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YouTube stars heading for burnout

theguardian.com

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Re: YouTube stars heading for burnout

#71

Post by Mirioron »

mancerayder wrote: post #50

The anxieties are tied up with the relentless nature of their work. Tyler Blevins, AKA Ninja, makes an estimated $500,000 (£384,000) every month via live broadcasts of him playing the video game Fortnite on Twitch, a service for livestreaming video games that is owned by Amazon. Most of Blevins’ revenue comes from Twitch subscribers or viewers who provide one-off donations (often in the hope that he will thank them b…

But he's at the very top. How much do you think the top software developer in the world makes? The problem with streaming is that once he gets off the hamster wheel for a bit there might be no wheel to climb back on later.

Re: YouTube stars heading for burnout

#72

Post by TrainedMonkey »

da02 wrote: post #55
mancerayder wrote: post #50

The anxieties are tied up with the relentless nature of their work. Tyler Blevins, AKA Ninja, makes an estimated $500,000 (£384,000) every month via live broadcasts of him playing the video game Fortnite on Twitch, a service for livestreaming video games that is owned by Amazon. Most of Blevins’ revenue comes from Twitch subscribers or viewers who provide one-off donations (often in the hope that he will thank them b…

Is that after or before taxes?

Before taxes, he has about 100k subs who contribute around $5 each.

Loosing 40k subs is pretty significant, however I am not sure how that is possible in just 2 days. While there is an option to auto renew most twitch subscribers are not automatic, a person is usually watching the stream and chooses to subscribe. When subscription expires they can do so again. Assuming 140k subs are evenly distributed throughout the month the loss from not streaming for 48 hours should be 2/30 * 140k, this comes down to slightly less than 10k. Moreover most of these subs should rejoin once he starts streaming again.

You can see detailed breakdown here: https://twitchstats.net/subs/ninja

Re: YouTube stars heading for burnout

#73

Post by teraflop »

TrainedMonkey wrote: post #72
da02 wrote: post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is that after or before taxes?

Before taxes, he has about 100k subs who contribute around $5 each. Loosing 40k subs is pretty significant, however I am not sure how that is possible in just 2 days. While there is an option to auto renew most twitch subscribers are not automatic, a person is usually watching the stream and chooses to subscribe. When subscription expires they can do so again. Assuming 140k subs are evenly distributed throughout the…

> who contribute around $5 each.

Doesn't Twitch take roughly 50% of that?

Re: YouTube stars heading for burnout

#74

Post by hwillis »

mancerayder wrote: post #50

The anxieties are tied up with the relentless nature of their work. Tyler Blevins, AKA Ninja, makes an estimated $500,000 (£384,000) every month via live broadcasts of him playing the video game Fortnite on Twitch, a service for livestreaming video games that is owned by Amazon. Most of Blevins’ revenue comes from Twitch subscribers or viewers who provide one-off donations (often in the hope that he will thank them b…

And this fits the stereotype of older generations, and indeed Americans in general, failing to read or do even superficial research. This guy streams his life to tens of thousands of people... yeah, he's gonna be a little self-obsessed. It's all but mandatory for streamers to fuel the performance.

The guy streams 70 hours per week minimum[1]. That two day -more like one day- break cost him over $100,000, and cut his following (and salary, I guess? No clue how Twitch works.) by almost 20%[2]. There's no option to pick more PTO and trade off salary. He's stuck with this. Even as a "temporary" solution, that shit will take years off your life, and there are people who do this to just scrape by.

It's illustrative of how shitty a "profession" it is that the top streamers have to put in such an insane amount of work with no compromise ever.

[1]: https://www.twitchmetrics.net/c/19571641-ninja [2]: https://kotaku.com/ninja-takes-two-day-break-loses-40-000-su...

Re: YouTube stars heading for burnout

#76

Post by txcwpalpha »

Mirioron wrote: post #71
mancerayder wrote: post #50

The anxieties are tied up with the relentless nature of their work. Tyler Blevins, AKA Ninja, makes an estimated $500,000 (£384,000) every month via live broadcasts of him playing the video game Fortnite on Twitch, a service for livestreaming video games that is owned by Amazon. Most of Blevins’ revenue comes from Twitch subscribers or viewers who provide one-off donations (often in the hope that he will thank them b…

But he's at the very top. How much do you think the top software developer in the world makes? The problem with streaming is that once he gets off the hamster wheel for a bit there might be no wheel to climb back on later.

