Google has released some interesting statistics on game video footage that appear in the most popular video service YouTube. Google analyzed anonymized views of gaming content on YouTube in the U.S. from 2011 and 2012 to learn how gamers behave, what they value, and what this means to game marketers moving forward.

The study titled “Gamers on YouTube: Evolving Video Consumption,” highlights the impact consumers have on official and unofficial videos games on YouTube. It suggests that players rely heavily on these videos for information on new titles or, more generally, to keep informed about the world of video games.

According to the research, in 2012, the amount of time people spent watching gaming videos on YouTube more than doubled over the year before. As report points out, more than 95% of the players turning to gaming videos on YouTube. Videos created by the community make up 47% of views, which is a remarkable figure that shows how the players have confidence above all other players rather than content issued by the game producers. Nearly 50% of overall views were for videos made by developers/publishers and representatives of the press, such as trailers, announcement videos, official gameplay and others.

The report further states that much of that growth was fueled by video consumption on mobile devices. In 2012, one in three views of gaming-related videos occurred on a tablet or smartphone, nearly double that of 2011. Google hypothesizing that these were “second screen” views, done while gaming on a TV or PC for things like FAQs.

It is worth noting that earlier this year, Nintendo began to make money on custom video (which uses IP from Nintendo), such as “Let’s Play”. But a month after the announcement, Kotaku reports that the popular YouTube user – Zach Scott posted Let’s Play movie was dubbed from “leap of faith”. Nintendo not only reacted to it, and even returned the money to Zack.

Most players are watching movies in their spare time. During weekends and summer vacations, the volume viewing experience greatly increased by 18%. Viewing spiked during the summer, with views in June growing by 17% month-over month. Traditional prime time television hours occurred between 6:00 PM and 10:00 PM saw video viewing increased by 32%.

Google said the increased consumption of gaming video was partially driven by growth of subscribers to game channels. Game views from subscribers jumped 9 X year-over-years in 2012. Those who were subscribers watched game content for twice as long as non-subscribers.

Interestingly, the report also focused on the types of content watched by us and breaks them down into periods. Nearly 24% fans mostly watched content released by the brand, such as announce, 16 % watched at gameplay demo, and 10% at launch videos. Prelaunch, 63% of announce videos and 69% of launch videos were viewed on desktops, While 50% of game tutorial videos were consumed on smartphones or tablets after post launch.

“Brand-released and third-party videos associated with highly anticipated moments like the announce, the initial view of gameplay, and the review of a game had the most shares and comments per view in 2012. Community-created content, such as tutorials, walkthroughs and game powered entertainment videos, received more “likes” and “dislikes” per view in 2012,” says the study.

The study was based on selecting the top 10 console games of 2012 and analyzing 170 videos – from the early announcement, the launch and the period after purchase. This allows Google to keep track of how audiences behave in different stages.

With the rise of video-enabled devices and community video contents, video continues to be a means for game companies to come closer to consumers. These stats is very important for companies that produce games, since one of the current trends in the industry is precisely the use of a second screen – a trend that is eventually validated by Google study.