Poll: The Youtube/Twitch Generation?

[Gimpymoo]

How do so many people apparently make a living from this?

Not talking about a "few quid" to buy prostitutes and drugs, we are talking enough money to pay a mortgage and raise a family.

Where does the money come from?

Multiplay fly people in from all over the world for the Insomnia Gaming Festival because they are "superstars" apparently?

Is this a bubble which is ever going to burst or is it just only going to grow?

Where is all the money coming from?

 

[neoboy]

Ad revenue, merchandise, affiliate programmes, donations and subscriptions if they use live streaming services like Twitch.

 

[africanos23]

It's like everything else in the world. Those that work hard and smart get paid (usually 1-2 years in), some never make it.

In terms of Youtube/Twitch you need to be a good player or have access to the games/hardware pre-release or on release.

You get money from Adsense (Google ads), affiliate links (Amazon) and sponsorships.

 

[Gimpymoo]

Ad revenue, merchandise, affiliate programmes, donations and subscriptions if they use live streaming services like Twitch.

I understand the gross income can be high but after everyone has taken their cut, the net income I did not think would be that high.

There are lots of people taking a slice of the pie. I expect the net income is a fraction of the amount coming in. Do these people pay taxes?

Also, who are these people who are putting the money into the pot anyway? Kids with rich parents?

We need a poll.

 

[Rroff]

I dunno about the bubble bursting but the money from it is spreading thinner at some point it will probably reset a bit but those at the top will probably still survive (lately some have had to double up on their advertising, etc. to make what they used to).

Quite a few of the big names though that are raking it in came/come from money that was used to set themselves up though there are a few that have hit a sweet spot and done well from nothing.

I know a couple of people who make not insignificant money from it - one has tons of views but doesn't make all that much - for awhile was down to only having to work 2 days a week but now back to fulltime while the other only gets around 6K views per video but seems to be raking it in between ad revenue, patreon and merchandising, etc.


EDIT: I can't really see the bubble bursting/money drying up entirely though - these days if you aren't hitting the awareness of the youtube/twitch generation you are increasingly off the radar as a company so it pays to be involved in that.

 

[neoboy]

I understand the gross income can be high but after everyone has taken their cut, the net income I did not think would be that high.

There are lots of people taking a slice of the pie. I expect the net income is a fraction of the amount coming in. Do these people pay taxes?

Also, who are these people who are putting the money into the pot anyway? Kids with rich parents?

We need a poll.

Imagine they pay taxes as self employed so take from that what you will

In case of those who are based in countries with lower living costs but have Western audiences it also helps a lot.

Perhaps another important source of revenue is gaming publishers themselves, in case of certain games they can pay for you to attend events and getting monthly pay from them just to stream their games is not unheard of.

I don't think it's an easy job though and you have to be exceptionally good to be at the top (and remain there) where the really good money is. Most are pumping out a video per day on Youtube, stream a few times a week and possibly attending various gaming events. It also comes with the other pitfalls of being self employed such as basically not getting paid if you're not working and you can fall off the radar pretty quick.

It is somewhat fascinating to myself as a slightly older gamer though, fact that most people would rather watch someone play than play themselves nowadays. Furthermore that they would then even give that person money directly but they are minor celebrities in their own right I suppose. There is a lot of relationship building with the community and to be able to directly interact with your gaming celebrity is probably a kick to a lot of people.

 

[Rroff]

I don't think it's an easy job though and you have to be exceptionally good to be at the top (and remain there) where the really good money is.

Some of them even have crews these days lol - noticed a couple have what looks like a media student or something (assumption) following them around (sometimes mistaken for their girlfriend) doing some of the camera work, etc.

 

[Gimpymoo]

Some of them even have crews these days lol - noticed a couple have what looks like a media student or something (assumption) following them around (sometimes mistaken for their girlfriend) doing some of the camera work, etc.

It is smart I guess to branch out to stuff "none gaming" related as if you can post a three minute "Hey, look at my new hat" video, that could be good business. Youtube pays per number of views, not length of video right?

 

[Rroff]

It is smart I guess to branch out to stuff "none gaming" related as if you can post a three minute "Hey, look at my new hat" video, that could be good business. Youtube pays per number of views, not length of video right?

vlogs seem to have taken off massively - though most of them seem to end up with it going to their head and end up boring heh - though they still seem to pull in a lot of the younger audience :S

 

[neoboy]

Some of them even have crews these days lol - noticed a couple have what looks like a media student or something (assumption) following them around (sometimes mistaken for their girlfriend) doing some of the camera work, etc.

