Streaming for a Living

Streaming of tournaments as has been previously discussed in another blogpost is a growing trend among competitive games like Starcraft, League of Legends, Defense of the Ancients to name a few. As an extension of this, Professional Gamers have started to stream their casual non-tournament games for public viewing to their legions of fans. Picture this, Lebron James playing a few hoops with friends being broadcasted live, or Tiger Woods playing at a local golf course, all for the private enjoyment of their fans. Now imagine the fans having a direct interaction with the athlete and can even send messages for a special request. That has all been made possible for Professional E-sports gamers courtesy of Twitch.tv.

                Twitch is a streaming service tailored specifically for the purpose of broadcasting games live to a myriad of spectators. A number of E-sports tournament organizations utilize the company’s technology to do just that as has been discussed in another blog post. Remarkably though, a lot of Professional Gamers and even some non-professional ones, are utilizing the exact same service to reach out to their respective fan base. It provides an avenue for interaction, the pros can give out tips and tricks or just showcase their mechanical game prowess.

                So how do streamers earn money? Advertising. Similar to how google places ads all over its products. Twitch allows streamers to air ads. Then payment is calculated based on the number of unique active viewers and the revenue is split between the hosting site i.e Twitch.tv and the streamer. These are targeted advertisements and the type of ads shown depends on geolocation and targeted demographic. In League of Legends, one of the popular Pro-players from Team Dignitas earned $8,000 in streaming alone. Team SoloMid’s Dyrus is estimated to earn $100,000/year majority of which comes from streaming; the same goes for TSM TheOddOne who rakes in an estimate of $80,000 annually.

                There is much speculation on the actual calculations on the earnings and the topic is extensively discussed on the Reddit Thread :

http://www.reddit.com/r/leagueoflegends/comments/1pglbf/how_much_money_do_you_actually_make_by_streaming/

                It does however take a lot of effort especially for players who are not professional gamers to gain a loyal following that will watch them stream. It takes a lot of time and effort and a lot of creativity to differentiate yourself from thousands upon thousands of other streamers who are just like you. The unpredictability and volatile nature of earning from streaming games can be a deterrent to some and it remains to be seen if this is a sustainable career path that many can live off of.  

Sources:
http://seanspage.hubpages.com/hub/Be-Aware-Can-professional-gaming-be-a-legitimate-career-path
http://www.cbsnews.com/news/play-video-games-for-a-living-twitchtv-is-making-it-happen/
http://www.reddit.com/r/leagueoflegends/comments/1pglbf/how_much_money_do_you_actually_make_by_streaming/
http://seanspage.hubpages.com/hub/Be-Aware-Can-professional-gaming-be-a-legitimate-career-path


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Brendon Martin Borgonia