Its in the same camp as fanart - as long as you don't fall under the ire of the original IP owner you are generally ignored. Nintendo, in contrast, is pretty in

Its in the same camp as fanart - as long as you don't fall under the ire of the original IP owner you are generally ignored. Nintendo, in contrast, is pretty infamous for claiming monetization on Youtube lets plays of their games and getting some taken down over the years. But they also regularly go after fan works across all mediums. They do have that right - it is footage of their IP - and any game developer could sue for copyright infringement of anyone distributing recordings of their work. Its just rarely in their self interest to do so - Youtubers don't have the money to justify the legal battle (and those that do can then also afford the lawyers to protract out the contention in the courts about it despite ultimately the law being on the game publishers side) and lets plays generate free advertising for their games. How many units do you think sell when Pewdiepie plays your game? Probably way more than he makes in ad revenue off the video showcasing it. Its why developers go so far as to sponsor these kinds of videos outright - with a popular channel and a game that matches the demographic audience of the lets player you can easily way better returns paying for sponsored lets plays than using traditional advertising.