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Up all night with a Twitch millionaire

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Re: Up all night with a Twitch millionaire

#151

Post by sokoloff »

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?

They're providing something of value to their audience, through a combination of entertainment and merch/other sales.

That's why they should be lauded (IMO).

Re: Up all night with a Twitch millionaire

#152

Post by slightwinder »

kzrdude wrote: post #55
belval wrote: post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The article mentions that Tyler makes $300k per year in merchandise alone (so excluding any actual sponsored content). Frankly I don't get why this can't be seen as a legitimate very successful business. Where is the line? Is entertainment only valid on TV? YouTube? Some commenters here even said that it's all good now but that it won't work in his thirties or something as if there aren't a ton of jobs out there that…

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 people.

Re: Up all night with a Twitch millionaire

#153

Post by 1_player »

kubb wrote: post #62
Permit wrote: post #51

Streaming aside, tyler1 has an almost inhuman dedication and focus when it comes to League of Legends. On Hacker News it's common to hear that programmers can't work (on classic programming tasks) for more than ~4 hours a day. I also feel exhausted after working for ~4 hours and have always wondered if this was some sort of mental trap I'd fallen into or a genuine limit. Games like League of Legends require complete…

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'…

At gunpoint, I'd rather code 12 hours a day than play LoL or CS:GO 12 hours a day. Because programming is less exhausting and my code doesn't insult my mother on VOIP. And I say that as a gamer and esports enthusiast.

Re: Up all night with a Twitch millionaire

#154

Post by 1_player »

ZephyrBlu wrote: post #116
colinmhayes wrote: post #104

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There's a world of difference between playing league casually and competitively. No one at his level of play can autopilot through a game and still win.

That's not true. The skill disparity between the very top players (100-500), and the rest of the players in the top league is usually very large.

The point of match-making is playing with people your same level. It doesn't matter what level tyler1 is, he'll be playing against people that will challenge and give him a hard time.

You're not matched against people less skilled than you where you can just "relax" and walk it in. When you reach your skill ceiling, you have to work hard just to remain there.

Re: Up all night with a Twitch millionaire

#155

Post by dathinab »

1290cc wrote: post #140
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…

Youtube/Social Media has removed the filters and gatekeeping that happened in the legacy media. Of course there is a lot of noise. But what are the odds of a young MKBHD, DrDisrespect, Linus, etc, etc getting their own show in legacy media? Zero to none because we would've never heard about them. Its glorious to see people who are truly brilliant at what they do getting a shot at the audience and owning everything th…

If you mean Linus from LTT, then wasn't he involved with some tech show which was "more legacy media-ish"?

But either-way, it's not really that legacy media has a lot of gatekeepers which are a mixture of "stuck in the past", "focused on questionable qualifications" and/or "not-impartial/corrupt".

I guess it's not surprising that such which benefit from being (with modern tech) unnecessary middle man and/or benefit from corruption are not happy about losing power and potentially becoming obsolete.

Re: Up all night with a Twitch millionaire

#156

Post by azth »

selectodude wrote: post #144
azth wrote: post #122

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Exactly. Making money is fine as long as it is done in a moral and ethical way. Women showing their bodies on twitch and others so guys can drool over them? No thanks.

Sounds like you're just jealous nobody wants to spend money to look at you :)

Like Magnus Carlsen said, do better :)

Re: Up all night with a Twitch millionaire

#157

Post by notJim »

lhorie wrote: post #93
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 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 "…

In addition to what others have said, I think the fact that people can make a living from very very niche content is novel. Arguably, it works so differently that it could be considered a new sector.

> By "lauding celebrities", all we're accomplishing is consolidate consumer attention into fewer content production channels, solidifying the position of the platforms where these celebrities operate.

I think you're on point about the platforms, but not about the channels per se. In the past, you basically got to watch what 60-year old guys in the executive suite thought was appropriate, whereas now you can watch a lot more types of stuff. And I think people are wising up to the power platforms had. I think when OnlyFans said they were banning porn, people quite rapidly found new platforms to move to. Building these platforms has also become cheaper and easier, especially in the last 2-5 years IMO.

Re: Up all night with a Twitch millionaire

#158

Post by slightwinder »

notreallyserio wrote: post #148
mathteddybear wrote: post #111

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There was a leak of Twitch data recently, so we know that top twitch-ers earn megabucks. The real business is, of course, Twitch itself.

IIRC you had to crack the top 2000 to hit $50k in a year, although I don't think the data showed streaming hours per year so it's hard to know how many earned something close to a living wage.

Should be noted the leak only contained money earned directly through twitch. But most income from bigger streamers is coming by other means and external services. Though, there is some correlation, so the twitch-only numbers can be still be used to make an educated guess. After all, if you are not making significant money via twitch, it also means your community is usually too small to bring you money through placements or other money flows.

Re: Up all night with a Twitch millionaire

#159

Post by dathinab »

npinsker wrote: post #35

This reads as very biased and judgmental. It treats streamers as kids who can't take care of themselves and don't understand the long-term impact of their lifestyle and career choice. It honestly makes me wonder if the author is jealous of the subject. It seems like the piece is really reaching to make Tyler's life appear as irresponsible as possible. Plenty of people in all careers don't know how to run their lives…

> Plenty of people in all careers don't know how to run their lives at 26

I mean take a look at the movie artist, musician field and see how many people there have problems running their live.

Having the skills to run your live, is a separate skill set. And the more stress and irregularities you job entails the harder it is. Hence why e.g. successful actors often have people helping them managing their lives.

> but it's deserving of a lot more respect than it gets here.

yes, it's a hard job. For each successful case there are thousands which fail.

Re: Up all night with a Twitch millionaire

#160

Post by slightwinder »

paulpauper wrote: post #133
belval wrote: post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The article mentions that Tyler makes $300k per year in merchandise alone (so excluding any actual sponsored content). Frankly I don't get why this can't be seen as a legitimate very successful business. Where is the line? Is entertainment only valid on TV? YouTube? Some commenters here even said that it's all good now but that it won't work in his thirties or something as if there aren't a ton of jobs out there that…

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.

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