Secrets The Streamer Industry Couldn't Hide Forever
Becoming a successful streamer is all about building honest connections with an audience — but, even though streamers' careers are built on transparency, the industry as a whole has plenty of secrets to hide.
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00:00Becoming a successful streamer is all about building honest connections with an audience.
00:05But even though streamers' careers are built on transparency, the industry as a whole has
00:09plenty of secrets to hide.
00:12People like Pokemon or Foozly have had their lives utterly changed by streaming.
00:16They've found career opportunities, met friends, and built an audience of dedicated fans.
00:20They're able to devote so much of their time to content creation because it's their job.
00:25What's even better is that it pays more than the average day job.
00:28However, most people don't have that kind of experience with streaming.
00:31Forget making it big and getting rich as a streamer.
00:34Only the top 0.015% of Twitch streamers even earn the median U.S. income.
00:40That's better than the odds of winning the lottery.
00:42But the numbers aren't good enough for streaming to be considered a reliable career path.
00:46The vast majority of individuals who are in the streaming industry don't earn any money
00:50at all from the work they do.
00:52What is it like to stream to an empty chat night after night for months or even years
00:55on end?
00:56Slow viewer streamers told The Verge that the experience can be isolating and demoralizing,
01:01but it's not without its upsides.
01:03Maverick RPDM admitted,
01:04"...streaming has made me more interesting, more quick-witted, more outgoing, and extroverted."
01:09Performing in the hope of getting an audience can help some people become more comfortable
01:13with letting their personality shine through in real-life interactions.
01:17And occasionally, the reward of having just one or two viewers is enough to keep people
01:21coming back to Twitch and other platforms.
01:24How much streamers earn?
01:26This is the juicy stuff everyone wants to talk about.
01:28Twitch itself has had a volatile couple of years.
01:31In October 2021, the company suffered a massive leak that gave hackers access to huge swaths
01:36of private information.
01:38One of the biggest pieces of data that got exposed was exactly how much money the highest
01:42earners on Twitch were making and how much revenue Twitch was getting as part of its
01:46cut.
01:47Some of the top streamers were raking in millions of dollars from Twitch alone, and most — but
01:51not all — of those streamers were giving the company 50 percent of what they made.
01:55That leak might have served as a motivating factor for Twitch making adjustments to its
01:59contracts, while also becoming more transparent with the deals it offers streamers.
02:03In September 2022, Twitch president Dan Clancy made an announcement about big changes coming
02:09to the platform.
02:10Clancy revealed that Twitch had privately given some streamers a 70-30 revenue split,
02:15but he said that the criteria for handing out that better deal was largely undefined.
02:19Going forward, Twitch would only offer 50-50 splits, and the company would put forward
02:23a slightly better split on ad revenue to encourage streamers to run more ads for their viewers.
02:28The announcement received a mixed reception at best, but it marked the end of Twitch being
02:32able to keep the terms of its contracts top secret.
02:37Everyone knows that streamers make a significant portion of their income through sponsorships.
02:41Companies pay streamers to use specific gear, wear certain clothes, or explicitly talk about
02:45their products.
02:46It all comes with the territory, but in general, streamers don't reveal how much companies
02:50are willing to pay them.
02:52Sometimes, streamers want to keep their income private, and very often keeping the numbers
02:55a secret is part of their sponsorship deal.
02:58Every once in a while, fans get an accidental peek behind the scenes and find out just how
03:02much money their favorite streamers bring in on various deals.
03:06In March 2022, Aiden Ross, who's since been permanently banned from Twitch, accidentally
03:11opened a Discord conversation between himself and a gambling sponsor live on stream.
03:16Ross' fans discovered that he was making roughly $4 million a month from just one sponsorship
03:21deal.
03:22Ross' earnings were above and beyond what most streamers are making, but he's not the
03:26only person who slipped up and leaked his own income live on stream.
03:29In February 2023, OTK member Tektone accidentally let an email notification show up on stream.
03:36It revealed that he'd been paid $35,000 to host a Lost Ark-sponsored stream.
03:41It's not necessarily controversial for streamers to take sponsorship deals, but it's always
03:46interesting for fans to see how the sausage gets made.
03:50Influencers do their best to make their lives look as glamorous as possible online.
03:54Part of that means making sure that they're always on top of the latest fashion before
03:57posting another vacation selfie.
03:59In a TikTok video, Pokimane got real with her fans about influencer culture, and she
04:03made a big reveal about how people are able to consistently post pictures of themselves
04:07wearing brand new designer clothing.
