Thank you for the comments all! I made this video because I see hundreds of streamers sitting at 10-20 viewers waiting for their "blow up moment" - and I suspect this is true on RUclips as well. The core point of this vid is you can't do what all of the top .001% do to produce their results. They are carried by momentum and platform kingmaker discoverability. They all earned their content in their time but you can't go by their example today. You need to differentiate with a unique offer and skill that sets you apart from your competitors. I know it can be harsh if you are one of the creators just lazily putting out content or you've been doing the same thing expecting different results for years. But I create these videos to help and I hope it inspires you and jogs your thinking. That's all I'm here for!
This is a great dose of reality -- I've been sitting in that 10-20 average for almost two years now. I have some good nights when raided, but I'm never getting out of the 10-20 rut unless I change things -- or even if I do, that seems to be the plateau I'm forever stuck in... and I'll just have to live with that.
@@ShocktorGaming no YOU DONT EVER HAVE TO LIVE WITH IT - you can change and excel and there's no reason you can't do what other successful people have done. it starts with the realization you just had. hold onto it.
Two quotes come to mind: "Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results." - Albert Einstein "We cannot solve our problems with the same level of thinking that created them." - Albert Einstein Copying others won’t yield the same success because each creator has unique strengths. However, there are universal principles that apply: defining your identity in your niche, finding your best way to present content, adapting to feedback, and experimenting thoughtfully. Instead of repeating old strategies hoping for more results, creators can benefit from applying the 5W1H rule-Who, What, When, Where, Why, and How-to help with planning content effectively. This approach can improve quality and ensure consistency, which is essential. As Thor (PirateSoftware) puts it, “Your stream is like a TV show. People need to know when you’re on to come watch. Imagine your favorite show airing at random times throughout the week.”
@@lightsama394 thank you and one key thing you said is "experimenting thoughtfully" -- my experimenting has not been very thoughtful... it's been all over the place. Also, I will say I do have a consistent start time -- that is one thing that has always been the case, and I believe has helped me retain the current audience.
The wild thing is I watched a ~3 viewer twitch streamer religiously for over 200 hours this year and last. I mean the view count said ~6-15 but there were never more than ~3 people (on ultra rare occasions like when there was a $20 giveaway the highest I ever saw was 6 chatters) in the chat for the entire stream EVER. They made content from their streams and while it was absolutely a side thing, (they had a full time job doing other things) they failed to convert literally anybody that wasn't there at the beginning. It's crushing to put that much effort and see zero pay out for it. No joke the only payout they ever got was us subbing and giving gift subs (like us 3 viewers). After the twitch 50% cut it totaled a whopping 2 payouts from twitch over that time period. I almost considered cutting vods together and making clips because I could tell they didn't know what was interesting about their own stream. Almost. They haven't streamed in 3 months. It also taught me that the ccv number is irrelevant to the overall stream. The only thing that matters for a streamer would be "a sufficient volume and percentage" of high quality chat messages to actively react to. If you hit that threshold for you, it makes streaming orders of magnitude easier for both parties. Overall, creating content for a full time income is hard AF. Anybody that says otherwise is delusional which is where people seem to have got a little butt hurt about you calling the old streamers trust fund streamers. I myself gave content creation a whirl and after about ~500 hours invested into it, quit never to make a single piece of content again. This was in 2012. Even back then I realized what a grueling and punishing job it was. But if you're going to do gaming content: pro tip... Mobile games. If you read all that, you're amazing. Accomplish great things!
your point about "loving the game enough to make 200+ videos about it" really hit home. i made a couple dozen minecraft uploads a few years back and burned myself out bad. it was hard to walk away from it, but i'm happy to have learned all that early on and have pivoted to digital content marketing in the professional world. thanks as always for the cool videos, devin! :)
Gaming streamers still completely underestimate RUclips streaming and formatting your streams for VOD content. I do variety and knew it would take longer but the growth I’ve seen the last year has been beyond my expectations. As a relatively small channel, I saw payouts from $300 turn into $3K as my highest so far. I only see that going up as my library continues to grow. Watch time is all that matters.
Bro you posted nearly 5,000 videos lol this is more than pewdiepie has . Nice work on the grind, 1,200 average views a video you got, but the hours you put in it is rough! You probably put 50,000 hours into it, if RPM is $4 you got paid what less than 0.50 cents an hour? respect the grind though.
Connections really don't matter, a collab/shoutout is not gonna make a RUclips career anymore. There are a ton of new creators blowing up all the time, but only if they find something unique to add to the niche.
I think thing that people need to realize more than anything about the gaming space in youtube and on twitch, especially for anyone who plays popular online multiplayer games and wants to make content on them, is that the vast majority of people who were / are popular for playing those games, are pro players. That, or they're top-rank players in the ranked ladder of whatever particular game it is that they got popular playing. Even in that list of people that Devin is following on the left-hand side of the screen, this is true. xQc was a pro OverWatch player, Tyler1 is a 5x challenger in all roles in League of Legends, Shroud was a pro CS:GO player, Sodapoppin at least played some competitive WoW PVP back in the day, etc etc. The way to make it big in pretty much any competitive PvP game online as a streamer or a youtuber, is literally to just be the best at the game, because for the most part, that's what people want to watch if they're a player themselves.
yes you NEED to be extremely good, but you ALSO need to be either attractive or funny. otherwise, if you aren't, you will lose out to another extremely good player who is
I mean being pro at something isn't necessary to be successful, and I would disagree that the majority are pro-level gamers, but it does help, but the important thing is to be entertaining and doing what you like while influencing and most important that you are happy, I mean look at Pokelawls for example, and look there are even pro players at every game that are streaming but not all of them are sucesfull like the ones you mentioned, but that's my take and view.
@@eol251 Ludwig once addressed this, there are two methods for gamers 1. is to be extremely good. The other is to hit the most searched game and play and stream that means going to Google Trends and seeing what is the breakout game that is getting the mos traction doy to doy. That's what most of the variety streamers do and they all do it almost literally the same day, that is the hyper competitive space and so you have to be witty and engaging in that space.
Streaming and content creation in general has a huge survivorship bias problem. People only look at the ones that make it and forget about the ones that are doing but are not making it and they don't even know about all the ones that failed. Compare it to any other job. Plumbers, programmers, cooks, electricians, etc. I'm sure it's true that gaming is even worse than other categories, but even in IRL or whatever, you still need to be in the top 1% (maybe even above that?) to make money. You can be an average plumber and make perfectly good money. If you're the average streamer, no matter what category you are in, you are on food stamps. There are always going to be some creators that are very successful and there will always be new creators, but there is never going to be a world where any significant percentage of the people that try to get into it are going to succeed, no matter what they do. People need to have a backup plan, or rather, streaming needs to be the backup plan and you need to be able to live if streaming doesnt work out. Let's say there were 100k hopeful streamers and they all did everything Devin says will make them successful, they still would not all be successful. There isn't room for that many top streamers. It's just like people trying to become actors. Most of them won't make it, no matter what.
