Extra Life 2026! Ready to Break Our Own Records
ColoradoPlays just signed up for its 13th year for Extra Life in 2026! And although we’re still working out the kinks on maintaining ColoradoPlays, I’m confident this year will be a record breaker for us.
I also decided to toss in a dash extra and pay for the platinum account and donate the rest of what the blog earned for last year. It’s not a lot, but it’s a start to get the ball rolling.
This year, I plan to incorporate a few other methods for generating income for Extra Life, including special sales of my current and upcoming books. And if we can get the YouTube channel monetized this year, that would go a long way to shattering our donation goals and records.
The Plan for ColoradoPlays & Extra Life in 2026
With the current state of the world, organizations like Extra Life try to help where governments are falling short. This year is going to be particularly difficult, as funding is getting more and more scarce.
That’s one of the reasons why ColoradoPlays is going to dial up the effort in 2026 to assist Extra Life. We’re not a massive organization, but we can still offer what little we bring in for the sake of children, even if politicians won’t.
I’m sure our plans and strategies will change as the year marches on. But at the moment, we’re working on…
Content: More Traffic Equals More Money
One of my goals for 2026 is to get this website back to its former glory. That’ll be a bit more difficult nowadays, thanks to AI Overviews and other “tools” that collect info without people actually visiting a website.
Nonetheless, we’re going to work on updating and adding new content. That means the site is more likely to attract visitors. More visitors means more ad revenue at the very least. Not to mention reviewing more products and perhaps making a buck or two through affiliate sales.
The bottom line is that more content is coming, and there are some fun posts and videos planned on the horizon. Let’s just hope we have the time to keep the momentum going this year. We all have screwy schedules, making blog and channel maintenance a bit difficult.
Livestreams Throughout the Year
Starting January 4th, I’d like ColoradoPlays to get back to Sunday night livestreams at the very minimum. These will be on both Twitch and YouTube simultaneously, thanks to using Streamlabs Ultra. It’s relatively easy to set up, and my machine and Internet can handle the dual feeds.
I would like to try to incorporate additional streams throughout the week. But currently, I’m an undergrad student and don’t have a lot of extra time for live gaming. And if we do get on, it probably won’t be at a regular timeframe. The only stream that is kind of set in stone is the Sunday night game.
In any case, we’re looking forward to playing more games this year and potentially breaking some of our own records for watch time and views. No one is going to watch the stream if you don’t hit the “Go Live” button.
Building Up the YouTube Channel
Another goal for 2026 is to build up the YouTube channel to the point of getting monetized. That would go a long way to helping us reach our goals for Extra Life in 2026. YouTube often pays more than blogging, and gaming is such a hot industry. The problem is that it’s also one of the most oversaturated industries on YouTube.
That means there are lots of competing channels for eyeballs.
In any case, the YouTube channel should still be able to double what we can donate each month as soon as we can hit 4,000 hours of watch time. It’s not as easy as you might think, especially when considering that we all have other jobs and college classes.
Yet, you never know what will wind up becoming your cup of tea until you try. Perhaps we’ll come across a game that keeps the viewers coming back for more.
Definitely Attending Gameday (weekend livestream)
Every year, we try to attend Gameday for Extra Life. But the last couple of years had been extremely rough on us, and everyone has scheduling conflicts. Remember, we also have full-time jobs and school.
However, I’ll be attending the Gameday streams for Extra Life in 2026, by myself if need be. I’m sure others will join when they can, but I’ll be running the two 12-hour streams Saturday and Sunday. Perhaps if we can maintain a regular schedule, we can attract some regular viewers to hang out with us all weekend.
I haven’t been able to stay up for 24 hours since I was in my early 40s. I’ll be 50 this year, and just can’t keep the body going for that long. Nonetheless, I’ll do what I can to support the cause.
Going Beyond the Games
Although the games, blog posts, and videos might generate the most income for us in 2026, there are several things I’m doing on the side to perhaps boost coverage of our efforts as well as Extra Life. Not to mention the other ways I plan to support the Children’s Hospital here in Denver.
Some of these include:
Blood Donations
I have secondary polycythemia. What that means is that my body produces way too many red blood cells. This increases the likelihood of heart attacks, strokes, and other cardiovascular diseases. The easiest way to treat this condition is to donate blood to the Children’s Hospital. As I am O Positive, I can donate to about 80% of people.
So, it’s a bit of a symbiotic relationship, really. They’re keeping me from stroking out, and I’m giving them a regular pint of blood every 8 weeks. I told them that they can draw more if needed, as my condition means I have plenty to spare. But I suppose legally, they can’t. Eh…one pint at a time is better than none.
Using the Books and Other Merch
The ColoradoPlays blog and YouTube channel aren’t my only brands. I’m also an author and have an online store that I’m building for books and merch. It would be easy to use some of those goods as charity products for Extra Life. Not to mention setting things up through Streamlabs Ultra, which I keep accidentally paying for every year.
Maybe I’ll publish a Dungeons & Dragons-style book in 2026 specifically for donating to Extra Life. I have a few ideas that are aside from the current series I’m working on: The Witcham Chronicles.
I’ve always wanted to roll out a D&D campaign and write the story according to the rolls. So, yes, even the “good guy” can die in this particular book. However, I’ll have to change the names and spells a bit so I don’t get sued by WOTC or Hasbro.
Perhaps I’ll just design my own dark fantasy RPG for the cause.
Ads On My Other Sites
I’m sure I can come up with a banner ad or something that is relevant for Extra Life. I have the health and fitness blog as well as the writing blog. Not to mention the side project of the YouTube resource guide.
Advertising something that isn’t relevant to a site’s niche is never a good idea. But if you can work it in somehow, even as an incidental element, it may work just fine without triggering the Google algorithm.
You also don’t want to alienate your regular audience with topics of which they have no interest.
Feel Free to Help or Join the Team!
This is my 13th year signing up with Extra Life, and I’d like to make 2026 a personal record-breaker, which currently stands at $71 back in 2019. It shouldn’t be too difficult, considering we’ve never been able to generate a lot of donations in the past.
We’re all a bunch of broke folk.
I’m still maintaining the plan to donate 30% of all ColoradoPlays.com’s income, whether it’s through AdSense or affiliates. And with the new content this year, perhaps we can increase that amount. But I’d like to still do more for the charity.
If you want to help but can’t afford to donate, all I ask is for your time. Reading blog posts and watching our videos goes further than you might realize. Then again, you can always join the team…
- Steam Replay 2025: What Games Do I Play Most? - January 8, 2026
- 6 Best Open-World Survival Crafting Games I Love - January 6, 2026
- Extra Life 2026! Ready to Break Our Own Records - January 1, 2026