04:09"...a lot of the clothes that you see influencers wear are rented or borrowed."
04:15According to Pokimane, plenty of influencers rent their clothes.
04:19They get just what they need for their next photo shoot and pay way less than the retail
04:22price because as soon as they're done wearing it, they have to send it back.
04:26Pokimane said that this particular industry secret can be a real problem, because people
04:30who want to become influencers think they need to go out and buy all these expensive
04:34clothes themselves.
04:36Some people sink a bunch of money into designer clothes without ever realizing that established
04:40influencers don't have to do that.
04:42Pokimane may just be one source, but it's easy to see that she's telling the truth.
04:46In fact, clothing rental for influencers has become so popular that there are entire
04:50brands dedicated to just providing that service.
04:53Now that aspiring influencers are in the know, they can save some cash while looking just
04:57as good as their role models.
04:58In her TikTok video, Pokimane also dropped a major bombshell about streamer relationships
05:03— sometimes, they're fake.
05:05Fans tend to form intense bonds with their favorite streamers, and it's not uncommon
05:09for them to become invested in a streamer's love life.
05:12Streamers know this, and some take advantage of it, faking relationships for viewers.
05:16That's why sometimes, when you hear, oh, someone cheated on someone, it's not cheating, they're
05:21just not really together.
05:23Pokimane said that in her experience, this happens with YouTuber couples more than couples
05:27on other platforms.
05:28And not everyone is faking their romance for engagement, but it does happen.
05:32While some streamers find that faking a relationship helps them get more viewers, others find the
05:36exact opposite to be true.
05:38Content creator Cauliflower explained to The Verge,
05:41I notice that when I'm single, viewers are much more interested in my life and things
05:45that are going on with me."
05:46She and many other female streamers said that they notice an influx of attention when their
05:50viewers think that they aren't in a relationship.
05:52Things can be a little more complicated and scary, though.
05:55Amiran's fans didn't know she was in a relationship until she revealed she was in an abusive marriage.
06:00She admitted that she had wanted to be open about her relationship, but her husband wouldn't
06:04let her.
06:05He thought that if people knew she was married, she'd make less money from her content creation
06:09work.
06:10Aside from being geared toward content creation, what do groups like AMP, OTK, and 100 Thieves
06:15all have in common?
06:17They've all had members spend at least some time living together in a content house.
06:21On the surface, having one house serve as the headquarters of an organization sounds
06:24like a dream.
06:25Fans watch the videos that come out of these setups and wish that they could have a similar
06:29experience living with their friends and making videos for a living.
06:32In reality, residing in a content house is pretty far from living the dream.
06:36For one thing, when a group of streamers lives together, cleaning the house can inadvertently
06:40fall pretty low on the to-do list.
06:42In an interview with Trash Taste, Pokemon admitted,
06:45"...when it comes to cleanliness after being in, like, content creator houses for four
06:49years, my standards are on the ground."
06:52There's also always a chance that someone's latest video idea takes things way too far.
06:56Kai Senat revealed that AMP lost its first content house after trying to have a fireworks
07:01battle indoors.
07:02It's all the downsides to living in a content house are as straightforward as dirty communal
07:06spaces or as dangerous as potentially burning the place to the ground.
07:11Valkyrae moved out of the 100 Thieves house back in 2020, and she told her fans it was
07:15because she, quote, "...wanted to separate her work life from her at-home life."
07:19Everyone needs a space to relax and unwind, and content houses don't exactly provide that.
07:25Being a content creator probably sounds like a lax job.
07:28What could be easier than goofing off with your friends on camera or playing video games
07:32for hours on end while thousands of people watch?
07:35There are definitely much harder jobs out there, but at the same time, streaming is
07:38definitely more dangerous than viewers realize.
07:41There are some dangers everyone already knows about.
07:44Streamers occasionally deal with stalkers or toxic fans swatting their homes.
07:48Those get the most attention, but the biggest danger with streaming is something that few
07:51people talk about.
07:53It turns out a lot can go wrong just by sitting in front of the computer for hours on end.
07:57The human body is meant to move, and streamers can end up suffering severe injuries because
08:01they spend too much time in their favorite gaming chair.
08:05People usually associate too much keyboard time with developing carpal tunnel syndrome,
08:09but tendinopathy, damaged mobility, or outright scarring in arm tendons is even more common.
08:14To avoid permanent impacts on their muscles, streamers need to step away from the screen
08:18and move regularly, but that's hard to do when you're trying to keep an audience engaged
08:22every single minute you're working.
08:24Just how hard streaming can be on your body might be the biggest secret in the industry.