What is not saturated in this world? I mean, we are 8.2 billion people on planet Earth. There is somebody doing something already, and not only in the audiovisual content space. For example, you want to open a restaurant? You want to open a barbershop? You want to open a soccer academy? Well, there are thousands of those enterprises already. I disagree with the message of this video. Of course, if your goal is to become a millionaire doing gaming content on RUclips or Twitch, that is going to be almost impossible, but if you just want to earn enough money to live a common life, my guess is that if the owner of the barbershop can do it, the gaming creator on RUclips can also achieve it. It requires a lot of work and discipline? Sure it does. If you choose to become a creator of any artistic topic, why be rigid and limit yourself to certain topics that don't interest you only because they pay you more? If that's the case, it's better to stay in a 9-to-5 job in which you don't have any creative liberties or freedom. My humble and ignorant opinion: Just try it and work hard for your goal in any topic, entrepreneurship endeavor or craft that you have passion for, that's something that will always be noticed in this society of pretenders.
this is such a "vibes" comment. a lot of people think they're "working hard for their goal" but they're too delusional to see that the goal is unattainable. Even if the goal is minimum wage. a LOT of these people are not capable. even with barbershops/salons the only ones who stay in business are those who offer the best product. i live in a town with 8k people and my hairstylist literally put 3 others completely out of business bc she truly is THAT much better, the others were found obsolete and closed shop. the difference i see in real life are my peers, enabled by parents to not move out and then delusionally try at gaming/influencer content for YEARS instead of getting a real job. I truly think the ONLY helpful thing is beating people over the head with HOW HARD it is to make it in these independent fields like content creation or even running a business, to avoid people becoming delusional off of false encouragement. i am also from a family with a failed small business (and a parent with an unused art degree) i want to retire bro, idk why other people dont. a 9-5 is how you make that happen, not hopelessly trying at a passion that doesnt help you survive
@@cami5173 The way to the goal because all of the realistic goals can be attained. Fame and fortune no those are not measurable nor are they realistic but everything else can be measured and thus improved. That improvement eventually translates into success. The problem is almost no one bothers to look at what their current state is and learn 1. what NOT to do (mistakes are people learning what NOT to do, and once that leasson is learned what one is left with is what to do and that takes research from people that have been there and done that. As an example, I would take Pewdiepie's word over Devin's any day of the week as Pewds has been there done that. 2. Learn to understand their metrics and how the creator's behavior on screen influence the viewers behavior. I wouldn't eve worry about xQc because he isn't necessarily the biggest streamer out there. The biggest female streamer is Emiru and she does a lot of cosplay type stuff along with League, however she is overshadowed by a bunch of VTubers that all of them easily do at least double her viewing hours on Streamcharts - and that's about 10 or so of them perhaps more. These are variety gamers that also sing and a bunch of other stuff, while using an avatar to stream through
Love these videos, helps us small creators start trying to think of different things to do rather than just throw up highlights that haven't been working very well all year. cheers
A lot of this video seemed to be looking at content creators that run off gameplay and build guides, but what about the essayists (on the variety side of things) that make reviews and analysis videos about video games? Do you think they are in a similar boat with what's described in the video, or maybe only half applies, or are they something else entirely? How would you crack into that market?
That kind of content is even worse because the good examples of review/analysis takes way more effort to create than just playing the game and riffing for hours. The scripting, editing and post production takes way longer and whether 10 minutes of content took you 10 minutes to create or 10 hours it all pays the same per view. Even if a fantastic video essay gets 20 times the viewing hours of a gameplay video if it takes 40 times longer to make you're making a lot less money than someone cranking out lets plays. As for trying to assemble some kind of comedic narrative out of things SovietWomble talks about how long those kinds of videos take, the time investment is huge. Dumping a VOD from twitch onto youtube and maybe hacking out a couple of the boring bits is so much quicker to make than dissecting something with enough depth to be interesting or carefully extracting only the very best bits of gameplay. Devin's point about how most big content creators have a team of people working behind them applies here, it's way easier to have all your best bits condensed into one video when you can afford to pay someone else to edit it for you. Meanwhile someone with a smaller audience doing it all themselves just doesn't have the time unfortunately, at least not if they want to make decent income out of it.
i'd guess it's something similar since you still need to put in a lot of hours into making the video essay. and it's still not guaranteed to get picked up by the algorithm or shared around. Then again it might be better because you're putting in more work than you would on a twitch stream or basic youtube video.
I think its important to check the type of content also, I found with Space Engineers that most views were coming from people that didn't own/play the game and just wanted to see explosions. This means geeking out about game mechanics even if done well has a tiny opportunity.
1 minute old and only 100 views? Gaming influences aren't the only one falling off little bro I 100% agree with Devin through this video. Gaming is already hyper-niche, and the idea of going down the rabbit hole DEEPER and picking a niche of a niche simply isn't sustainable. It's a sisyphean task. There's a reason people like Asmon moved out of their tutorial zones (WoW) into higher level zones (gaming in general) and finally into the endgame content of online influencing (general news).
The meta is mixing gaming content with IRL content. By that I mean making both types of content so you can cultivate a more expansive audience by having a greater outreach. More people are watching IRL content these days, even this video we're currently watching right now is an obvious example of that. Reaction content, podcasts, anything that has to do with a person showing themselves talking and/or doing something in the "real world" (that isn't virtual or in a video game) counts as IRL content, broadly speaking. Viewers are more willing to care about your content "in general" if they are attracted to more than just ONE genre that you produce. The PRIME GOAL is to have people watch you FOR YOU, not just gaming or clickbait stuff. You want people to watch you even if all you're doing is watching paint dry. But to get to that point you can't just be one-dimensional because you won't grow quickly or consistently enough by staying in a silo. You need to give an audience a reason to like you AND the content that you make. But even if they don't actually like you, if your content is decent enough, they will stay regardless. Gaming without some sort of gimmick or hook isn't going to see much success compared to those who have already made it in the space. Diversifying yourself and your content has been proven to be far more successful. If all you know how to do is gaming content and you're too boring and/or not interesting enough to keep a viewers attention (much less gain more), then maybe you're not cut out to be a content creator at all, and that's okay. Just because a barrier to entry is "easy" doesn't automatically mean it guarantees success. Easy example... barrier to entry to become the U.S. President is easy: 1.) Be a natural born citizen, 2.) be at least 35 years old, 3.) be a resident for 14 years. That's the barrier. But as easy as that may sound, there's still a LOT OF WORK still required to EARN the support needed to win. Case & point.
No sane person wants to stay a gaming influencer if it means only playing a couple of games at best all the time imo Sooner or later your persona or other talents has to become the brand
Based take. Just recently i thought about streaming 2 games as a hobby and already I've put in like probably a hundred hours of offline equity JUST to get the tech set up and run consistently as some of these streamers who now have teams of mods to fix problems for them so they can watch YT videos while they eat. Content creation for gaming is pretty dead at this point. Even if there are players out there that are the next shroud or even were that good at the time he was in his prime but they never had the means of streaming, you're never going to find them based on how saturated the market place is. In order to even have a stream that might be comparable to XQC or zizaran you already have to plop down over $5k in tech to get the quality sound and video they currently have. You can't start with a scuffed mic and webcam like they did 11 years ago. Its too much offline equity and money to start a stream at this point especially for gameplay. Even IRL is on a path of not being sustainable imo because you see groups like OTK and offline TV pushing the tech and production requirements higher and higher. Much of these things are put together or in consultation with people that have years of professional A/V experience and camera work in some cases. This was Never what live streaming was supposed to be. It was supposed to be its own lane but in under a decade its basically crossed lanes with traditional media's reality TV.
