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Monetizing gaming streaming/videos

Bruno Lara

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I'd like to discuss gaming with y'all.
Fastlane Forum is a place where a lot of people ask for advice on "how to quit gaming" and stuff. However, what if you don't quit gaming? What if u transform it in your job?
It's possible to leverage and add value.
Take twitch.tv for example. As I write this, there are 600k+ people watching streaming on twitch (today's sunday though).
My point is: if there are this amount of people into something, you can earn money from it. If not from this 600k watching (I assume they are youngsters with low budget), from some company advertising games, pc parts, etc.
Of course people donate as well but I wouldn't expect it to be my monetizing strategy.

Last but not least, I think that everyone reading this agree that it won't be a fastlane since you'd still change your time for money.

Anyhow, this is what I THINK as I write this down. Tell me what YOU think.
Is gaming profitable? How can we make a living out of it?
 
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mtn_baldy

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I think this was a thing 3 years ago when League of Legends was on top, and twitch was more popular. It's fading out now, especially with how League of Legends screwed over everyone by not allowing external sponsors (which drove up the prices of having a team) and made playing professionally not even worth it.
If you were the owner of twitch however thats a different story.
 

hughjasle

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I have a friend who started a company in this space and just raised $2mm for it and they are doing exceptionally well. I will ask him for permission before I post his business on a public forum, but I'm sure he'd be glad to talk about it.

@nmalcolm92 I'm curious why you think being a pro isn't worth it? I know some of those players are making solid 6figures and have twitch accounts they stream with on their days off to pull in even more money. Unless you are saying they make more streaming than they do playing then I'd agree. But it comes down to how much they love the game vs money. Besides some of them have large streaming viewerships thanks to them being "pros".

I've been racking my brain lately on how to better jump into this space. I'm not much of a gamer myself but I know there is mad money to be made.

Sent from my Nexus 5X using Tapatalk
 

Bruno Lara

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I have a friend who started a company in this space and just raised $2mm for it and they are doing exceptionally well. I will ask him for permission before I post his business on a public forum, but I'm sure he'd be glad to talk about it.

@nmalcolm92 I'm curious why you think being a pro isn't worth it? I know some of those players are making solid 6figures and have twitch accounts they stream with on their days off to pull in even more money. Unless you are saying they make more streaming than they do playing then I'd agree. But it comes down to how much they love the game vs money. Besides some of them have large streaming viewerships thanks to them being "pros".

I've been racking my brain lately on how to better jump into this space. I'm not much of a gamer myself but I know there is mad money to be made.

Sent from my Nexus 5X using Tapatalk
That sounds interesting. I'll be waiting your update on that.
That's exactly what I'm talking about. There's a lot of money out there in the gaming industry!
 
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Choate

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Best thing is to just move completely away from it. Just because there are 600k viewers doesn't mean its a market you can enter. Yesterday, 4 million people watched preseason football on CBS. Doesn't mean there is a space for you to monetize it. A bigger market isn't necessarily better. Its a birds eye view (top down approach) which is often an ineffective approach. "If I can just get 1% of 1% of this market, I'll be rich!" No. On top of it, everyone and their mother is trying to stream and play.

CENTS Principles - Need, entry, control, scale, time

1) Space is overcrowded, no barrier to entry. Anyone can set up a stream within 5 minutes (NECST)
2) You lack control (NECST) - Twitch controls the profits, can shut you down at anytime, or even shut itself down
3) You get the rest. There is no need for it. Scale is limited by Twitch's own viewers. And perhaps takes the most time out of anything.

As we speak, 270,000 of League of Legends 311,000 viewers are watching 6 streams. Only 6 streams. The numbers get worst as you include top 10 or top 15.

There are no applicable skills to learn from this, I don't think it will be profitable, and top of it, most viewers play games themselves. Most gamers are broke or will not spend money on your stream (donations).

