Masahiro Sakurai on Creating Games
Image: via YouTube

Update [Wed 31st Aug, 2022 05:45 BST]: Following on from the launch of Sakurai's YouTube channels last week which gained 200,000 subscribers in less than 24 hours (see the original story below), exactly one week later he's announced his channels have now exceeded a combined total of 700,000 subscribers.

That's his English YouTube page and also the Japanese one. His English channel currently sits at 379K subscribers, and his Japanese channel has 326K subscribers. Not to take away from this milestone, but as some have pointed out, his fans could possibly be following both channels, which would no doubt bolster numbers. Still, the fact is it's a combined amount of 700K in a week!

Here's his latest message thanking everyone and mentioning how in time he may surpass his Twitter subscriber count (currently just under a million followers).

"In the week since I started my channel, I've uploaded five videos and somehow gained over 700,000 subscribers between EN and JP! My hope is that as more people watch these videos, games as a whole will grow even more fun. Thank you so much for watching!"

Have you subscribed to Sakurai's YouTube channels yet? Tell us below.


Original article [Thu 25th Aug, 2022 02:05 BST]: We always knew Masahiro Sakurai had a loyal fanbase, and this has been proven once again with the Super Smash Bros. Ultimate director gaining over 200,000 YouTube subscribers (on his English channel) in less than 24 hours of his account's launch.

Yes, following the official announcement yesterday - Sakurai has already surpassed 200k subs! It seems it's even caught him by surprise so far. Here's what he had to say in a rough translation, courtesy of Google:

"Thank you for the great feedback! The number of subscribers was double digits higher than expected..."

He also seems to be keen to "remove" any commercials, as he does not want to monetize the channel:

"In order to remove the commercials, it is not enough to just turn off the monetization settings, maybe it is necessary to enter the Youtube partner program and turn off the commercials...? I can't seem to set it up yet, so I'll try it later."

Sakurai's Japanese YouTube channel has also gained more than 185k subscribers.

So far, Sakurai has uploaded a total of three videos. His first one was an "about" video - explaining how his goal is to try and make games around the world more fun by sharing the knowledge he's gained from the video game industry. At the time of writing, it's already got over 200,000 views and 40k Likes.

He will also be providing some "behind-the-scenes" glimpses into various aspects of development, including footage of Smash-related design documents and dev builds (and don't worry, he's apparently got approval from Nintendo for this).

While Sakurai's YouTube subscriber count is impressive, it shouldn't be all that surprising considering just how popular he is within the video game community and factoring in that he's already got more than 980,000 followers on the social media platform Twitter.

Have you subscribed to Masahiro Sakurai's YouTube channel yet? Leave a comment down below.