The Official WTF Thread

[Bo Hart]

Right, but most of what I've said has just been general commentary on this stuff as a whole, not just specifically video games.

Anyway, I think a lot of Twitch users make enough money to live off off (not to be confused with "most users make enough money to live off of" -- I think the vast majority of YouTube/Twitch users flounder). However, the successful ones make money from:
- subscriptions (like you said, Twitch takes somewhere from 50-60% of this)
- temporary advertisements played during stream breaks, i.e. video ads
- persistent advertisements on their channel page ("check out this new keyboard for ____ manufacturer! Click here to buy it" <=== Twitch user gets 5-15% of ensuing sale as a referral bonus)
- donations
- supplementary websites, like YouTube (seems common for Twitch users to post archives on YouTube, although I see Twitch supports archives directly now)

I bet thousands make enough to live off of. Pulling a number out of my ass, let's say 1,000-2,000. How many Twitch channels are there total? Hundreds of thousands? A million? It's a very small percentage...

[ghostrunner]

My son watches videos of people playing Minecraft. I always shook my head at it. I'd actually rather he just play the game, which encourages a lot of creativity.

But then I started watching these GTA Pacifist videos:

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=P ... uPVN70ku_G

He has a running commentary full of deadpan observations, and plays GTA online doing as little intentional harm as possible. At one point he's instructed to rob a convenience store, which he grudgingly goes along with. But then he tries to go back and purchase as many snacks and drinks as possible from that store to make up for it.

So I guess I'm doing the same thing, even though it's more of a fictional story.

[Jocephus]

im really only speaking regarding twitch

another thing to consider is a caster has to average, like, 500 viewers, daily, for weeks before they will be partnered with twitch.

and you are right with all those options for revenue. i just can't see many, even 1000 out of 1 million, making enough to live off on.

[Jocephus]

then this is just a rant for me re: twitch

with all those options for revenue, the screen that you watch ends up being littered with scrolling text, or a webcam, or whatever. its gotten to the point where you barely even see the game on some streams. its like watching a news channel now.

plus, women are treated poorly there. obviously sexists remarks and what not but at the same time, the female casters (who have a webcam) do seem to attract large numbers of viewers too. its a double edge sword for female gamers.

[Bo Hart]

How to succeed at Twitch:
1. Be female with large breasts.
2. Wear a low-cut shirt.
3. Turn on web cam.
4. Profit.

[BW23]

How to succeed at Twitch:
1. Be female with large breasts.
2. Wear a low-cut shirt.
3. Turn on web cam.
4. Profit.

And what is this twitch you speak of????

[Vidor]

It's like someone took playing video games, the perfect couch potato activity (and I'm a hopeless couch potato) and invented a way to make it even lazier.

[Donnie Ebert]

So on the pedophile thing, it sounds like Jared from Subway is a disgusting scumbag who lost a lot of weight, made a ton of money, and then decided to look at videos of kids instead of getting with really attractive - and adult - gold diggers of whatever persuasion he was interested in.

This truly is WTF. I guess the slightly creepy vibe I got from the commercials wasn't incorrect.

[Secret Weapon]

I don't understand how there is so much ad revenue on youtube. I have never watched a full ad on there, you can always skip it after 5 seconds, and I definitely have never bought something because of youtube ads. How are people splitting money with youtube and still making 100k?

[AWvsCBsteeeerike3]

I don't understand how there is so much ad revenue on youtube. I have never watched a full ad on there, you can always skip it after 5 seconds, and I definitely have never bought something because of youtube ads. How are people splitting money with youtube and still making 100k?

I'd guess sheer volume. Apparently 4 billion videos are viewed on youtube per day. Their revenue is $4 billion. That works out to $1/365 views which is just over 0.2 cents per view that advertisers pay for (on average obviously as not all videos have ads).