Any set of skills you have that could make you money by streaming or give you a competitive advantage (a great personality, being extremely good at a game, able to share knowledge with viewers, etc) would just be better placed elsewhere. You would learn more and make more working a minimum wage job in food service or retail.

I took a sledgehammer to my game console (Xbox One) and my laptop (gaming capable) and replaced it with a Chromebook. Haven't looked back once. I'm going to take a somewhat harsh Kevin O' Leary stance on this. Nevermind fastlane, this isn't even slowlane. Just get rid of the games and focus on something else.

There is money to be made in the gaming industry, just not from streaming or playing.
 
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JordanS

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Gaming is very profitable for the top few % of streamers/video makers. If you are sodapoppin, lirik, reckful, etc you are going to be making bank. These guys all have the advantage to have been good at games long ago, and started streaming early. They now have the huge fan bases that will watch them for anything. Thousands of people will now watch them sit there and eat a sandwich while watching youtube videos that people donate to tell them to watch.

If you are one of the large amount of other streamers with 50-1000 views you aren't going to be doing so hot, especially if you're not a girl who has her tits hanging out. Ads won't be bringing in much money. People aren't going to constantly donate money to see their name come up on the screen.

Unless you are SUPER entertaining and can build a rabid fan base, you are just going to blend into the mess of other people. Maybe if you asked this question 5 years ago the answer would be different, but not it is pointless to try to become a big stream.
 

Mikkel

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I'll say this, being a Twitch streamer is not Fastlane. @Choate gave enough reason why.
However, some people truly enjoy gaming and would like to play video games for the rest of their lives. There is definitely money to be made on Twitch as a streamer. Sure, it is not easy to become "famous" on twitch and gain a massive following, but there are tricks to gain eyes quicker than normal, if you're just starting out. I gave it a test drive myself earlier this summer, (2 week break before I had Graduate School.)

I gained 500 followers and netted $60 in donations. I added the donation button on the last day of streaming. Should have done it earlier.

It's all about where you place yourself. You will NEVER make it big on League of Legends unless you are a pro gamer on a popular team. Look in different spaces and find different games that will allow you to catapult you to the top of the viewers list. For instance, I played Slither. I had a friend show me the game and immediately knew this game would be amazing for a beginner streamer. There was a leaderboard for the top 10 players were 500ish players could see your name. Guess what my name was on the leader board. Twitch.tv/MyTwitchUsername Every time I got on the leader board I had viewers pouring in. I made it to 70 viewers, at one time, watching me play.

The point is, you can make money and you can become popular if you have the time and the likable personality, but it is certainly not Fastlane.

Making a streaming service like Twitch on the other hand, that is totally fastlane. You could potentially make a killing. However, the competition will be stiff with Twitch being such a giant in the gaming industry.
 
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devine

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I honestly don't think it's a slowlane.
You can make a lot out of it if you can come up with smart ways to make use of your audience.
You might not make hundreds of thousands of dollars, but it's surely a good way to spend your time if you like playing games, meanwhile getting paid for it.
 

The-J

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@Cantona7 care to chime in?

Some people make it work, and make it work well. There are people taking in 7 figures annually playing video games on Youtube and Twitch. Some are competitive players, others aren't. Most of the people taking 7 figures are actually just people who make interesting and engaging content around video games.

I think Pewdiepie (#1 guy on Youtube) makes 8 figures annually.

So yeah, if you can make it work, I'd hardly call it Slowlane.
 

hughjasle

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I'm not a player, but I see lots of potential in this. Just like there is potential in any market with an avid following. I just only recently became aware of the fan base. I've heard that league of legends alone has a more active and larger viewing audience than the NFL. Not sure if that's true, but from my perspective, even 1/10th the NFL loyalty and fan base is enough to make some serious bucks if you play your cards right. Lots of advertising potential. Just have to either come up with your own products/services that audience wants, or do the advertising for the products and services that already exist.
 