You speak truth, Devin! But what would you recommend to someone (like me) who has been creating content around gaming? How should we do things differently? I mean, I enjoy making content around and about the game I play, but at the same time I recognise that the creators in my gaming niche who have "made it" have done so because they started 10 years ago when the game was fresh. And I (and many others) don't really stand a chance to reach the big numbers because of this.
you have a unique skill that you can utilize to differentiate, I don't know what it is but there's so much work that is undone, even in gaming industry we are still lacking great meta-commentators (Total Biscuit types) - meta news type stuff, etc - you probably won't succeed doing what tons of other CCs are doing but if you differentiate you can
It is not all about grind. There are banger gaming channels that do like 1 video every month. And relatively speaking are actually learning new skills. Like decent video editing in the process. I wonder if it as all about just spamming content. I actually found pretty early on that sometimes spamming content (3-4 videos a week) is being punished by YT and would throttle good videos very early on. This is one of the reasons, that I avoid going into streaming to dilute what I make. It is just a waste of time before you get to certain size elsewhere.
i personally think people should just do what they want if they're new to content creation. dont copy people. like ive been watching this newer channel called "wheelie yellow" thats 100% original content and the channel isnt even a year old and one of his videos has almost half a million views and has around 60k subs which is great for really weird 100% original content that isnt attached to some game or drama or something.
Was surprised to hear you say Hermozi and Gary Vee. Those didn’t come to mind. I was thinking more like Colin and Samir because your focus appears to be more on creator economy related topics
I do casino content on a weekly basis, but have been considering moving into gaming content with Escape From Tarkov. I appreciate your wisdom on this topic and will definitely consider other avenues from here on out.
good video. in the end, all of streaming is a 1% of 1% game. every successful streamer you listed generally speaking either was an early adopter, or had unique skills that you cannot build without a fitting career to learn them for free.
I can confirm gaming is hard to get into at twitch and youtube. I've been posting regularly on youtube and stream hours on end on twtich and use social media posting clips, made promos, and networking for almost 5 years now. I've not reached partner or monetization on either and i do use an editor part time that comes out of my pocket. its a hobby that bleeds money
While I agree with you about a lot of this in reference to Twitch, I don't think it's true on RUclips for people who better understand their viewer. I've seen multiple creators that are able to find success on RUclips in the last year that I've watched go from thousands of subs to hundreds of thousands of subs and millions of views playing more than a single game. For example: Joelemz Snamwhiches RyeGames IamRob Just to name a few. Finding your niche and delivering the value your viewer appreciates over and over again is completely possible on RUclips. Twitches king maker system can't do that and any would be streamers these days should be RUclipsrs first.
Great point about offline skill and expertise being one of the biggest bottlenecks. Check out how fast Perun's channel grew. He basically has a monopoly on creating that type of content with expertise that would he hard to copy.
I'm still a firm believer that you can become a successful streamer in gaming by simply grinding youtube and then doing both once you get to 200k subscribers.
Switching away from gaming was the best choice I ever made. Though I had great studio connections and been paid for gaming content as a smaller channel, I could see the well drying. I’d see more non gaming creators getting bigger bags for the games for less effort.
It's not that it can't work, it what it takes to get there. I would never want to do exclusively gaming content. But doing what the low effort big streamers do, they might as well watch those streamers instead of their copy cats.
This is good insight. This vid came at a perfect time since I want to create content in gaming. I have much to learn to make vids that will make me grow. This might be the wrong place to ask, but should I just post a vid or should I dedicate my time to learning how to edit to have a good vid instead of having a scuffed one? I don't know, I'm kinda getting analysis paralysis. Anyway, thanks for the vid, Devin, and thanks for reading the cringe homies.
Caseoh came in and shocked the gaming world beating pewdiepie numbers lately without any money or hype lol Its all about leveraging another platform after getting lucky as he said, then putting out dozens of videos with the same energy daily and then never stopping, he has been streaming almost daily the last 2 years. Funny thing was Caseoh posted like 50 COD videos on tiktok for a year before he blew up then overnight on a brand new page of his posted a few NBA 2k videos, blew up and started posting videos daily, then streamed.
Casting shade about low effort steamers when most of your vids are cut from streams and consist of you streaming you typing and talking/rambling about a subject seems a little harsh. It’s mostly off the cuff stuff from streams here, randomly going off on tangents etc. Is there a journey plan on your own production value to earn 1mill subs or is the plan to make cut and shut stream highlight vids? Trust fund babies get handed what they have. Those streamers on that list earned their place with years of streams and building the equity you talk about later. I understand what you mean but calling out successful streamers as kinda lazy “trust fund” streamers seems a little harsh. I remember watching Lirik main gaming DayZ 10plus years ago with less than 1k views. I think he earned where he is. Shroud is on that list, likewise. They didn’t get handed what they have in any way. I completely understand what you’re saying about how hard it is to get there but I also think you’ve kinda written off the fact that they had to grind their way to where they are now against a whole host of other streamers that were also trying to make it then. It is still possible to grow a stream/YT channel on a game but it takes a lot of time and a lot of effort. It’s very hard to stick at it and even if you do you will need some luck and to have that spark that resonates with an audience and makes them want to come back.
it wasn't even shade, when you have 1-3 viewers on twitch what are you? a popular streamer or a resident in whoville? I streamed 300+ hours for 2-3 months straight to maybe 10 avg viewers a couple years ago so I'm familiar with the latter. you're missing the forest for the tree's.
@ he was talking specifically about the top streamers and compared them to trust fund babies. Called the content lazy etc. I’m just pointing out it’s a little more complex than that and the comparison was a poor one. The top streamers weren’t handed a trust fund. They earned their views in some cases with over a decades worth of consistent content.
So to be a gaming influencer is to be a speedrunner basically, great vid. Please do look into atrioc's content he's prob the one influencer that goes through gaming/marketing/business the most rn
Dude, comparing yourself to Gary Vee is hard, but let me tell you something: I like listen to you a lot more than Gary, because you're speaking from "our" perspective and your energy level feels much more enjoyable. Between the chance to sit next to both of you in a room of strangers, I would always sit at your table. Thanks for bringing us all the insights!
Hey, I’d like to point out a channel called Maximilian dood. I’d call him a “variety” gaming influencer, with roots in fighting games and Capcom stuff. Do you think there’s space for a channel like that?
Not exactly true, it depends on where you are in the world. I have 33k subscribers on RUclips and 1900 followers on Twitch and average around 2-5k views per video - 10-15 viewers per stream I've been doing this full-time for over seven years now, and I've managed to buy a house, car, and start a family solely from this income. So yes, I agree that it might not work out in the USA or some other countries, but the whole world isn’t the USA.
