RetroBreeze: Looking Back at the Channel So Far

I started RetroBreeze in late 2019, although it was not actually called RetroBreeze at first. I cannot remember exactly what the original name was, which probably says a lot about how casually it began.

At the time, I had an urge to make a few YouTube videos, mostly about niche bits of technology that interested me. The first idea was to make a channel about KaiOS, an operating system designed for very low-cost phones. I had bought a Nokia 8110 4G, the so-called “Banana Phone”, and for a short while I thought KaiOS phones might be an interesting subject to explore. One of the first videos I made was about that phone: Kai OS unboxing… Nokia 8110 4G Banana Phone.

As it turned out, KaiOS phones mostly were not very interesting. I tried quite hard to make them interesting, but the phones themselves were limited and the ecosystem did not really go anywhere. What I did learn, though, was that I enjoyed the process of making a video. Even though that first video was very rudimentary, I enjoyed talking about the device, filming it, editing it, and trying to explain what I liked and disliked about it.

Around the same time, I was doing some web development and had discovered a static site generator called Eleventy, or 11ty. In fact, this website is built with 11ty. I liked it because it was lightweight, fast, and efficient, but there were not many videos about it at the time. So I made a quick tutorial showing how to build a simple blog with Eleventy and Netlify CMS: Code your own blog from scratch with Eleventy and Netlify CMS.

For a while, that was basically the channel: videos about whatever I happened to be interested in. There were videos about dumb phones, flip phones, controllers, web development, and even the Pirates of the Caribbean video game. The channel had no fixed subject yet. It was just an outlet for my interests, which tend to change often.

The channel really started to become RetroBreeze when I made my first retro handheld video about the Retroid Pocket 2 Plus.

The Retroid Pocket 2 Plus and the handheld pivot

The Retroid Pocket 2 Plus was the device that opened up the retro handheld world for me.

Before that, my experience with emulation had mostly been on a PC, where it always felt a bit clunky and disconnected. Sega Saturn emulation in particular had always felt like a mess to me. The last time I had seriously tried it, it was buggy, awkward, and nowhere near the smooth experience I wanted.

Then I tried Saturn games on the Retroid Pocket 2 Plus, and that was the thing that really surprised me. By today’s standards it obviously was not some impossibly powerful machine, but at the time, seeing Sega Saturn emulation running well on a small dedicated handheld felt incredible. It changed my sense of what these little devices could actually do.

That device changed the direction of the channel. I made several videos about it, and from there I started paying closer attention to the retro handheld space as a whole.

Then I got the Miyoo Mini, and that was the point where RetroBreeze really started to grow. My early Miyoo Mini coverage included videos like Tiny retro handheld with huge performance, and from there the Miyoo Mini quickly became one of the main subjects of the channel.

For a while, I became heavily focused on the Miyoo Mini. I would look through Reddit, forums, and community discussions to see what people were asking about, then make videos that answered those questions. It was a very effective workflow because the videos were genuinely useful, often fairly quick to produce, and directly tied to problems people were already trying to solve.

That period built a substantial part of the channel’s audience.

The data reflects that clearly. In my analytics export, videos with “Miyoo” in the title account for around 1.7 million views, 64,000 hours of watch time, and 7,470 subscribers. That is about 44% of the channel’s total views.

The Miyoo Mini did not just give me a device to cover. It gave the channel a proper identity.

What the channel became

Over time, RetroBreeze settled into a few clear areas:

Area	What it covered
Retro handheld reviews	Devices from Miyoo, Anbernic, Retroid, PowKiddy, R36S, and others
Software guides	Onion OS, ArkOS, box art, cheats, PS1 files, DS setup, emulator configuration
Hardware mods	Shell swaps, tablet controller mods, DIY handheld experiments
Controller and accessory reviews	GameSir, mobile controllers, Steam Deck accessories, Switch accessories
DIY and experimental projects	Custom handheld ideas, cheaper alternatives to commercial devices

The strongest version of the channel has usually been the one focused on handhelds and practical guides. When I made a video about a handheld, I was usually happy with the direction of the channel. When I was making videos about random products that had drifted too far away from that core, I was usually less happy with it.