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devine

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Some hustle from very niche oriented streamer (small audience). Today, 10 minutes ago.
Numbers are usually ~300 usd/day - about $100k/Year.
Watch his streams and make some notes.
3un93vJeBDA.jpg



__update it's 900 usd atm.
___$1200
 
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douevenshift

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Ok, wall of text incoming. TLDR at bottom.

I've got about 40k hours in the gaming industry (both consuming and producing) over the past 15+ years so I figured I'd put in my 2 cents. Yes, Twitch can make you a good amount of money but it isn't Fastlane because most of your revenue is not passive.

Think of twitch streaming in terms of becoming a pro athlete/entertainer. Yes, you can spend thousands of hours practicing over many years, but unless you are not the best of the best you aren't going to join the NBA.

To be a big money streamer you need to have many years of experience in a certain game AND be one of the best. If you don't fit into that category you'll certainly be making much less than a slowlane job. Conversely, if you do fit into that category you will increase your intrinsic value exponentially. (TMF explains that more)

For example lets talk about the popular streamer "Reynad". Before twitch was even a thing Reynad spent 10+ years of his life dedicated to playing Magic the Gathering and thousands of hours playing tournaments and theory-crafting the game. When Hearthstone came out a few years ago (a similar online variant to Magic) Reynad picked it up early in its Alpha stage and quickly become one of the best. He won a bunch of tournaments and was constantly highest ranked in the game. Without that previous experience, and without Hearthstone blowing up as a successful game, or twitch blowing up as a website, he likely wouldn't be anywhere.

One thing he has going for him is 10+ sources of income, some of which are completely passive, most require his time. I'm going to break down his sources of income. As you look at these ask yourself which are completely passive, and which require him to be at his computer constantly grinding away.

Reynad's sources of income (in no particular order):

1. Twitch Ad Revenue
Reynad averages about ~25,000 viewers every hour he streams. Lets say he plays 6 30 second ads per 1 hour. Let's also assume $.5 per 1k views (low end due to ad block prominence). This comes out to $75/hr from ad revenue. Not passive.

2. Twitch Subscribers
Reynad gets $2.50 a month for each of his subscribers. I'm am not subscribed but lets assume he is about equal in this number to streamers his size which is about 1k subs. This is $2,500 per month. Not passive. (If he stops streaming this number will approach 0 quickly.)

3.Hourly Donations
Reynad gets quite a lot of donations per hour. He understand his consumer base (young, many immature, low income) and has a "text to speech donation feature." What this does, is if you donate $2 or more, your donation is automatically read on screen by a text to speech robot. As you can tell, many viewers donate just to be in the spotlight, or make a joke about Reynad's appearance or in-game plays. A few months ago I watched him for one hour and tallied up his donations. $468. Not passive.

4. Paid Game Sponsorships
New, up and coming game companies like to pay top streamers big hourly figures to stream their games. Reynad is one of these and probably makes. It was leaked a couple years ago that a game he played on stream he was paid $100 per hour to play. (This may be low as twitch has blown up lately.) Not passive.

5. Paid Company Sponsorships

Top companies pay Reynad to sponsor part of the stream. For example, Amazon pays Reynad to have 1 hour of his stream be the "Amazon gaming hour" or something like that. Not passive. (If he stops playing games he will lose these sponsorships)

6. TempoStorm
Reynad created his own professional gaming company that now has teams/pros in 3 different games. When the team members get winnings from tournaments his company gets a cut. The site also has a web store and gets about 4.3 million page views per month. Passive.

7. Casting Gigs
Blizzard and other top companies/streamers host many Hearthstone tournaments that are shout-casted by certain pros. Reynad gets paid nice money to do this. Not passive.

8. Youtube
Reynad has 2 youtube channels (one personal and one for his business) that generate passive income. He probably hires someone to cut clips and upload them so he doesn't do any of this work. Partly passive.

9. Channel Sponsorships
Companies pay Reynad money to post their logo and a link on his twitch page, and directly on his stream. Some of these are G2A, Curse. Not passive.