All these influencers do is force me to re-evaluate what I do with my life and how embarrassing chasing the bag really makes these people seem so disconnected from reality. Digital marketing is garbage until its used for devices outside of capitalism. I think that "content" creators hold a higher responsibility for managing their wealth because its also crowd sourced. I think that avoiding this space for so long gives me a unique perspective on navigating the space.
The major factor you don't adress is that new, extremely popular games release all the time. A washed-up streamer that was popular 20 years ago like Northerlion can 10x their career overnight by posting a couple trending Balatro videos by catching onto the trend "before it was cool", and using his existing subscriber count as leverage to push himself into #1 of the newly formed category. A new game popular like Balatro releases almost every month, creating a new "market" to compete in.
yes streaming is popular, but most people are literally streaming because its like there social hour, if we got rid of the 99% of people that only streamed to say they have there own emotes and just to get a few dollars to buy games they can't afford, would easily narrow down the streaming space. but sadly that wouldn't ever happen.
here's the average unsubbed Twitch experience in 2024: open stream, wait through 3min ads, wait 10 minutes to chat because Follow-only mode, it's been 10 minutes...more ads, okay now you can type in chat.
Your opinion on this seems to have changed in the past 2 or 3 years. You where alot more optimistic back then about starting as a gaming content creator.
I think calling everyone streaming on twitch "gaming creators" is disingenuous. Most don't operate with the correct mentality or methodology to succeed. They either stream too long to no one, never make videos, or don't maintain active social media. There are many basic ways in which the lowest viewer streamers fail, primarily by trying to be a pure streamer without building an audience first. If there are established creators, it will be tough to break in, but it always is no matter the market. The real concern should be gaining audience trust, once you break that barrier than people will spread your message. Let's not forget the point of youtube is to make money doing something you love, if it was only about money I would start a fertilizer business instead.
For what it's worth: I watched your latest video and it held my attention and I enjoyed it (and I quit Overwatch in 2018). Also, felt nice that I was your 69th view on that vid. But more importantly: If your content production is Motives based, vs Outcome based, then don't get get discouraged. For example - Motive based = you do it because you love doing it and have fun doing it. Outcome based = you do it for the outcome of fame & fortune. As a couple successful creators I follow have said, (and staked their content on it): "Authenticity is the new currency of today". But I could be wrong. just an opinion. Regardless, I genuinely wish you the best with your channel.
@ first off thanks for checking me out you didn't have to do that and i'm glad you enjoyed it, and second youre right with the motive based vs outcome based approach i hadn't thought about that, i do somehow still enjoy overwatch so making vids on it just makes sense to do just maybe not expecting an unrealistic outcome. thanks for your insight man it helped a lot with some things ive been struggling with
Verity gaming creators are not gaming content creators in the youtube sense. Their personality is the content which is why you will tend to see them pop off in live streaming platforms and their content on youtube the gaming sessions themselves usually isnt the content they push out its mostly them reacting to the game they are playing or interacting with other people.
Tons of people love to talk about "The top 1%" when the truth is rather bleak. For example there is a streamer i watch a lot sitting at 150 avg viewers is at the top 0.15% ranking him around top 13,000 streamers after 8000 hours streamed. Theres millions of accounts streaming with no viewers... Having 20 viewers probably already slots you in the top 1%.
gaming influencer = stick to one game and create 5 million videos about it? not even game devs create that much content, lol... that's so dumb. patchnotes, new meta, new skins, new battlepass, new way to cheese something.. there are already hundreds of thousands of people doing that everyday, why should I? it's not necessary, it's trash, it's junk thats not relevant in a few weeks.. gaming content creator should be defined very different from that...
There are some games that have surprisingly few content on. Starcraft 2 for example has a lot of videos on eSports matches on the base game, but when it comes to its custom maps and mods, there's hardly anyone doing decent production quality videos about them.
Yeah and effort is what most people don't want, they think they can sit in their chair and react haphazardly and get 10k live viewers and 1m video views.
It's all marketing, and there's ALWAYS a path for people that know how to market well. 99% of these guys that are sitting at 10-20 viewers waiting to blow up, have probably been doing the same stream, the same way for years and nothing has really changed. Aka terrible at marketing.
7:28 i think you're wrong. The only competitior on twitch (the place you stream and got famous for) is Atrioc, i don't follow the other guys but Gary V is famous for cripto/nft the dude is not even trying.
Gold. I used to get 0 views in months on different channels gaming. Then on others I talked about a popular news topic and instantly got hundreds and even some likes. I needed to hear this. Thank you.
This may sound rude, but i mean it genuinly - Your style of video is NEVER (within a reasonable timeframe) going to hit 150k Views regularly. I enjoy the laid back, low effort visuals kind of content - but your production quality is nonexistent. All your videos are are cut together segments from your livestream, without any relevant information beeing shown. Yes you may sometimes pull up what you are talking about while beeing live, but it never has any real impact. You talked about it yourself - why would anyone watch you over someone who actually puts effort into presenting nice visuals? You are AWESOME as a podcaster, or radio host. But you really do not do video content well, i am sorry.
The assumption that someone with "only" a couple/few hundred consistent viewers isn't making a full time income is just.... not smart. A HIGH number/percentage of "small time" streamers make $100 - $150k a year. I put that in quotes because comparative to the vast majority of streamers, having a few hundred consistent viewers is like top 1% and Devin.... should know this? But who am i kidding this guy doesn't even understand the glycemic index
Saying a high number of small time streamers make $100K+ just isn’t true. Streaming is an absolute grind and the return on your investment isn’t that high. If you’re making 6 figures by purely streaming you’re most likely a decent sized creator.
Yeah no. I know many streamers who are in the low 3 digit viewers and can't make it full time. The money has spread out too much and people don't donate as much. Full time viewer numbers are closer to 4 digits.
@@UnbeatableJacob About a quarter of content creators in that view range are making around $100K. 25% != "outlier." And it isn't just DIRECTLY from streaming but other income sources FOUNDED in their stream audience. I should have added that before but obvs streamers/content creators branch out to other income sources that are related to streaming
@@SirTigerLee Of ppl getting a consistent 200-300 viewers, about a quarter are making $100K/yr. I would consider that "high" in this context where he implied it's almost nil. I'm not saying ppl should go out out and stream, I'm just saying what he said was factually incorrect. Some of the laziest dirtbag VERY small streamers are making 6 figures and I actually wish ya'll were right and they were not tbh. Also I never said anything about "purely streaming"
The comments are full of haters, so let me dispel some myths so Devin doesn't waste his time and energy - Devin charges 500 an hour for his services. This video is 14 minutes long, so do the math to figure out the value of this video - If you think this video has low production value and Devin is hypocritical, you would hate Ivy league lectures where the production value is "old man yells at clouds" - Speaking of traditional education, while the professors are world class experts, they are not live streaming experts - Devin is - Name another way to gain access to this level of information for free. I'm patiently waiting. - Devin hates these creators? Devin is using metrics to come to logical conclusions. As a literal expert in his field mind you. - Devin spends his time running a business, playing video games and having sex with his wife. You spend your time running a minecraft youtube channel with 3000 subscribers. - Haters gonna hate I guess 🏆
Hey Devin. I can't find the tweet in the thumbnail. You're claiming that RUclips tweeted "To all RUclips influencers: We're Sorry" on October 29th, 2029. This is wild if true. I blocked Ludwig's channel because he fabricates tweets for clicks on his thumbnails. I love your takes, but nothing riles me up more than trading disinformation for clicks.
