Streaming

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ShaunHorton

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So, with the advent of the next generation of consoles set up to record game-play and upload them directly to such sites as Twitch and Youtube, I was wondering what you all thought of people streaming, or even making their livings off of such things. The best example being Youtube star PewDiePie, a Swedish man who uploads playthoughs of different games, including his reactions and currently has over 31 million subscribers.

I'm considering becoming one myself, as a horror fan/author, doing playthroughs of horror games, with a commentary focus on the horror aspects of the games.

Thoughts?
 

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PewDiePie streams very little and certainly his example is an extremely rare case.

If you want to do it, do it. If you have the time and the dedication to do something like that, have at it. I've got a couple friends who do it and it's rough, but they enjoy it.

But I suggest you don't start it with the intent on earning a living. There's a ton of problems in trying to make Youtube and Twitch a business. Let me explain a few things:

Streaming a video game and doing Youtube video game videos are two different things. Youtube doesn't support video game streaming, Twitch does. And streaming involves a lot of down time during the action-y bits in which you have to be entertaining. With Youtube videos, you can edit and upload what you wish when you wish--but then editing and uploading takes a ton of time.

The big video game youtubers make up less than 1% of the video game commentators, let's players, and anyone who uploads video gaming content. There are thousands upon thousands of people trying to earn that Youtube money, inspired by the large streamers, and these people are finding it to be very tough. Why?
First off, to start being successful you need to upload a constant stream of good videos. Once a day is decent, more is better. But these need to be high enough quality for you to earn subscribers. It takes years of constant production of good content to grow to a large channel. There's youtubers who have put out daily content for years and years who earn enough to pay for their gaming equipment--let alone a living.
Second, many people don't have the time to prepare, record, edit, render, and upload videos.
Third, all the Youtube money people are grabbing for hasn't been growing. There's one pool of money that people have steadily been gnawing at for a while, and the more people who start gnawing the less there is to go around. Many well-established youtubers who have made their livlihoods on their videos--while earning more subscribers and higher view counts on their videos--have found themselves having to stretch out to other profitable practices in order to keep youtube to be their full-time job. We're starting to see more youtubers start streaming on Twitch (which has a massively better platform), move merchandise, and do other things. An example of this downturn would be: A couple years ago, if you got decent view counts on daily videos, you could support yourself if you had around 100K subscribers. Nowadays, it's more like 200K and up.
Fourth, you have to deal with game producers. Many games can't be uploaded, many games will get your channel removed, many games you need to pay the studio to put up on youtube (without ads). If you don't have a partner backing you up, you're out in the cold.

Streaming, on the other hand, has a lot of similarities. Streaming daily helps a ton. You still need high quality content. But a couple differences:

You need a schedule to keep to and a time slot for your viewers to know when you're on daily.
There's a lot of down-time with streaming--especially if you want to make money for it, you'll be spending hours each day streaming--and every second you need to be commentating or letting the game play take attention.
In the beginning, it's more profitable to stream certain games and to follow current trends than to stream whatever.
You also need to become partnered with Twitch in order to make profit. This has some variables, but pretty much you need a ton of viewers or successful videos on youtube in order to apply. I know several streamers who are still pushing for this after a year (one is near under months with shared success with another partnered streamer).
 
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