10. Tournament Winnings
To date he has earned $19,124.53 from the tournaments he's played in. Nothing that breaks the bank but keep in mind he's only played in 3 tournaments in the past year or so as he realizes streaming is more profitable for his time. Not passive.

11. Miscellaneous
There are other small things, such as smaller streamers paying for him to "host" them, or basically advertise their stream. I'm sure there are other things I missed. Passive.

So what is his average yearly pay? Let's assume he streams 160 hours a month, and 10% (16 hours) is paid content.
Ad revenue : 160 * 75 = $12,000 per month
Subscribers: = $2,500 per month
Donations: 160 * 468 = $74,880 per month
Paid games = 16 * 100 $1,600 per month
Website ad revenue = $4,300 per month
Monthly gross: $95,280 per month
Yearly gross: $1,143,360 per year
Please note that this includes some estimates and averages and does not include some revenue sources like sponsors, etc.

So can you make good money playing games? Absolutely. But look at how much of his money is tied up with his own personal time. If he got bored of playing games, wanted to travel for a couple months/years almost all of his revenue would dry up. So good money, yes. But I don't consider it Fastlane.

TLDR: Yes, Twitch gaming can be very good money if you are the best of the best and know how to milk multiple revenue sources. That being said, it is NOT Fastlane due to the fact most of your income is tied up with your time.
 
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StevieB

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I think it's splitting hairs defining if this is or isn't fastlane.

Ultimately you can make a large income from playing video games, given if you're absolutely damn good at said games and it becomes your entire lifestyle, but most money in gaming is selling the games not playing them.

Your chances are pretty slim to make a large income being a professional gamer.

Learning to code and selling the game will give you skills that you can use in other areas.

If you don't make it playing video games you'll have little to show for it.
 
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Nily

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Ok, wall of text incoming. TLDR at bottom.

I've got about 40k hours in the gaming industry (both consuming and producing) over the past 15+ years so I figured I'd put in my 2 cents. Yes, Twitch can make you a good amount of money but it isn't Fastlane because most of your revenue is not passive.

Think of twitch streaming in terms of becoming a pro athlete/entertainer. Yes, you can spend thousands of hours practicing over many years, but unless you are not the best of the best you aren't going to join the NBA.

To be a big money streamer you need to have many years of experience in a certain game AND be one of the best. If you don't fit into that category you'll certainly be making much less than a slowlane job. Conversely, if you do fit into that category you will increase your intrinsic value exponentially. (TMF explains that more)

For example lets talk about the popular streamer "Reynad". Before twitch was even a thing Reynad spent 10+ years of his life dedicated to playing Magic the Gathering and thousands of hours playing tournaments and theory-crafting the game. When Hearthstone came out a few years ago (a similar online variant to Magic) Reynad picked it up early in its Alpha stage and quickly become one of the best. He won a bunch of tournaments and was constantly highest ranked in the game. Without that previous experience, and without Hearthstone blowing up as a successful game, or twitch blowing up as a website, he likely wouldn't be anywhere.

One thing he has going for him is 10+ sources of income, some of which are completely passive, most require his time. I'm going to break down his sources of income. As you look at these ask yourself which are completely passive, and which require him to be at his computer constantly grinding away.

Reynad's sources of income (in no particular order):

1. Twitch Ad Revenue
Reynad averages about ~25,000 viewers every hour he streams. Lets say he plays 6 30 second ads per 1 hour. Let's also assume $.5 per 1k views (low end due to ad block prominence). This comes out to $75/hr from ad revenue. Not passive.

2. Twitch Subscribers
Reynad gets $2.50 a month for each of his subscribers. I'm am not subscribed but lets assume he is about equal in this number to streamers his size which is about 1k subs. This is $2,500 per month. Not passive. (If he stops streaming this number will approach 0 quickly.)

3.Hourly Donations
Reynad gets quite a lot of donations per hour. He understand his consumer base (young, many immature, low income) and has a "text to speech donation feature." What this does, is if you donate $2 or more, your donation is automatically read on screen by a text to speech robot. As you can tell, many viewers donate just to be in the spotlight, or make a joke about Reynad's appearance or in-game plays. A few months ago I watched him for one hour and tallied up his donations. $468. Not passive.

