He's probably a partner with YouTube. He makes money based on how many views his videos gets, but iirc the bare minimum they'll accept for applying to it is 10k views per video (on average). Naturally, YouTube makes like 70% of the profit from the video, but at least he's making money off it.

 

SomethingAwful has done some fantastic LPs in the past.

ChipCheezum and General Ironicus, two extremely white guys, playing 50 Cent: Blood on the Sand was hilarious.
HelloItsDan and Lithuanian Dad playing Mercenaries 2 was also fantastic.
Geop's LPs of Assassins Creed 1 goes into pretty insane depth with the history of the region, and he's pretty far into 2.
OatmealRaising covered pretty much every facet of Dead Rising and put to bed that lingering sense of unfinished business I had with the game.
Jerusalem wrote a fantastic LP of GTA: San Andreas that reads like an illustrated novelisation of the game, and his LP of Medieval 2: Total War called A Scotsman In Egypt's Court makes for a likewise entertaining yarn.
GuavaMoment's coverage of the X-Com games is pretty good, and the follow-ups in the UFO series by JadeStar are likewise fun.

LParchive has the full list of completed SA LPs.

 

I like to watch pokemon let's plays, usually I'll play the same game that whoever I'm watching is playing. Sometimes I'll race them to see who beats it faster.

 

Fucking this.

 

I fucking love PotatoOrgy, and his Let's Play Skyrim together series with ItsPuddles was really good.

 

I'm subscribed to TheMediaCows and of their playthroughs I prefer Ray's because his commentary is excitable and consistent but he knows to shut up during cutscenes.

Honestly, the main reason I watch Let's Play videos is because I either can't play the game that interests me or I want to see what they're doing differently. In the first case, I watched Infamous 2- PS3 exclusive, and Assassin's Creed Brotherhood before it came to PC. I've been following Mass Effect 3 just to see the reaction to the ending.

 

Damn good writing.

 

I lost it when I watched their assassins creed video.

 

Freeman's Mind.

This is all that needs saying.

 

My favourite LP is Drakengard, by TheDarkId. Its a picture only LP, with an excellent balance of the humour, plot and gameplay of Drakengard. All of this guy's LPs are good actually.

Also Geop's LP of Assassin's Creed which has some really amazing historical stuff if somewhat spotty gameplay. Squint's Demon's Souls runthrough is the best instructional LP I've seen.

For me, an LP is good if I like the guy casting it. If he is too silly, to the point of not playing well (eg. Tobuscus) it gets annoying, but if it has zero humour it can be boring. Straight up gameplay is IMO the most boring LP possible, but if I like the playstyle of the dude playing then its watchable (ie. Someone who thinks like I do when I play videogames and doesnt make too many mistakes).

 

Let's Play: Fallout 2 - A BioWare fan saves the BSN! - Not your typical Let's Play because it's only written and with added pictures. It is written by one person form RPG Codex. Hilarious if you are an RPG fan and know the current situation in that particular part of the gaming development.