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On Twitch, you can never log off

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Re: On Twitch, you can never log off

#91

Post by fbdab103 »

CobrastanJorji wrote: post #78
vimwizard wrote: post #53

I think a more interesting story would be about the people that grind for years and years and never make it. You're left without a useful skill and no money, and probably a deficit on your mental health because you didn't go out and talk to people in real life for years. I think its not at all worth getting into as a career because making it big is like starting out as an actor, you have to know people. If you hit it…

The folks who don't make it are an interesting group on their own. Something like 95% of streamers have under five viewers, and the majority of those have exactly zero viewers. Thinking about all those thousands of people broadcasting day in and out to exactly nobody is kind of fascinating. It's not like broadcasting on a ham radio or shouting into the aether or blogging on a little independent site thinking that may…

Probably not all that different from musicians/artists/writers/bloggers who never attain any audience. However, the immediacy of the feedback would be soul crushing.

Truly interesting.

Re: On Twitch, you can never log off

#92

Post by tobr »

CobrastanJorji wrote: post #78
vimwizard wrote: post #53

I think a more interesting story would be about the people that grind for years and years and never make it. You're left without a useful skill and no money, and probably a deficit on your mental health because you didn't go out and talk to people in real life for years. I think its not at all worth getting into as a career because making it big is like starting out as an actor, you have to know people. If you hit it…

The folks who don't make it are an interesting group on their own. Something like 95% of streamers have under five viewers, and the majority of those have exactly zero viewers. Thinking about all those thousands of people broadcasting day in and out to exactly nobody is kind of fascinating. It's not like broadcasting on a ham radio or shouting into the aether or blogging on a little independent site thinking that may…

> Something like 95% of streamers have under five viewers, and the majority of those have exactly zero viewers. Thinking about all those thousands of people broadcasting day in and out to exactly nobody is kind of fascinating.

When you say the majority of 95% have exactly zero viewers, do you mean at a given point in time, or ever? That makes a big difference for how to think of their situation to me.

Re: On Twitch, you can never log off

#93

Post by jatins »

vimwizard wrote: post #53

I think a more interesting story would be about the people that grind for years and years and never make it. You're left without a useful skill and no money, and probably a deficit on your mental health because you didn't go out and talk to people in real life for years. I think its not at all worth getting into as a career because making it big is like starting out as an actor, you have to know people. If you hit it…

> I think a more interesting story would be about the people that grind for years and years and never make it.

I wonder the same for athletes. Was recently reading Nadal's biography and parts of book describe his routine in childhood and teenage. And my first thought on reading that was "what if he hadn't made it to the top?" because he essentially had no semblance of a regular childhood/teenage. Being out on the field at 5am day after day, year after year seems only worth it in hindsight if you make it to the top.

I guess, in the end, Gita captured this as well: the only way to be able to put extraordinary effort is to not care about the outcome.

Re: On Twitch, you can never log off

#95

Post by govg »

enlyth wrote: post #20
dmonitor wrote: post #10

Seems like a lot of streamers think that streaming = not working. By the time they realize streaming is a job, they're burnt out. I respect the hell out of Ludwig for this. He treats streaming like a business, and his success speaks for itself. He doesn't foster parasocial relationships, and he avoids as much of the petty streamer drama that he possibly can. He's now transitioned towards large productions that draw i…

I respect Forsen for similar reasons, always stays out of drama, predictable schedule, and the community ("bajs") are one of the funniest on the internet.

Forsen feels like one of those meta content creators on Twitch where his fans and his name have become more famous than his content primarily.

Re: On Twitch, you can never log off

#96

Post by holler »

CobrastanJorji wrote: post #78
vimwizard wrote: post #53

I think a more interesting story would be about the people that grind for years and years and never make it. You're left without a useful skill and no money, and probably a deficit on your mental health because you didn't go out and talk to people in real life for years. I think its not at all worth getting into as a career because making it big is like starting out as an actor, you have to know people. If you hit it…

The folks who don't make it are an interesting group on their own. Something like 95% of streamers have under five viewers, and the majority of those have exactly zero viewers. Thinking about all those thousands of people broadcasting day in and out to exactly nobody is kind of fascinating. It's not like broadcasting on a ham radio or shouting into the aether or blogging on a little independent site thinking that may…

> https://nobody.live

Something about that name is hauntingly sad.

Re: On Twitch, you can never log off

#97

Post by holler »

jatins wrote: post #93
vimwizard wrote: post #53

I think a more interesting story would be about the people that grind for years and years and never make it. You're left without a useful skill and no money, and probably a deficit on your mental health because you didn't go out and talk to people in real life for years. I think its not at all worth getting into as a career because making it big is like starting out as an actor, you have to know people. If you hit it…

> I think a more interesting story would be about the people that grind for years and years and never make it. I wonder the same for athletes. Was recently reading Nadal's biography and parts of book describe his routine in childhood and teenage. And my first thought on reading that was "what if he hadn't made it to the top?" because he essentially had no semblance of a regular childhood/teenage. Being out on the fie…

Seems like this could apply to startup founders as well.

Re: On Twitch, you can never log off

#98

Post by emsixteen »

bakugo wrote: post #49
mscdex wrote: post #41

Every time I see articles talking about this subject, it's always completely focused on Twitch streamers that stream for a living. I would be more interested in hearing the contrast with streamers who stream for fun/not for a living. Which problems are the same between the two groups and which are unique?

> Every time I see articles talking about this subject, it's always completely focused on Twitch streamers that stream for a living. Because, for the most part, those are the only people affected by these problems. If you don't stream with the intent to maximize your viewer counts and profits at all costs - stream when you feel like it, play what you want, don't chase trends, don't encourage parasocial relationships…

But these people aren't excluded from numbers in these articles. 95% of people stream to 0 viewers, but do they even care?

Re: On Twitch, you can never log off

#99

Post by ehnto »

CobrastanJorji wrote: post #78
vimwizard wrote: post #53

I think a more interesting story would be about the people that grind for years and years and never make it. You're left without a useful skill and no money, and probably a deficit on your mental health because you didn't go out and talk to people in real life for years. I think its not at all worth getting into as a career because making it big is like starting out as an actor, you have to know people. If you hit it…

The folks who don't make it are an interesting group on their own. Something like 95% of streamers have under five viewers, and the majority of those have exactly zero viewers. Thinking about all those thousands of people broadcasting day in and out to exactly nobody is kind of fascinating. It's not like broadcasting on a ham radio or shouting into the aether or blogging on a little independent site thinking that may…

The stats are a bit skewed I think, because you have to have an account on twitch to participate as a consumer on twitch, so all those 0 view streamers are very possibly people who are actually consumers and had no intention of streaming themselves.

Re: On Twitch, you can never log off

#100

Post by ehnto »

imtyler wrote: post #67
Semaphor wrote: post #59

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It pays for all their food expenses, plus some extra stuff. As I said, the stream has a higher amount of people who donate than usual. Several years ago, I watched a gaming streamer, even smaller. She lived in Croatia, and just the subs and irregular donations were enough to pay for most of her daily expenses.

So, an average person can make a living wage on income from YouTube/Twitch royalties?

A big part of streaming on Twitch or Youtube streams is donations from fans and subscribers/members (regular payments from fans). Royalties from advertising is a part of it, but a lot of the money comes in from donations. Another common approach is merchandise in the from of stickers and clothing, people love that stuff.

You can do well even as one of the smaller streamers if your community and other monetization is strong. I've never really gotten why people donate, especially to the bigger streamers since it's clear they already have money. But it's a big part of it. You can easily watch hundreds of dollars in an hour get donated to even to a smaller or mid level streamer.

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