people that appear on his stream i found that they can be just as fun to watch. You still get a bit of that feeling and its still enjoyable. Especially if you are watching live and can take part in the chat. The rest of chat are substitutes for my siblings and the streamer and his buddies are all funny and the camaraderie is very familiar.

All in all i would say, you might be suprised if you gave it a go.

For the same reason people watch professional sports.

i watch it for the commentary. Its also kind of like pseudoshared experience. There are also bunch of games that are not necessarily bad but which i dont want to buy, so watching someone else play it is nice way to experience the game and also see if it would be worth getting afterall.

I’ve watched let’s plays of strategy games that I want to be better at, in order to see people who don’t fucking suck like I do. But after I get a better idea on how to suck less, I stop.

I’m not into sports neither and when my father explained why he watches sports, I suggested you might just as well watch people playing video games.

I thought that was ridiculous at the time but it actually became a thing

That’s fair. I don’t watch streamers as a rule, but let’s plays can be enjoyable. I’ll watch them if the commentators are funny, or if it’s a game I’m interested in knowing about but not interested enough to play through myself, or if it’s on a platform I don’t have, The Metal Gear Solid series for example.

The streamer might do some funny (or insightful) comments about the game while playing, or do a playthrough with some weird conditions (e.g. he can’t do certain actions like healing, …) that you wouldn’t in your right mind apply to yourself

Sometimes I find it fun to watch a game I will never play, but I also get to chat with the streamer so theres that too.

Some streamers play indie games and some are terribly boring to me. It helps me sleep.