4. Paid Game Sponsorships
New, up and coming game companies like to pay top streamers big hourly figures to stream their games. Reynad is one of these and probably makes. It was leaked a couple years ago that a game he played on stream he was paid $100 per hour to play. (This may be low as twitch has blown up lately.) Not passive.

5. Paid Company Sponsorships

Top companies pay Reynad to sponsor part of the stream. For example, Amazon pays Reynad to have 1 hour of his stream be the "Amazon gaming hour" or something like that. Not passive. (If he stops playing games he will lose these sponsorships)

6. TempoStorm
Reynad created his own professional gaming company that now has teams/pros in 3 different games. When the team members get winnings from tournaments his company gets a cut. The site also has a web store and gets about 4.3 million page views per month. Passive.

7. Casting Gigs
Blizzard and other top companies/streamers host many Hearthstone tournaments that are shout-casted by certain pros. Reynad gets paid nice money to do this. Not passive.

8. Youtube
Reynad has 2 youtube channels (one personal and one for his business) that generate passive income. He probably hires someone to cut clips and upload them so he doesn't do any of this work. Partly passive.

9. Channel Sponsorships
Companies pay Reynad money to post their logo and a link on his twitch page, and directly on his stream. Some of these are G2A, Curse. Not passive.

10. Tournament Winnings
To date he has earned $19,124.53 from the tournaments he's played in. Nothing that breaks the bank but keep in mind he's only played in 3 tournaments in the past year or so as he realizes streaming is more profitable for his time. Not passive.

11. Miscellaneous
There are other small things, such as smaller streamers paying for him to "host" them, or basically advertise their stream. I'm sure there are other things I missed. Passive.

So what is his average yearly pay? Let's assume he streams 160 hours a month, and 10% (16 hours) is paid content.
Ad revenue : 160 * 75 = $12,000 per month
Subscribers: = $2,500 per month
Donations: 160 * 468 = $74,880 per month
Paid games = 16 * 100 $1,600 per month
Website ad revenue = $4,300 per month
Monthly gross: $95,280 per month
Yearly gross: $1,143,360 per year
Please note that this includes some estimates and averages and does not include some revenue sources like sponsors, etc.

So can you make good money playing games? Absolutely. But look at how much of his money is tied up with his own personal time. If he got bored of playing games, wanted to travel for a couple months/years almost all of his revenue would dry up. So good money, yes. But I don't consider it Fastlane.

TLDR: Yes, Twitch gaming can be very good money if you are the best of the best and know how to milk multiple revenue sources. That being said, it is NOT Fastlane due to the fact most of your income is tied up with your time.
This should the featured reply to this post.
 

Scot

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@Bruno Lara correct me if I'm wrong, but my impression of your question wasn't asking if playing games is fastlane but if the gaming industry is?

Sure, top players make money. But the fastlane way is to make money off of the fan base.
 

Bruno Lara

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@Bruno Lara correct me if I'm wrong, but my impression of your question wasn't asking if playing games is fastlane but if the gaming industry is?

Sure, top players make money. But the fastlane way is to make money off of the fan base.
Hey Scot,

Actually I just wanted people to share their thoughts on gaming. I mean, how can we play games and earn good income from it.
As I said earlier, I don't think it'll be a fastlane cause you still trade your time for money. At the end of the day, this is a job.
 
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devine

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Hey Scot,

Actually I just wanted people to share their thoughts on gaming. I mean, how can we play games and earn good income from it.
As I said earlier, I don't think it'll be a fastlane cause you still trade your time for money. At the end of the day, this is a job.
Everything is a job, unless you spend 0 hours a week and your business perfectly runs without you.
Being a founder and CEO of multi-millionare companies is also a job, often more time demanding than your average 9 to 5. How fastlane this job is - depends on you.

btw, @Scot, @Bruno Lara, @Mikkel, @Nily re-read @douevenshift post and look carefully into numbers. Did you notice how insane these numbers are?
1 milli a year playing games is more fastlane than running majority of companies.
 