That distinction became important later.

The numbers

RetroBreeze is not a massive YouTube channel, but it has reached a level I am proud of.

Across the analytics export I looked at, the channel had:

Metric	Total
Total views	3,906,217
Watch time	194,042.7 hours
Subscribers gained	18,921
Estimated revenue	$7,582.25
Impressions	33,074,285
Overall impression click-through rate	6.48%
Videos in export	219

The number I find easiest to emotionally overlook is the subscriber count. It is easy to see “18,900 subscribers” and immediately compare it to larger channels. But nearly 19,000 people is still a lot of people. That is a small town’s worth of people who, at some point, decided they wanted to see more of what I was making.

Growth by year

The channel’s growth was not immediate. It was slow at first, then changed dramatically once the retro handheld focus emerged.

Year	Channel views during year
2020	1,647
2021	4,338
2022	449,699
2023	1,227,780
2024	1,307,522
2025	760,049
2026 so far	155,182

The jump in 2022 is the clearest sign of the handheld pivot working. That was the year the channel stopped being a loose collection of tech interests and became something more recognisable.

The biggest calendar year in the data is 2024, with just over 1.3 million views. That is interesting because 2024 was not the year where I uploaded the most. A lot of that performance came from videos continuing to work long after release.

A good guide can keep doing its job for years, and the channel has benefited a lot from that.

The top videos

The top 10 videos show the shape of the channel quite well. There are reviews, tutorials, mods, and one Short.

Rank	Video	Published	Views	Watch time	Subscribers
1	The Most PERFECT Handheld Ever \| PowKiddy RGB30 Review	Oct 22, 2023	188,736	13,530.8 hrs	754
2	How to play PS1/PlayStation files on Miyoo Mini	Jun 5, 2022	173,464	6,161.2 hrs	802
3	Building The ULTIMATE Nintendo Switch Lite Part 1	Sep 23, 2024	164,071	11,317.9 hrs	765
4	New Nintendo Game Boy that plays all your favourite retro games! Miyoo Mini Plus	Apr 15, 2023	150,590	1,029.4 hrs	267
5	DIY PlayStation Portal that’s Better and Cheaper	Nov 30, 2023	136,414	7,763.3 hrs	409
6	How to use CHEATS on your Miyoo Mini	Oct 2, 2022	113,490	3,851.5 hrs	262
7	GameSir G8 Plus Review	Mar 22, 2025	109,926	7,473.8 hrs	284
8	Miyoo Mini Plus Stock Firmware Ultimate Guide	Apr 5, 2023	95,175	6,160.2 hrs	508
9	Nintendo DS on Miyoo Mini / Miyoo Mini Plus	Sep 23, 2023	85,099	2,508.5 hrs	201
10	Add Stunning Box Art To Your Miyoo Mini	Jun 4, 2022	71,439	3,011.8 hrs	565

The strongest video overall is the PowKiddy RGB30 review, which reached around 188,700 views and generated more than 13,500 hours of watch time. That video also did well through affiliate sales, which was a big deal for me at the time.

The second-biggest video is not a review at all. It is a tutorial on playing PS1 files on the Miyoo Mini, covering PBP, CHD conversion, and disc swapping. That video gained 802 subscribers, more than any other video in the top 10. It is a good example of practical tutorial content doing long-term work. Ironically, the information in that video is correct, but I missed a major related topic that really should have been included. I have meant to revisit it for a long time, partly because I still get questions about that missing piece today.

The Switch Lite shell swap video is another standout. It reached 164,071 views and more than 11,300 hours of watch time, even though I still have not released Part 2. That was supposed to cover the SUPER5 OLED mod, but I never managed to get it working correctly. It is one of those unfinished channel threads that I would still like to resolve one day.

Tutorials worked because they solved real problems

The Miyoo Mini tutorial era was probably the purest version of the channel’s early success. I was finding questions people already had and answering them in video form.

Those videos included:

The PS1 tutorial is the best example of how this type of content behaves. It did not explode immediately. It had only a few thousand views in its first month, but it kept growing because the problem kept existing. People kept buying Miyoo devices, kept running into PS1 file format confusion, and kept searching for help.