@@cami5173 I have 300 videos on my home page. Only two of them have thumbnails with tweets and they are both Devin Nash videos. I've given my feedback at a time when there wasn't many comments. If Devin has read it, then he can make the choice. I am for real. We're probably two years away from bot accounts complaining about thumbnails.
![The Twitch Adpocalypse Has Begun [Explained]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/UR7arYyR5pk/mqdefault.jpg)
Thank you for the comments all! I made this video because I see hundreds of streamers sitting at 10-20 viewers waiting for their "blow up moment" - and I suspect this is true on RUclips as well. The core point of this vid is you can't do what all of the top .001% do to produce their results. They are carried by momentum and platform kingmaker discoverability. They all earned their content in their time but you can't go by their example today. You need to differentiate with a unique offer and skill that sets you apart from your competitors.
I know it can be harsh if you are one of the creators just lazily putting out content or you've been doing the same thing expecting different results for years. But I create these videos to help and I hope it inspires you and jogs your thinking. That's all I'm here for!
This is a great dose of reality -- I've been sitting in that 10-20 average for almost two years now. I have some good nights when raided, but I'm never getting out of the 10-20 rut unless I change things -- or even if I do, that seems to be the plateau I'm forever stuck in... and I'll just have to live with that.
@@ShocktorGaming no YOU DONT EVER HAVE TO LIVE WITH IT - you can change and excel and there's no reason you can't do what other successful people have done. it starts with the realization you just had. hold onto it.
Two quotes come to mind:
"Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results."
- Albert Einstein
"We cannot solve our problems with the same level of thinking that created them."
- Albert Einstein
Copying others won’t yield the same success because each creator has unique strengths. However, there are universal principles that apply: defining your identity in your niche, finding your best way to present content, adapting to feedback, and experimenting thoughtfully.
Instead of repeating old strategies hoping for more results, creators can benefit from applying the 5W1H rule-Who, What, When, Where, Why, and How-to help with planning content effectively. This approach can improve quality and ensure consistency, which is essential.
As Thor (PirateSoftware) puts it, “Your stream is like a TV show. People need to know when you’re on to come watch. Imagine your favorite show airing at random times throughout the week.”
@@devinnash Thank you -- I needed to hear that -- this has been on my mind a lot lately, and I do need to change things.
@@lightsama394 thank you and one key thing you said is "experimenting thoughtfully" -- my experimenting has not been very thoughtful... it's been all over the place. Also, I will say I do have a consistent start time -- that is one thing that has always been the case, and I believe has helped me retain the current audience.
The wild thing is I watched a ~3 viewer twitch streamer religiously for over 200 hours this year and last. I mean the view count said ~6-15 but there were never more than ~3 people (on ultra rare occasions like when there was a $20 giveaway the highest I ever saw was 6 chatters) in the chat for the entire stream EVER. They made content from their streams and while it was absolutely a side thing, (they had a full time job doing other things) they failed to convert literally anybody that wasn't there at the beginning. It's crushing to put that much effort and see zero pay out for it. No joke the only payout they ever got was us subbing and giving gift subs (like us 3 viewers). After the twitch 50% cut it totaled a whopping 2 payouts from twitch over that time period. I almost considered cutting vods together and making clips because I could tell they didn't know what was interesting about their own stream. Almost. They haven't streamed in 3 months.
It also taught me that the ccv number is irrelevant to the overall stream. The only thing that matters for a streamer would be "a sufficient volume and percentage" of high quality chat messages to actively react to. If you hit that threshold for you, it makes streaming orders of magnitude easier for both parties.
Overall, creating content for a full time income is hard AF. Anybody that says otherwise is delusional which is where people seem to have got a little butt hurt about you calling the old streamers trust fund streamers. I myself gave content creation a whirl and after about ~500 hours invested into it, quit never to make a single piece of content again. This was in 2012. Even back then I realized what a grueling and punishing job it was.
But if you're going to do gaming content: pro tip... Mobile games.
If you read all that, you're amazing. Accomplish great things!
100%, the creator in your story is exactly who I'm hoping to reach
thanks for your comment brother
your point about "loving the game enough to make 200+ videos about it" really hit home. i made a couple dozen minecraft uploads a few years back and burned myself out bad. it was hard to walk away from it, but i'm happy to have learned all that early on and have pivoted to digital content marketing in the professional world. thanks as always for the cool videos, devin! :)
Gaming streamers still completely underestimate RUclips streaming and formatting your streams for VOD content. I do variety and knew it would take longer but the growth I’ve seen the last year has been beyond my expectations. As a relatively small channel, I saw payouts from $300 turn into $3K as my highest so far. I only see that going up as my library continues to grow. Watch time is all that matters.
Bro you posted nearly 5,000 videos lol this is more than pewdiepie has . Nice work on the grind, 1,200 average views a video you got, but the hours you put in it is rough! You probably put 50,000 hours into it, if RPM is $4 you got paid what less than 0.50 cents an hour? respect the grind though.
The majority of full-time media producing people make less than 10k a year. The ones who are at the top started 10 years ago or have connections.
Connections really don't matter, a collab/shoutout is not gonna make a RUclips career anymore. There are a ton of new creators blowing up all the time, but only if they find something unique to add to the niche.
I think thing that people need to realize more than anything about the gaming space in youtube and on twitch, especially for anyone who plays popular online multiplayer games and wants to make content on them, is that the vast majority of people who were / are popular for playing those games, are pro players. That, or they're top-rank players in the ranked ladder of whatever particular game it is that they got popular playing. Even in that list of people that Devin is following on the left-hand side of the screen, this is true. xQc was a pro OverWatch player, Tyler1 is a 5x challenger in all roles in League of Legends, Shroud was a pro CS:GO player, Sodapoppin at least played some competitive WoW PVP back in the day, etc etc. The way to make it big in pretty much any competitive PvP game online as a streamer or a youtuber, is literally to just be the best at the game, because for the most part, that's what people want to watch if they're a player themselves.
yes you NEED to be extremely good, but you ALSO need to be either attractive or funny. otherwise, if you aren't, you will lose out to another extremely good player who is
I mean being pro at something isn't necessary to be successful, and I would disagree that the majority are pro-level gamers, but it does help, but the important thing is to be entertaining and doing what you like while influencing and most important that you are happy, I mean look at Pokelawls for example, and look there are even pro players at every game that are streaming but not all of them are sucesfull like the ones you mentioned, but that's my take and view.
@@eol251 Ludwig once addressed this, there are two methods for gamers 1. is to be extremely good.
The other is to hit the most searched game and play and stream that means going to Google Trends and seeing what is the breakout game that is getting the mos traction doy to doy. That's what most of the variety streamers do and they all do it almost literally the same day, that is the hyper competitive space and so you have to be witty and engaging in that space.