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Mikkel

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@devine Would you consider Gross Gore's Twitch career as Fastlane? One of the most popular League players on twitch, but gets permanently banned because he had a slip of the tongue. Four seconds worth of words ended his entire career on Twitch, now he is permanently banned. All his hard work, all of his income dried up in a matter of days. I wouldn't consider this Fastlane, their business relies 100% on Twitch. Luckily for Gross Gore, Hitbox put him back on the map, but his net worth has plummeted faster than the stock market could ever fall in such a short period of time.

What happens when Twitch decides to take 75% of subscription earnings(rather than 50%) and does not allow outsider donation buttons, but rather have all donations go through twitch so that they pocket 50% of donations. There is a severe lack of control that Twitch streamers have. Don't get me wrong, you can be incredibly successful and can make your streaming into a Fastlane business, but that requires you to spread out your income streams. For instance, Cowsep owns his own website where he travels Fastlane in, because he has 100% control over his website which is part of his business. Streaming is just another job where a very select few people rise to incredible stardom, and the rest fall short of minimum wage.


EDIT:

I would put Streaming somewhere between Slowlane and Fastlane. It is definatly not Slowlane, because you do have multiple streams of income, as shown above, but not quite Fastlane due to Time and Control. If done correctly, you start moving towards Fastlane, but for most people it is more toward Slowlane.
 
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splok

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Think about all of the warnings and discouragement that people get when they talk about developing their own games. Now consider that the number of people who can make a living developing games is multiple orders of magnitude greater than the number of people who can make a living playing them...

Is it possible? Sure, for a handful of the best (either at playing or entertaining), but man, that's a rough hill to climb. This is probably the only thread I've ever read that makes game development seem like a positive in comparison.

The real money in gaming is in platform building.
 
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arfadugus

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Best thing is to just move completely away from it. Just because there are 600k viewers doesn't mean its a market you can enter. Yesterday, 4 million people watched preseason football on CBS. Doesn't mean there is a space for you to monetize it. A bigger market isn't necessarily better. Its a birds eye view (top down approach) which is often an ineffective approach. "If I can just get 1% of 1% of this market, I'll be rich!" No. On top of it, everyone and their mother is trying to stream and play.

CENTS Principles - Need, entry, control, scale, time

1) Space is overcrowded, no barrier to entry. Anyone can set up a stream within 5 minutes (NECST)
2) You lack control (NECST) - Twitch controls the profits, can shut you down at anytime, or even shut itself down
3) You get the rest. There is no need for it. Scale is limited by Twitch's own viewers. And perhaps takes the most time out of anything.

As we speak, 270,000 of League of Legends 311,000 viewers are watching 6 streams. Only 6 streams. The numbers get worst as you include top 10 or top 15.

There are no applicable skills to learn from this, I don't think it will be profitable, and top of it, most viewers play games themselves. Most gamers are broke or will not spend money on your stream (donations).

Any set of skills you have that could make you money by streaming or give you a competitive advantage (a great personality, being extremely good at a game, able to share knowledge with viewers, etc) would just be better placed elsewhere. You would learn more and make more working a minimum wage job in food service or retail.

I took a sledgehammer to my game console (Xbox One) and my laptop (gaming capable) and replaced it with a Chromebook. Haven't looked back once. I'm going to take a somewhat harsh Kevin O' Leary stance on this. Nevermind fastlane, this isn't even slowlane. Just get rid of the games and focus on something else.

There is money to be made in the gaming industry, just not from streaming or playing.
You took a sledgehammer to them? Why not sell them? lol
 
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Choate

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You took a sledgehammer to them? Why not sell them? lol

At some point between having to clear all the data off, taking pictures, uploading to the appropriate sites, packing, and driving, I would've became rational and said "why don't I just keep this, it's not that big of a deal. I'll just play another game, and tomorrow I'll play less.