Video editing is a pretty labour intensive task, wouldn't be surprised if they have people doing that for them as well and if they are on top of their game then having a PA style person is probably a given.

 

[Twirlywoos]

vlogs seem to have taken off massively - though most of them seem to end up with it going to their head and end up boring heh - though they still seem to pull in a lot of the younger audience :S

each to their own but personally I don't give a **** about someone's life. It's like e-stalking.

But I do know that they are extremely popular and that American guy with the funny nose makes a killing.

 

[Rroff]

each to their own but personally I don't give a **** about someone's life. It's like e-stalking.

But I do know that they are extremely popular and that American guy with the funny nose makes a killing.

Largely I find them not to my taste especially those that are going to extremes just to get attention but there are 1-2 who've so far managed to stay mostly grounded and I find somewhat interesting.

 

[wellibob]

If your life is boring. Watch someone else's. It's the media world. Few I've followed, all eventually become up the own bottom. Not seen one that's stayed totally down to earth when they make good money anyway.

 

[neoboy]

Still better than reality TV to be fair

 

[prjwebb]

Some like moonmoon streaming overwatch on twitch has nearly 12000 subscribers from each he earns $2.50 a month plus a lot of donations daily and ad revenue.
It's insane how well some people are doing from playing video games and talking ****.

 

[~>Dg<~]

How do so many people apparently make a living from this?

Not talking about a "few quid" to buy prostitutes and drugs, we are talking enough money to pay a mortgage and raise a family.

Where does the money come from?

Multiplay fly people in from all over the world for the Insomnia Gaming Festival because they are "superstars" apparently?

Is this a bubble which is ever going to burst or is it just only going to grow?

Where is all the money coming from?

first the thing to understand is no one is making a living from this unless they doing 500,000 or 1,000,000 views a week.when you understand in reality what earnings are actually made and understand how hard that is then you realize there isnt that many who do it for a job.

1,000,000 views earns you about £600.

to get that kind of views per week you need either serious connects or probably 500,000 plus subscribers.so probably not even 1 percent of youtube.

so yes you can make money but not enough to live on. unless you hitting big numbers which very few do every week.

anyone can have a big one time hit and get millions of views.if done right but doing that week in week out is hard.takes skill,art,connections.

yes media is easier to do now.since mobiles became good quality.now it costs literally nothing to make videos.


twitch sort of similar if people are honest.to get partnered which you really need to do to get anywhere you need to avg about 120-150 per stream for over a month then submit for approval.if accepted which is not always a yes even with the right amount you get partnered.sometimes building up that viewer base can take a long time.maybe years.as above you need connections as much as you can make media.

once subsribes sub to your channel for money you got to build that up and in reality unless you got thousands and thousands you aint earning a wage from it.

the confusion is people who dont understand how youtube and twitch work or earn from it see someone had so many this and that and just assume they earn good money from it.when in reality they dont.also many bs about what they earn or get.anyone who knows the inside of both know what you earn.so no point in lying.

the good thing about doing media is sometimes you get linked up to other jobs through doing it which maybe awesome.

 

[africanos23]

Twitch is a different beast to youtube or the likes.

Usually what happens is you either are the first to stream a newly released game, are a PRO gamer and/or are very consistent like CohhCarnage which streams hours on end daily for the last 2 years+.

There's definetly a luck factor involved in the whole thing but as I have mentioned above it has a lot to do with consistency/skill.

I have a big data sample (3 million+ views) of Adsense revenue aswell as Amazon affiliate earnings (500 thousand+ USD product sales) from my personal projects but youtube pays much less for views.

 

[Stelly]

Poll added

Stelly

 

[Shamikebab]

I have contributed to twitch streamers every so often, it's a form of entertainment and it's nice to support them where I can.

 

[silversurfer]

It's insane how well some people are doing from playing video games and talking ****.

Seems similar to spinning discs and talking in between songs. Is that so different, a lot of streams just have a ton of music anyway. Couple Ive seen they are playing the guitar or piano themselves. This is just a new medium for broadcast.

In future what will be new is if the audience can interact more, now its mostly chat spam or the occasional vote which even live TV manages to do already.
Ocuk has Valkia who runs a big stream, maybe ask him any questions about this stuff. Also anyone who is 'subbed' to Amazon prime gets a free bonus on twitch every month as well, not everybody realises this I think