Why did I have to have to have a gaming hyperfixation? Making a channel unrelated to gaming seems impossible for my brain to handle 😭
Find your niche and capitalize on it. Your audience will find you 🫡
Streaming and content creation in general has a huge survivorship bias problem. People only look at the ones that make it and forget about the ones that are doing but are not making it and they don't even know about all the ones that failed. Compare it to any other job. Plumbers, programmers, cooks, electricians, etc. I'm sure it's true that gaming is even worse than other categories, but even in IRL or whatever, you still need to be in the top 1% (maybe even above that?) to make money. You can be an average plumber and make perfectly good money. If you're the average streamer, no matter what category you are in, you are on food stamps.
There are always going to be some creators that are very successful and there will always be new creators, but there is never going to be a world where any significant percentage of the people that try to get into it are going to succeed, no matter what they do. People need to have a backup plan, or rather, streaming needs to be the backup plan and you need to be able to live if streaming doesnt work out. Let's say there were 100k hopeful streamers and they all did everything Devin says will make them successful, they still would not all be successful. There isn't room for that many top streamers. It's just like people trying to become actors. Most of them won't make it, no matter what.
No apology needed. You are right. The moment is over.
What is not saturated in this world? I mean, we are 8.2 billion people on planet Earth. There is somebody doing something already, and not only in the audiovisual content space. For example, you want to open a restaurant? You want to open a barbershop? You want to open a soccer academy? Well, there are thousands of those enterprises already. I disagree with the message of this video. Of course, if your goal is to become a millionaire doing gaming content on RUclips or Twitch, that is going to be almost impossible, but if you just want to earn enough money to live a common life, my guess is that if the owner of the barbershop can do it, the gaming creator on RUclips can also achieve it. It requires a lot of work and discipline? Sure it does. If you choose to become a creator of any artistic topic, why be rigid and limit yourself to certain topics that don't interest you only because they pay you more? If that's the case, it's better to stay in a 9-to-5 job in which you don't have any creative liberties or freedom.
My humble and ignorant opinion: Just try it and work hard for your goal in any topic, entrepreneurship endeavor or craft that you have passion for, that's something that will always be noticed in this society of pretenders.
this is such a "vibes" comment. a lot of people think they're "working hard for their goal" but they're too delusional to see that the goal is unattainable. Even if the goal is minimum wage. a LOT of these people are not capable.
even with barbershops/salons the only ones who stay in business are those who offer the best product. i live in a town with 8k people and my hairstylist literally put 3 others completely out of business bc she truly is THAT much better, the others were found obsolete and closed shop.
the difference i see in real life are my peers, enabled by parents to not move out and then delusionally try at gaming/influencer content for YEARS instead of getting a real job.
I truly think the ONLY helpful thing is beating people over the head with HOW HARD it is to make it in these independent fields like content creation or even running a business, to avoid people becoming delusional off of false encouragement.
i am also from a family with a failed small business (and a parent with an unused art degree) i want to retire bro, idk why other people dont. a 9-5 is how you make that happen, not hopelessly trying at a passion that doesnt help you survive
@@cami5173 Maybe people don't want to survive, they want to thrive. Everyone has got to try at least once. Pure competition.
Work hard and smart* for your goals. You can put in 100 hours of the wrong kind of work and get nowhere
@@cami5173 The way to the goal because all of the realistic goals can be attained. Fame and fortune no those are not measurable nor are they realistic but everything else can be measured and thus improved. That improvement eventually translates into success. The problem is almost no one bothers to look at what their current state is and learn
1. what NOT to do (mistakes are people learning what NOT to do, and once that leasson is learned what one is left with is what to do and that takes research from people that have been there and done that. As an example, I would take Pewdiepie's word over Devin's any day of the week as Pewds has been there done that.
2. Learn to understand their metrics and how the creator's behavior on screen influence the viewers behavior.
I wouldn't eve worry about xQc because he isn't necessarily the biggest streamer out there. The biggest female streamer is Emiru and she does a lot of cosplay type stuff along with League, however she is overshadowed by a bunch of VTubers that all of them easily do at least double her viewing hours on Streamcharts - and that's about 10 or so of them perhaps more. These are variety gamers that also sing and a bunch of other stuff, while using an avatar to stream through
Love these videos, helps us small creators start trying to think of different things to do rather than just throw up highlights that haven't been working very well all year. cheers
thank you man, appreciate you
The gaming niche is working for me, but I had to put hundreds of hours into my videos to make it work. That's just the way it is these days.
A lot of this video seemed to be looking at content creators that run off gameplay and build guides, but what about the essayists (on the variety side of things) that make reviews and analysis videos about video games? Do you think they are in a similar boat with what's described in the video, or maybe only half applies, or are they something else entirely? How would you crack into that market?
I'd love to hear what Devin thinks of the gaming essay vertical because that's exactly how I'd describe myself.
Not to mention using games as a vehicle for comedy etc in videos
That kind of content is even worse because the good examples of review/analysis takes way more effort to create than just playing the game and riffing for hours. The scripting, editing and post production takes way longer and whether 10 minutes of content took you 10 minutes to create or 10 hours it all pays the same per view. Even if a fantastic video essay gets 20 times the viewing hours of a gameplay video if it takes 40 times longer to make you're making a lot less money than someone cranking out lets plays.
As for trying to assemble some kind of comedic narrative out of things SovietWomble talks about how long those kinds of videos take, the time investment is huge. Dumping a VOD from twitch onto youtube and maybe hacking out a couple of the boring bits is so much quicker to make than dissecting something with enough depth to be interesting or carefully extracting only the very best bits of gameplay. Devin's point about how most big content creators have a team of people working behind them applies here, it's way easier to have all your best bits condensed into one video when you can afford to pay someone else to edit it for you. Meanwhile someone with a smaller audience doing it all themselves just doesn't have the time unfortunately, at least not if they want to make decent income out of it.
A good longform essay can always hit on the algorithm it seems like.
i'd guess it's something similar since you still need to put in a lot of hours into making the video essay. and it's still not guaranteed to get picked up by the algorithm or shared around.
Then again it might be better because you're putting in more work than you would on a twitch stream or basic youtube video.
I think its important to check the type of content also, I found with Space Engineers that most views were coming from people that didn't own/play the game and just wanted to see explosions. This means geeking out about game mechanics even if done well has a tiny opportunity.
1 minute old and only 100 views? Gaming influences aren't the only one falling off little bro
I 100% agree with Devin through this video. Gaming is already hyper-niche, and the idea of going down the rabbit hole DEEPER and picking a niche of a niche simply isn't sustainable. It's a sisyphean task. There's a reason people like Asmon moved out of their tutorial zones (WoW) into higher level zones (gaming in general) and finally into the endgame content of online influencing (general news).
perhaps
your humor definitely is falling off though
@@Chris3s jeez Chris calm down, we’re all friends here.
@@Chris3s Your reply is falling off bud
"sisyphean"? new word for me and must force this word into a conversation today.