So I had to have a moment of irrationality (in which I had to destroy them) to protect myself from my rational self (why destroy them, they aren't that bad, just sell it or play less -> revert back to old habits, play too much)

Games are getting more intense and in depth with each iteration. And time is your most important asset. I was just protecting my future time from a poor past choice I made.
 

devine

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@devine Would you consider Gross Gore's Twitch career as Fastlane? One of the most popular League players on twitch, but gets permanently banned because he had a slip of the tongue. Four seconds worth of words ended his entire career on Twitch, now he is permanently banned. All his hard work, all of his income dried up in a matter of days. I wouldn't consider this Fastlane, their business relies 100% on Twitch. Luckily for Gross Gore, Hitbox put him back on the map, but his net worth has plummeted faster than the stock market could ever fall in such a short period of time.

What happens when Twitch decides to take 75% of subscription earnings(rather than 50%) and does not allow outsider donation buttons, but rather have all donations go through twitch so that they pocket 50% of donations. There is a severe lack of control that Twitch streamers have. Don't get me wrong, you can be incredibly successful and can make your streaming into a Fastlane business, but that requires you to spread out your income streams. For instance, Cowsep owns his own website where he travels Fastlane in, because he has 100% control over his website which is part of his business. Streaming is just another job where a very select few people rise to incredible stardom, and the rest fall short of minimum wage.


EDIT:

I would put Streaming somewhere between Slowlane and Fastlane. It is definatly not Slowlane, because you do have multiple streams of income, as shown above, but not quite Fastlane due to Time and Control. If done correctly, you start moving towards Fastlane, but for most people it is more toward Slowlane.
It can happen pretty much on any platform. You can get your YouTube account suspended, you can get screwed by App Store or Play Market, you can lose your amazon business, all for the same reason - lack of responsibility for a business you run.
In my place 4 seconds worth of words can get you into jail in no time. *Snap* and you're behind the grid, having you account suspended is the least of all problems.

I personally created websites with custom subscription and donation systems that use twitch just as a source of video, we actually use many platforms at the same time, not just twitch. Guess what would happen if twitch or any other platform suspends our account or cuts our earnings? Nothing.
Don't confuse a real lack of control in business with "I don't want to take control over my business".

Streamers are generally not very big into business aspects. There is a plenty of ways to make it a great fastlane business with passive income, doing what you love and having fun.
Is it easy? No. Nothing ever is.
 
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arfadugus

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At some point between having to clear all the data off, taking pictures, uploading to the appropriate sites, packing, and driving, I would've became rational and said "why don't I just keep this, it's not that big of a deal. I'll just play another game, and tomorrow I'll play less.

So I had to have a moment of irrationality (in which I had to destroy them) to protect myself from my rational self (why destroy them, they aren't that bad, just sell it or play less -> revert back to old habits, play too much)

Games are getting more intense and in depth with each iteration. And time is your most important asset. I was just protecting my future time from a poor past choice I made.
Haha nice. I quit video games too but I just sold my pc. I guess you had fun at least XD
 

Phil Dawber

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I'd like to discuss gaming with y'all.
Fastlane Forum is a place where a lot of people ask for advice on "how to quit gaming" and stuff. However, what if you don't quit gaming? What if u transform it in your job?
It's possible to leverage and add value.
Take twitch.tv for example. As I write this, there are 600k+ people watching streaming on twitch (today's sunday though).
My point is: if there are this amount of people into something, you can earn money from it. If not from this 600k watching (I assume they are youngsters with low budget), from some company advertising games, pc parts, etc.
Of course people donate as well but I wouldn't expect it to be my monetizing strategy.

Last but not least, I think that everyone reading this agree that it won't be a fastlane since you'd still change your time for money.

Anyhow, this is what I THINK as I write this down. Tell me what YOU think.
Is gaming profitable? How can we make a living out of it?

