I'd recommend starting around 2015 or so.

Damn playing games on Linux has gotten so easy that people are just asking general questions here now.

Install OBS studio and then just start. Youtube, Twitch, Peertube, Owncast... these are all valid choices for letsplay content. And you have to start first. See what you like, what people like. Experiment a bit. I think you'll mainly need to figure it out as you go. And also build an audience as you go. Maybe start with something easy, instead of some super complicated and elaborate setup.

And drop a link once you have something to show off.

My advice is just start wherever/however your best guess is with the info you have and figure it out along the way.

Starting is the most important thing. Not how to start. Just starting.

When you have experienced the usual newbie pitfalls you'll be able to know what to ask about more specifically and discover the right communities where these things are discussed, and will know what ppl are talking about.

The second most important thing is persistence.

Good luck.

Oh yeah. I just remembered another thing. Gaming channel I'm following. Making so really good progress in the game. (Car racing game. Think a top 50 in world on one map).

Uploads their runs as a video, 10-25 views. Uploads their runs as a short, couple hundred to couple thousand views. (I don't have tik tok, but I hear their short form content is doing well there too)

Shorts are now the new way to gain views

As a first i would try out owncast (with federation, you have to do it yourself) or peertube. There might be that no people come watching but its less comercialised and there is less competivness.

My friend started streaming and saw the largest growth out of any platform by uploading clips of his gameplay to YouTube shorts. So I guess my advice would be to make content for a main channel (be that twitch, youtube, etc) and then advertise on some kind of short form content.

Start everywhere. There are ways to split the stream to multiple platforms using one of the following:

1. A service such as restreaming websites

pros: very easy, lowest computer spec and bandwidth requirements, sometimes has a consolidated chat plugin

cons: sometimes costs money, may have watermark, the service controls the bitrate and has a stream delay

2. Using multiple instances of OBS

pros: free, easy to set up, additionally if you set up an NDI solution over LAN then you can use a multi-PC setup which can be desirable

cons: you will be sending the same data out to multiple platforms yourself, which means you will need high computer specs and high bandwidth or else your bitrate will suffer dramatically

3. Setting up an RTMP server, such as with nginx

pros: free, lower requirements, and low delay. You control the bitrate and everything

cons: many people find this very difficult and often requires troubleshooting

That said, if you're serious about wanting to become a streamer, then where you start doesn't really matter as much as finding a source for views. Views may come from an algorithm, or igniting the passion of a group of people on a forum, or family members willing to watch the entire video in order to boost user engagement, but at the end of the day they do not magically appear for good content: you need to bring them in.

Whatever you do: DO NOT USE SHORT FORM VIDEOS as your primary format. Their audience comes and goes like the tide and they make pretty much no monetization.

I guess it would be Popular game + popular site.

Tomska did a challenge with his friends on who could get the most followers on a brand new account, and

(I hate channels changing their titles for more views. OG fans of the old title don't know what to search for now) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CFECBQh0hOY

Probably go the route of CoculesNation, as my producer, Neigsendoig, helps people like this. We do have some recent videos on the channel teaching people how to set up a local-first environment for content creation.