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Up all night with a Twitch millionaire

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Re: Up all night with a Twitch millionaire

#191

Post by slightwinder »

tinus_hn wrote: post #180
slightwinder wrote: post #152

Earlier quoted context omitted.

To give some numbers: There are more than 10 millions Streamers on Twitch, of which 5 millions are streaming regularly. The top 10_000 of them earns barely minimum wage or more. The Top 1000-5000 is earning some decent money on middle-class-level and the millionairs-club is around Top 100. And these numbers are globally, meaning all streamers from all countries. So we are still talking about an absurd low number of p…

A service that makes 100 users a millionaire is a low number? And by the way, there is no way to know how much people are really making because they not only get money through Twitch but also through tip systems, merchandise, promotion, sponsors and other revenue generating activities.

Yes, but the twitch-numbers reflect a streamers potential for earning money through merchandise, promotion, sponsors and other revenue generating activities. There usually is a direct enough link between them. Tipping is a bit more special, but it's quite unlikely that a small 20 viewer-streamer will get a million-dollar-tip regularly. So you can make an educated guess of the general income, at least regarding someone's success as a streamer.

Of course it's always possible that someone is far more successful outside of twitch. Like an established celeb who streams without monetization. But I don't think it makes sense to discuss those special cases here.

Re: Up all night with a Twitch millionaire

#192

Post by tester756 »

siruncledrew wrote: post #13
jrockway wrote: post #3

What's the career progression for streamers and eSports players, anyway? I feel like everyone that does this now is going to be tired of it in 5 years, and then they're just 30 and without a college degree or job experience.

If someone is an esports player, it would be hard to stay a professional (in most action games at least) at age 30 simply due to natural wear on your hands and reaction times getting slower.

In CS:GO there were players around their 30s and were successful

https://liquipedia.net/counterstrike/Virtus.pro

e.g

>2016-07-30 1st S-Tier Offline ELEAGUE ELEAGUE Season 1 2 : 0 Fnatic $400,000

Re: Up all night with a Twitch millionaire

#193

Post by tester756 »

blahblah123456 wrote: post #49
mym1990 wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This doesn't really make sense. Athletes in many sports are playing way past their 'prime' these days and they are wearing out much more than just their hands. Consistently good reaction times are a result of consistent training. Plenty of older baseball/tennis players have superhuman reaction times. I would see mental fatigue and boredom as being the major hurdle to playing esports on a professional level at an olde…

It's counterintuitive, but if you look at eSports players, the prime years are much lower (both the start and the end). You do see 16 year olds at the top but you never see 30 year olds. It feels like the prime is really 16-25. Reaction times in traditional sports are not as important, and hands are one of the worst things to wear out. More parts != more wear out. There's a reason why there are (general) physical the…

> You do see 16 year olds at the top but you never see 30 year olds.

In CS:GO there were players around their 30s and were successful

https://liquipedia.net/counterstrike/Virtus.pro

e.g

>2016-07-30 1st S-Tier Offline ELEAGUE ELEAGUE Season 1 2 : 0 Fnatic $400,000

Re: Up all night with a Twitch millionaire

#194

Post by prawn »

jay_kyburz wrote: post #178
belval wrote: post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I am not saying this is a real job prospect. If a kid told me he wanted to be a Twitch streamer I'd say he can't be one, same as professional singer or musician in general. What I am saying that what Tyler has very much is a real job and successful business. You wouldn't say Taylor Swift is jobless because very few people make it in the pop music world.

If my kid told me they wanted to be a twitch streamer I would advise them against investing a significant amount of time and effort building a business with a single gatekeeper. If they wanted to be a famous personality, I would insist they start building a profile on every platform.

I'd advise them to dominate a new platform as an early adopter and then spread out from there. Or put out content very consistently on 2-3 platforms. But even spreading yourself between two accounts let alone multiple platforms is time consuming.

Re: Up all night with a Twitch millionaire

#195

Post by paulpauper »

slightwinder wrote: post #160
paulpauper wrote: post #133

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Once you have a few millions secured, it is hard to blow it if you invest and save prudently. It's not like when he turns 30 he will be back to poverty. There is too much negativity and doom and gloom. These gamers, e-celebs are making a lot of money and will not be destitute when their star fades. Today's internet celebs are much better at saving and investing their money compared to celebs of decades ago, who blew…

Actually it's very easy to blow some millions. Sportspeople, lotto-winners and such are doing it all the time. Handling money wisely is a skill you need to learn and master. That guy is in esports, so he is generally very risk-friendly, so chances are high that he is also investing and wasting his money on risky investments and potentially losing it.