I’m in the mobile gaming niche and CPMs are great.
this, its all about targeting using twitchtracker and sullyknome, got 500 followers in a week playing clash of clans
That's a lie, it's dogshit
The meta is mixing gaming content with IRL content. By that I mean making both types of content so you can cultivate a more expansive audience by having a greater outreach. More people are watching IRL content these days, even this video we're currently watching right now is an obvious example of that.
Reaction content, podcasts, anything that has to do with a person showing themselves talking and/or doing something in the "real world" (that isn't virtual or in a video game) counts as IRL content, broadly speaking.
Viewers are more willing to care about your content "in general" if they are attracted to more than just ONE genre that you produce. The PRIME GOAL is to have people watch you FOR YOU, not just gaming or clickbait stuff. You want people to watch you even if all you're doing is watching paint dry. But to get to that point you can't just be one-dimensional because you won't grow quickly or consistently enough by staying in a silo.
You need to give an audience a reason to like you AND the content that you make. But even if they don't actually like you, if your content is decent enough, they will stay regardless.
Gaming without some sort of gimmick or hook isn't going to see much success compared to those who have already made it in the space. Diversifying yourself and your content has been proven to be far more successful.
If all you know how to do is gaming content and you're too boring and/or not interesting enough to keep a viewers attention (much less gain more), then maybe you're not cut out to be a content creator at all, and that's okay.
Just because a barrier to entry is "easy" doesn't automatically mean it guarantees success.
Easy example... barrier to entry to become the U.S. President is easy: 1.) Be a natural born citizen, 2.) be at least 35 years old, 3.) be a resident for 14 years. That's the barrier.
But as easy as that may sound, there's still a LOT OF WORK still required to EARN the support needed to win. Case & point.
LOVE THIS TOPIC. LOVE THIS VIDEO. Stay on top!
No sane person wants to stay a gaming influencer if it means only playing a couple of games at best all the time imo
Sooner or later
your persona or other talents has to become the brand
Nice video Knott
Based take. Just recently i thought about streaming 2 games as a hobby and already I've put in like probably a hundred hours of offline equity JUST to get the tech set up and run consistently as some of these streamers who now have teams of mods to fix problems for them so they can watch YT videos while they eat.
Content creation for gaming is pretty dead at this point. Even if there are players out there that are the next shroud or even were that good at the time he was in his prime but they never had the means of streaming, you're never going to find them based on how saturated the market place is.
In order to even have a stream that might be comparable to XQC or zizaran you already have to plop down over $5k in tech to get the quality sound and video they currently have. You can't start with a scuffed mic and webcam like they did 11 years ago.
Its too much offline equity and money to start a stream at this point especially for gameplay.
Even IRL is on a path of not being sustainable imo because you see groups like OTK and offline TV pushing the tech and production requirements higher and higher. Much of these things are put together or in consultation with people that have years of professional A/V experience and camera work in some cases.
This was Never what live streaming was supposed to be. It was supposed to be its own lane but in under a decade its basically crossed lanes with traditional media's reality TV.
You speak truth, Devin! But what would you recommend to someone (like me) who has been creating content around gaming? How should we do things differently? I mean, I enjoy making content around and about the game I play, but at the same time I recognise that the creators in my gaming niche who have "made it" have done so because they started 10 years ago when the game was fresh. And I (and many others) don't really stand a chance to reach the big numbers because of this.
you have a unique skill that you can utilize to differentiate, I don't know what it is but there's so much work that is undone, even in gaming industry we are still lacking great meta-commentators (Total Biscuit types) - meta news type stuff, etc - you probably won't succeed doing what tons of other CCs are doing but if you differentiate you can
It is not all about grind. There are banger gaming channels that do like 1 video every month. And relatively speaking are actually learning new skills. Like decent video editing in the process. I wonder if it as all about just spamming content. I actually found pretty early on that sometimes spamming content (3-4 videos a week) is being punished by YT and would throttle good videos very early on. This is one of the reasons, that I avoid going into streaming to dilute what I make. It is just a waste of time before you get to certain size elsewhere.
i personally think people should just do what they want if they're new to content creation. dont copy people. like ive been watching this newer channel called "wheelie yellow" thats 100% original content and the channel isnt even a year old and one of his videos has almost half a million views and has around 60k subs which is great for really weird 100% original content that isnt attached to some game or drama or something.
Thanks for the great video, Devin. I appreciate it friendo
I have noticed that doing variety is not the way to go unless you stay in a very narrow niche, and even then, the views aren't that great.
Was surprised to hear you say Hermozi and Gary Vee. Those didn’t come to mind. I was thinking more like Colin and Samir because your focus appears to be more on creator economy related topics
I think you're right! I should focus more on that direction
I do casino content on a weekly basis, but have been considering moving into gaming content with Escape From Tarkov. I appreciate your wisdom on this topic and will definitely consider other avenues from here on out.
Thanks for always keeping it real. I was a full time creator and backed off and it’s all about what you’re saying 2:52
This legit blew my mind
good video. in the end, all of streaming is a 1% of 1% game.
every successful streamer you listed generally speaking either was an early adopter, or had unique skills that you cannot build without a fitting career to learn them for free.
I love this take so much
Truth. As much as I don't want to admit it, this video was very necessary for me.
Very sneaky Devin, I see the polarizing topic "tactics" employed in this video. Keep this up and i'm sure you will hit your Sub target.
you got me
I can confirm gaming is hard to get into at twitch and youtube. I've been posting regularly on youtube and stream hours on end on twtich and use social media posting clips, made promos, and networking for almost 5 years now. I've not reached partner or monetization on either and i do use an editor part time that comes out of my pocket. its a hobby that bleeds money
thanks for the great content!👍
While I agree with you about a lot of this in reference to Twitch, I don't think it's true on RUclips for people who better understand their viewer.
I've seen multiple creators that are able to find success on RUclips in the last year that I've watched go from thousands of subs to hundreds of thousands of subs and millions of views playing more than a single game.
For example:
Joelemz
Snamwhiches
RyeGames
IamRob
Just to name a few. Finding your niche and delivering the value your viewer appreciates over and over again is completely possible on RUclips. Twitches king maker system can't do that and any would be streamers these days should be RUclipsrs first.
Great point about offline skill and expertise being one of the biggest bottlenecks. Check out how fast Perun's channel grew. He basically has a monopoly on creating that type of content with expertise that would he hard to copy.
You're right, as a small time Path of Exile youtuber, I agree. You do need to learn what "equity" and "calculus" means though.
I'm still a firm believer that you can become a successful streamer in gaming by simply grinding youtube and then doing both once you get to 200k subscribers.
Switching away from gaming was the best choice I ever made. Though I had great studio connections and been paid for gaming content as a smaller channel, I could see the well drying. I’d see more non gaming creators getting bigger bags for the games for less effort.
It's not that it can't work, it what it takes to get there.
I would never want to do exclusively gaming content.
But doing what the low effort big streamers do, they might as well watch those streamers instead of their copy cats.