That kind of video is valuable because it becomes part of the device ecosystem. It is not just something people watch once because a product is new. It is something people find when they actually need it.

Reviews, free products, and the trap I fell into

As the channel grew, I started receiving products for review.

That was genuinely exciting. One of my earliest dreams for the channel was not to become rich or famous, but to get cool stuff in the mail. I am not ashamed to admit that. At the start, that was a real motivator.

My first actual collaboration was with GameBall on October 15th, 2022, when the channel had around 3,000 subscribers. I knew they were a tiny company in a tiny niche within a niche, so I simply emailed them and asked whether they would send over their gaming-focused trackball. They said yes, and I really enjoyed using it.

Not long after that, I reached out to XtremeSkins, a small local UK business, because I had just got a Steam Deck. They were also kind enough to send something over, which became my XtremeSkins Steam Deck skin review.

The first company to contact me directly was Kovol, who reached out about a 140W power plug on November 10th, 2022, when the channel had around 3,600 subscribers. My first gaming-themed inbound collaboration came shortly after, when PlayVital contacted me on November 20th, 2022, with the channel at around 4,200 subscribers. They sent over Switch and Steam Deck accessories, including items covered in videos like this PlayVital Switch OLED accessory video and this PlayVital Steam Deck accessories video.

The first retro handheld collaboration came later, with the Miyoo Mini Plus from MechDIY on March 19th, 2023, when the channel had around 5,500 subscribers. Then GoGameGeek offered to work with me on August 21st, 2023, when the channel was around 8,000 subscribers.

That timeline matters because it shows how gradually the channel moved from “I would love someone to send me something” to being a channel companies actually contacted. It was exciting, and in many ways it was exactly what I had wanted. It also created problems I was not prepared for.

At that stage, RetroBreeze was becoming established as a retro handheld and gaming-focused channel. I had started covering handheld news as well, including developments around the AYN Loki, which I was heavily invested in. Literally invested in, in fact, because I had around £600 tied up in it. Despite that whole debacle, it was money well spent, because the Loki Max remains one of my favourite handhelds. I covered the Loki a few times, including videos like AYN Loki huge update / Q&A, AYN Loki redesigned first look, and AYN Loki Max Batocera quick look.

I also started experimenting with DIY videos, including a project to build my own retro handheld. That project is still technically in development, even though I have not posted an update on it for a couple of years. The most recent video in that project was DIY retro gaming handheld console Part 2.

As more companies got in touch, I started accepting more review items. Some were relevant. Some were only loosely relevant. Some were not really relevant at all.

That became a problem.

It is hard for me to say no to something free, especially when I find the item interesting in some way. But accepting a product creates an obligation. Once I had said yes, I felt I had to make the video.

That led to a cycle where I had a pile of products I needed to review, while the videos I actually wanted to make were pushed further back. Long-planned tutorials, editorial videos, and more thoughtful projects kept getting delayed because I had review obligations.

At the worst point, I was receiving things like GaN chargers, chairs, capture cards, and a lot of game controllers. Reviewing a chair in particular was a huge time sink. Controller reviews were more complicated because I actually enjoyed making them, but they usually performed badly. For me, controller reviews were often the opposite of evergreen content. They would get a small burst of attention and then die within a couple of days.

That may sound like a ridiculous thing to complain about. I was receiving free products and then complaining about the work attached to them. But that is the honest history of what happened. It changed the shape of the channel, and not always in a direction I liked.

When the channel was about handhelds, tutorials, and useful mods, I felt aligned with it. When it drifted into a backlog of unrelated review obligations, I did not.

The community side

One of the best things to come out of RetroBreeze has been the community around it.

I appeared on the Retro Handhelds Podcast a few times and became involved in the Retro Handhelds Discord community. Retro Handhelds later made me an official RH partner and gave me my own channel in their Discord, which was genuinely lovely.

I cannot overstate how much the Retro Handhelds community helped RetroBreeze succeed. Their support mattered enormously at the time, and it still does.

