Don't Cross The Streams

Perhaps I’m old, but I have never understood the appeal of watching someone else play a video game. Even though I can hold my own at MarioKart, the idea of using my computer to log on and stream someone else racking up points is wildly foreign. It’s possible however that I’m in the minority; platforms like Twitch and Youtube Gaming have streamed hundreds of millions of live gaming hours directly to eager watchers, while popular content creators practically reach celebrity status. What’s driving this hugely successful market though? Is it just another tech-fad, doomed to fizzle out like 3D televisions or TikTok precursor, Vine?

People have been putting videos of their gaming escapades online for many, many years now. Youtube historically was the go-to place for showing off your skills, although this involved recording and subsequently uploading your footage after the fact. Competitive gaming, known as esports, have been around since the 90s but popularity and coverage was quite limited. With the launch of Twitch in 2011, as a spin off from another more general-interest streaming site, esports became much more mainstream, and the number of viewers grew. It wasn’t until 2014 when a stream went viral for allowing viewers (around 60,000 at any one time) to play Pokemon Red using chat commands. This eventually saw around 6.5 million total views, and threw Twitch into the limelight.

Today, the platform which is now owned by Amazon averages roughly 31 million visits every single day. They corner around 76 percent of all live-streaming content, which is a remarkable market share, and equates to around $2.6 billion in revenue. Its popularity has been fueled by the high profile of its talent among the gaming community, and quite frankly - earning potential. A small time streamer, with a couple of hundred subscribers and a growing channel, can earn a few hundred dollars a month. Not life changing money. Reach that celebrity status however, and there’s hundreds of thousands of dollars up for grabs, even without considering things like sponsorship deals and merchandise. It’s, while incredibly risky, a viable career path for some.

Even with live streaming audiences expected to hit one billion next year, the dream of making money playing video games remains just that for most. While the top earners skew the numbers toward looking attractive, that risk is all too real. While creating content and gaining those loyal followers sounds easy enough, the reality is that most streamers on the platform actually never make enough money to even cover the cost of the equipment they’re streaming from. What’s great is, you don’t have to get into streaming on Twitch, or any of the other smaller platforms, for the payday.

One of the reasons Twitch is so popular is that it allows members of the video gaming community to interact with each other, irrespective of distance, over a common interest. Really, it’s no stranger than bingeing a Netflix series, except you’re able to enjoy a more immersive experience by chatting with the creators of that content, and other viewers, in near real-time. As someone who themselves grew up during the rise of video games as a means of entertainment, streaming remains too far removed from the actual source for me. While I won’t be joining the literal billion people tuning into watch others game, I’m certainly glad such things exist for those who will.