When Jordan Maron started posting clips of himself playing video­games on YouTube, he wasn't looking to get famous. "I wanted to get better at Call of Duty," he says. But audiences loved his sense of humor, and several of his creations—like animated music videos set in the sandbox construction game Minecraft—became massive viral hits.

Four years after taking his hobby full-time, the Internet video star now known as "CaptainSparklez" has one of the hottest brands in gaming, with nearly 9 million YouTube subscribers and a catalog of nearly 3,000 videos that have been watched, cumulatively, over 2 billion times. Advertisers are beating down his door for game endorsements, sponsored videos and merchandise deals: He's even got an action figure you can buy at Toys "R" Us. But Maron's biggest achievement this year happened behind the screen: In May his game studio XREAL released its first title, a mobile game called Fortress Fury. It's been downloaded some 2 million times.

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