I have also been lucky to know and be supported by people in the same space, including Retro Game Corps, Aidan Walls, Rob the Retro Tech Dad, Team Retrogue, and the wider Retro Handhelds team. We all cover similar topics, but the atmosphere has been far more collaborative than competitive. People help each other, share information, boost each other’s work, and generally make the space better.

That is quite rare online, and I am very grateful for it.

What the data says about format

One thing the analytics make clear is that long-form content is the core of RetroBreeze.

Duration	Videos	Views	Watch time
Shorts / under 1 minute	20	404,666	2,043.0 hrs
1–5 minutes	33	306,540	8,385.6 hrs
5–10 minutes	44	854,970	30,822.7 hrs
10–20 minutes	80	1,071,793	62,872.9 hrs
20+ minutes	42	1,266,554	89,839.2 hrs

Shorts have brought in views, but they are not the heart of the channel. Videos over 20 minutes account for around 32% of views but over 46% of total watch time. The 10–20 minute range is also strong.

That fits what I feel about the channel. RetroBreeze works best when there is time to explain something properly. A quick Short might introduce a device, but it cannot replace a proper guide, review, or modding project.

The videos that stand out to me

The RGB30 review is one of the clearest successes. It was the right device, at the right time, with a clear angle. The RGB30 was distinctive because of its square screen, and people were genuinely interested in what that meant for retro gaming. It also helped inspire an entire sub-genre of square-screen retro handhelds, which is still a little strange to think about.

The GameSir G8 modding video is another important one. I received the controller early, immediately modded it, and uploaded the video quickly. It became one of the channel’s strongest evergreen videos. The funny thing is that the mod would have been much easier if I had owned flush cutters at the time. I did not, so I used a craft knife, which made the whole thing far more awkward than it needed to be.

The PS1 files on Miyoo Mini video is one of the best examples of tutorial content working exactly as intended. It answered a specific question, and people kept finding it.

The Switch Lite shell swap video is both a success and an unfinished thread. It performed very well, but I never released Part 2 because the SUPER5 OLED mod never worked properly for me. I would still like to return to it at some point, even if only to close the loop.

On a more personal level, the N-Gage tutorial might be my favourite video I have made. It was early, earnest, and covered a hugely niche topic and platform that I was genuinely passionate about. It was detailed, well produced, and very much the kind of video that reminds me why I enjoy making things for the channel in the first place.

Where things slowed down

At the time of writing, it has been 281 days since my last upload, which is a slightly alarming number to look at written down.

My personal life has changed a lot in that time. First, my daughter turned one, and she is now almost two and walking. Other parents will probably understand what that means in practical terms. She has occupied about 98% of my free time lately, and that is not really an exaggeration.

Second, work has been busy, which is not particularly interesting, but it is still a real factor. When work is demanding and home is demanding, YouTube becomes much harder to fit in.

Third, I achieved a lifelong dream and bought my first home. That has been wonderful, but the house has also needed an unimaginable amount of DIY over the last few months to make it properly liveable for my family. For a while, it felt close to a second full-time job. We finally have it in a good state, but getting there took a lot of time and energy.

Finally, baby number two is due in three months, which is still very hard to believe.

So RetroBreeze has been on hold, but not because I stopped caring about it. Life simply became very full very quickly.

What RetroBreeze means to me

Not to be too dramatic, but RetroBreeze is one of the crowning achievements of my life so far.

It is a modestly successful channel, but it is something I built myself from a fairly vague urge to make videos about interesting technology. Over time, it became a real channel, with a real audience, real friendships, real opportunities, and a body of work I am proud of.

It is easy to get lost in numbers. A subscriber count can become just another metric. But when I stop and think about it properly, nearly 19,000 people have chosen to follow the channel. Some of them are potentially waiting for the next video. Some have used my guides to set up a device. Some have watched a review before buying something. Some have followed the channel for years.

I have loved building RetroBreeze. I have loved being part of the retro handheld community. I have loved receiving ridiculous gadgets in the post, even when I accidentally created too much work for myself. I have loved making tutorials, reviewing handhelds, modding hardware, and finding small ways to make these devices more useful and enjoyable.

The channel is paused right now, but it does not feel finished. I cannot wait to make the next video.

SHEM3D

RetroBreeze Youtube Channel