Really enjoyed this post it brought up some great points on the subject which got me excited. For one that post about the streamer who could be earning $1m+ a year was eye opening indeed!

In relation to gaming I'd say go for it if it's what you want to do just be wise about it and use the interests of viewers to your advantage. I'm currently working on a business idea that will make the most it can out of the streamers with large amounts of viewers and actually benefit those viewers with no cost other than time value (2 minutes of their time roughly). With hope I could be directing well over 200,000 of twitch viewers per month to the website and benefit everyone involved, for me at present the hardest thing is getting responses from these streamers in order to get started. Ive sent email after email to these "big streamers" with no joy, advice anyone?

Phil
 

SolopreneurGrind

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Really enjoyed this post it brought up some great points on the subject which got me excited. For one that post about the streamer who could be earning $1m+ a year was eye opening indeed!

In relation to gaming I'd say go for it if it's what you want to do just be wise about it and use the interests of viewers to your advantage. I'm currently working on a business idea that will make the most it can out of the streamers with large amounts of viewers and actually benefit those viewers with no cost other than time value (2 minutes of their time roughly). With hope I could be directing well over 200,000 of twitch viewers per month to the website and benefit everyone involved, for me at present the hardest thing is getting responses from these streamers in order to get started. Ive sent email after email to these "big streamers" with no joy, advice anyone?

Phil
Might be too late now, but have you tried starting with smaller streamers who might be more willing to try new things, and who aren't as bombarded with messages?
 
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Lex DeVille

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Opinion: I believe it's worth it = then do it and who cares what anyone else thinks
Opinion: I believe it's not worth it = then don't do it and who cares what anyone else thinks

If you do it, then come back and tell us about it. Tell us what you try. Tell us your results. Tell us your struggles and maybe we can help you find a way forward.
 

Kevin88660

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I'd like to discuss gaming with y'all.
Fastlane Forum is a place where a lot of people ask for advice on "how to quit gaming" and stuff. However, what if you don't quit gaming? What if u transform it in your job?
It's possible to leverage and add value.
Take twitch.tv for example. As I write this, there are 600k+ people watching streaming on twitch (today's sunday though).
My point is: if there are this amount of people into something, you can earn money from it. If not from this 600k watching (I assume they are youngsters with low budget), from some company advertising games, pc parts, etc.
Of course people donate as well but I wouldn't expect it to be my monetizing strategy.

Last but not least, I think that everyone reading this agree that it won't be a fastlane since you'd still change your time for money.

Anyhow, this is what I THINK as I write this down. Tell me what YOU think.
Is gaming profitable? How can we make a living out of it?
It really depends on what you do and we need to talk in business language.

It just seems that you want to do a business related to game.

If you want to create contents related To games then it is more about the content creation industry and less of about games.

What do you think about content creation as a business/industry for the next 10-20 years?

Do you have Familiar topics that you have a good starting points (much than the average person). Games? or other topics.

Let us you choose games... mobile legend. What is the ceiling in this niche? How much do the top Content creators make in mobile legends? Let us say I will make 20 percent of what they are doing now am I satisfied? Is this niche expected to grow more or saturated? What are The strength and weakness of the top creators in the field. Get a feel about you having to fight them in

How long do I expect to build my initial base of fans and followers? How do I drive traffic faster? (find loopholes and weakness in your topic competitor content and shoot them down?”)

This is how i will look into this because recently I am doing Preliminary research with one of another friend in content creation space also.
 

Kevin88660

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Content creation is the industry that value is easier to spot but passion could play a more important role than what we might commonly dismiss in other industries.

You are producing a new product or service. Value can be easily spotted by looking at what people are already viewing or paying to view. Major lanes: Money, Relationship, Weight management, Current Affairs, niche professional skills eg cooking or pure entertainment like pranks. I could be missing out because there are many more.

This is where I see passion could matter more because content creation is very time consuming. If you do not have a passion in the topic it is not going to spur you to grind for the long hurl.
 

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