I think these twitter gamers and celebs are smarter than mainstream athletes lotto winners in terms of higher IQ , and thus are better at personal finance and budgeting

Re: Up all night with a Twitch millionaire

#196

Post by chii »

sailingparrot wrote: post #95
dvt wrote: post #46

Imo we should be lauding this brand new sector and the folks that made it in it. Twitch/YouTube/TikTok literally created a new kind of millionaire. Are we just upset we're also not uber rich for playing video games all day? It's the same with crypto, OnlyFans, and so on. It was the same in '99 with the dot coms. Merely from an economic standpoint, it's interesting to see who these new industries are displacing (since…

> Imo we should be lauding this brand new sector and the folks that made it in it. Twitch/YouTube/TikTok literally created a new kind of millionaire. You provide no explanation as to why we should be lauding them. Or are you implying that because someone is a millionaire then we should automatically laud them? Is that what late stage capitalism looks like?

one would laud them the same way HN lauds over successful startup founders and YC'ers. They are entrepreneurial and hardworking.

Re: Up all night with a Twitch millionaire

#197

Post by chii »

dathinab wrote: post #162
jeffchien wrote: post #99

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think it's possible to both respect how they got there and their agency, but also feel some mixed feelings about their lifestyles. Especially if you see tyler1 and xqc do 8+/10+ hour streams every day respectively, while taking 1-2 vacations per year. "Pity" might be too judgemental, but I personally don't envy that lifestyle. It's just like respecting boxers' and NFL players' success, while not wanting to be in th…

> 8+/10+ hour streams every day respectively, while taking 1-2 vacations per year. Sounds like the live of very many self-employed people. Like even if you just have a small shop going with 10h a day 6 days a week without vacation for many years isn't that rare of a story to hear.

but the success of a small shop owner doesn't have the same scale as the e-celebrities, despite similar time commitments.

Re: Up all night with a Twitch millionaire

#198

Post by mbesto »

slightwinder wrote: post #152
kzrdude wrote: post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not a real job is a quite good stance to take. Because there is an absurd power law at play here, the absolute top make a lot of money. In a "real job" you are paid a living wage, on twitch you are paid scraps if you don't make it to the top.

To give some numbers: There are more than 10 millions Streamers on Twitch, of which 5 millions are streaming regularly. The top 10_000 of them earns barely minimum wage or more. The Top 1000-5000 is earning some decent money on middle-class-level and the millionairs-club is around Top 100. And these numbers are globally, meaning all streamers from all countries. So we are still talking about an absurd low number of p…

Now do this for football players.

Over the age of 6: 5.16 million

High school: 1 million

College: 70k

Pro: 1,700

Also a power law distribution.

Re: Up all night with a Twitch millionaire

#199

Post by mbesto »

slightwinder wrote: post #167
lhorie wrote: post #93

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Imo we should be lauding this brand new sector I disagree. Twitch/YouTube/TikTok didn't create a new kind of millionaire. They're simply celebrities. The only thing that arguably changed is that content production is so cheap and saturated now that consumers get a lot more choice in terms of who they want to watch, without being constrained by TV schedules and other distribution/logistics limitations. There is no "…

> I disagree. Twitch/YouTube/TikTok didn't create a new kind of millionaire. They're simply celebrities. Yes and no. They are celebs, but definitely a new style of celebs. They are your average Joe, with barely any special skill. They could be your neighbor or the dude next to you in a supermarket, and you wouldn't know. Furthermore, they are millionaire working from home, growing from home, with average equipment an…

> They are your average Joe, with barely any special skill.

You've clearly never been to a restaurant in LA or NY. These are chock full of "average Joes" working as bartenders and waitresses just waiting to "make it" in movies, tvs, commercials.

Many of the top twitch streamers have legitimate "skill", it's just not the skill you might be referring to in classic entertainment. For example "360 no scope sniper kills" might be the equivalent of "funny one liner quips".

Re: Up all night with a Twitch millionaire

#200

Post by evandwight »

tester756 wrote: post #187
kubb wrote: post #62

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Do you really imply that playing the same game over and over again (with some variables but still) is the same as solving programming problems? The game is literally designed to hook you in and make you play one more and one more. You absolutely can autopilot through a game and still win. Don't get me wrong, the guy has a lot of dedication for sure. But playing League all day is really not like coding all day, I don'…

I have 5?k hours in LoL around high plat / in previous season low diamond and I'd say that LoL while being different from competitive programming is still exhausting if you want to play it with full focus for a few hours. Of course there's difference between playing ARAMs for fun and tryharding on "relatively competent" ELO where you try to do not commit mistakes as hard as you can and games are not "fiestas" (lack o…

How often do you engage your slow brain (from thinking fast and slow)?

I feel like it's like speed chess and not normal chess. You have no time to think till after the game, you just have to do and trust your gut.

The slow brain is what exhausts you.

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