>The problem with streaming is that once he gets off the hamster wheel for a bit there might be no wheel to climb back on later.

Is that really a problem? He makes more in one year than most people make in their entire lifetime. Unless he's out there blowing his money on mansions and yachts (which I'm pretty sure he isn't), then he could stop at any time and retire comfortably. He doesn't need to get back on the hamster wheel.

Re: YouTube stars heading for burnout

#77

Post by elboru »

amarand wrote: post #61

I'd watched a few videos talking about the old-time YouTube content generators in the "Wild West" of the site, compared with the current grind. They tweaked things so it only seems to make sense - monetization-wise - to be a content generator if you're able to keep up with posting high-quality content daily. Myself, I'd want to post great videos that people enjoy, and if the following grows, great! If not, I would ju…

I don't like how youtubers feel obligated to produce a certain amount of videos per week. I would prefer one or two videos per month with good quality than three or four per week with clickbait titles.

Re: YouTube stars heading for burnout

#78

Post by LanceH »

teraflop wrote: post #73
TrainedMonkey wrote: post #72

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Before taxes, he has about 100k subs who contribute around $5 each. Loosing 40k subs is pretty significant, however I am not sure how that is possible in just 2 days. While there is an option to auto renew most twitch subscribers are not automatic, a person is usually watching the stream and chooses to subscribe. When subscription expires they can do so again. Assuming 140k subs are evenly distributed throughout the…

> who contribute around $5 each. Doesn't Twitch take roughly 50% of that?

That's the most they take. Higher level partners get a better cut.

If he lost 40k subscribers, that's most likely 40k renewals that didn't happen -- and they're not going to happen until he broadcasts again. It's almost a certainty he didn't lose 40k, many will have renewed once he was on again.

And if 40k subscriptions lapse over 2 days that would seem to imply that he has 600k subscribers. He doesn't. The 40k loss is just sensationalist. He didn't log in the first of the month and probably had a ton of people re-sub on the 3rd when he was back on.

Re: YouTube stars heading for burnout

#79

Post by nine_k »

hwillis wrote: post #74
mancerayder wrote: post #50

The anxieties are tied up with the relentless nature of their work. Tyler Blevins, AKA Ninja, makes an estimated $500,000 (£384,000) every month via live broadcasts of him playing the video game Fortnite on Twitch, a service for livestreaming video games that is owned by Amazon. Most of Blevins’ revenue comes from Twitch subscribers or viewers who provide one-off donations (often in the hope that he will thank them b…

And this fits the stereotype of older generations, and indeed Americans in general, failing to read or do even superficial research. This guy streams his life to tens of thousands of people... yeah, he's gonna be a little self-obsessed. It's all but mandatory for streamers to fuel the performance. The guy streams 70 hours per week minimum[1]. That two day -more like one day- break cost him over $100,000, and cut his…

Making $500k a month would allow you to save enough in a few years to jump off the hamster wheel and live completely off passive income. Not luxuriously, but better than most, and have all his time for his own.

Re: YouTube stars heading for burnout

#80

Post by noobermin »

AgentME wrote: post #42
always_good wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> they have Patreon people to keep happy Reminds me of when I briefly accepted donations from users of my forum. Suddenly it was like my life was beholden to people that had once given me $5. At least when they'd given me $0, it was pretty straightforward to dismiss their complaints and they'd looked silly when they'd demanded more of my free time. But once they gave >$0, the water got murky. I ended up refunding eve…

This makes me think of how moot (creator of 4chan) was against receiving donations from 4chan users, presumably because of this type of issue. He later started selling "4chan passes" which added certain specific features to the site. I think that was a very clever way to go about it: the people who bought them couldn't demand moot's attention. They got a very specific thing out of their money and everyone knew that.…

Perhaps a different mentality for donations helps too. People who solicit donations should somehow communicate that you are not buying a service of some kind, they are donating to you, so you're free to take the money and do whatever. It's a strange thing however when people donate a pittance (five dollars or ten dollars or something) and then expect so much for it. When you pay five dollars for a coffee, you are at least paying for something. But the word "donation" never seemed to me like it carried any serious commitment on the part of the recipient.

Perhaps the only thing the donor can expect is the recipient is to continue whatever they were doing. Beyond that it's ridiculous.

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