This is good insight. This vid came at a perfect time since I want to create content in gaming. I have much to learn to make vids that will make me grow. This might be the wrong place to ask, but should I just post a vid or should I dedicate my time to learning how to edit to have a good vid instead of having a scuffed one? I don't know, I'm kinda getting analysis paralysis. Anyway, thanks for the vid, Devin, and thanks for reading the cringe homies.
more is more especially when you're getting started. just get stuff out there and learn on the way. but posting consistently is your #1 priority.
Thanks brother
Caseoh came in and shocked the gaming world beating pewdiepie numbers lately without any money or hype lol Its all about leveraging another platform after getting lucky as he said, then putting out dozens of videos with the same energy daily and then never stopping, he has been streaming almost daily the last 2 years. Funny thing was Caseoh posted like 50 COD videos on tiktok for a year before he blew up then overnight on a brand new page of his posted a few NBA 2k videos, blew up and started posting videos daily, then streamed.
One of the reasons I like Northernlion, he games but he storytells with every stream.
Casting shade about low effort steamers when most of your vids are cut from streams and consist of you streaming you typing and talking/rambling about a subject seems a little harsh. It’s mostly off the cuff stuff from streams here, randomly going off on tangents etc. Is there a journey plan on your own production value to earn 1mill subs or is the plan to make cut and shut stream highlight vids?
Trust fund babies get handed what they have. Those streamers on that list earned their place with years of streams and building the equity you talk about later. I understand what you mean but calling out successful streamers as kinda lazy “trust fund” streamers seems a little harsh. I remember watching Lirik main gaming DayZ 10plus years ago with less than 1k views. I think he earned where he is. Shroud is on that list, likewise. They didn’t get handed what they have in any way.
I completely understand what you’re saying about how hard it is to get there but I also think you’ve kinda written off the fact that they had to grind their way to where they are now against a whole host of other streamers that were also trying to make it then.
It is still possible to grow a stream/YT channel on a game but it takes a lot of time and a lot of effort. It’s very hard to stick at it and even if you do you will need some luck and to have that spark that resonates with an audience and makes them want to come back.
damn you aint even this ruthless with a freshie in Elektro... 💀💀
Respect to Nash but I agree with you.
@@michaelricheson849 I like his videos it’s why I’m here. He has some interesting insights. Disagreeing on something doesn’t mean any drama. ;)
it wasn't even shade, when you have 1-3 viewers on twitch what are you? a popular streamer or a resident in whoville? I streamed 300+ hours for 2-3 months straight to maybe 10 avg viewers a couple years ago so I'm familiar with the latter.
you're missing the forest for the tree's.
@ he was talking specifically about the top streamers and compared them to trust fund babies. Called the content lazy etc.
I’m just pointing out it’s a little more complex than that and the comparison was a poor one.
The top streamers weren’t handed a trust fund. They earned their views in some cases with over a decades worth of consistent content.
So to be a gaming influencer is to be a speedrunner basically, great vid. Please do look into atrioc's content he's prob the one influencer that goes through gaming/marketing/business the most rn
Dude, comparing yourself to Gary Vee is hard, but let me tell you something: I like listen to you a lot more than Gary, because you're speaking from "our" perspective and your energy level feels much more enjoyable. Between the chance to sit next to both of you in a room of strangers, I would always sit at your table. Thanks for bringing us all the insights!
means a lot man, thank you, I have a long way to go!
Hey, I’d like to point out a channel called Maximilian dood. I’d call him a “variety” gaming influencer, with roots in fighting games and Capcom stuff. Do you think there’s space for a channel like that?
That's a pretty interesting insight.... how many of the big gaming streamers are actually news creators....
Not exactly true, it depends on where you are in the world. I have 33k subscribers on RUclips and 1900 followers on Twitch and average around 2-5k views per video - 10-15 viewers per stream I've been doing this full-time for over seven years now, and I've managed to buy a house, car, and start a family solely from this income. So yes, I agree that it might not work out in the USA or some other countries, but the whole world isn’t the USA.
All these influencers do is force me to re-evaluate what I do with my life and how embarrassing chasing the bag really makes these people seem so disconnected from reality.
Digital marketing is garbage until its used for devices outside of capitalism. I think that "content" creators hold a higher responsibility for managing their wealth because its also crowd sourced.
I think that avoiding this space for so long gives me a unique perspective on navigating the space.
The major factor you don't adress is that new, extremely popular games release all the time. A washed-up streamer that was popular 20 years ago like Northerlion can 10x their career overnight by posting a couple trending Balatro videos by catching onto the trend "before it was cool", and using his existing subscriber count as leverage to push himself into #1 of the newly formed category.
A new game popular like Balatro releases almost every month, creating a new "market" to compete in.
Is NL really washed up 😂
Just feels unnecessarily mean lmao
Didn’t CaseOh blow up without production quality? And Jynxzi?
yes streaming is popular, but most people are literally streaming because its like there social hour, if we got rid of the 99% of people that only streamed to say they have there own emotes and just to get a few dollars to buy games they can't afford, would easily narrow down the streaming space. but sadly that wouldn't ever happen.
Love the fact he's wearing an EQ shirt
here's the average unsubbed Twitch experience in 2024: open stream, wait through 3min ads, wait 10 minutes to chat because Follow-only mode, it's been 10 minutes...more ads, okay now you can type in chat.
That Everquest t-shirt is badass
Yeah, gaming CMPs are horrible... can confirm at least on youtube ads
Your opinion on this seems to have changed in the past 2 or 3 years. You where alot more optimistic back then about starting as a gaming content creator.
I think calling everyone streaming on twitch "gaming creators" is disingenuous. Most don't operate with the correct mentality or methodology to succeed. They either stream too long to no one, never make videos, or don't maintain active social media. There are many basic ways in which the lowest viewer streamers fail, primarily by trying to be a pure streamer without building an audience first. If there are established creators, it will be tough to break in, but it always is no matter the market. The real concern should be gaining audience trust, once you break that barrier than people will spread your message. Let's not forget the point of youtube is to make money doing something you love, if it was only about money I would start a fertilizer business instead.
Why should twitch focus on gaming than?
Welp, I'll check back in 10 years and let you know how it went. 😆
great, i just started a gaming channel 😭
gl hf :)
For what it's worth: I watched your latest video and it held my attention and I enjoyed it (and I quit Overwatch in 2018). Also, felt nice that I was your 69th view on that vid.
But more importantly: If your content production is Motives based, vs Outcome based, then don't get get discouraged. For example - Motive based = you do it because you love doing it and have fun doing it. Outcome based = you do it for the outcome of fame & fortune. As a couple successful creators I follow have said, (and staked their content on it): "Authenticity is the new currency of today". But I could be wrong. just an opinion. Regardless, I genuinely wish you the best with your channel.
@ first off thanks for checking me out you didn't have to do that and i'm glad you enjoyed it, and second youre right with the motive based vs outcome based approach i hadn't thought about that, i do somehow still enjoy overwatch so making vids on it just makes sense to do just maybe not expecting an unrealistic outcome. thanks for your insight man it helped a lot with some things ive been struggling with
...let the games....begin
Verity gaming creators are not gaming content creators in the youtube sense. Their personality is the content which is why you will tend to see them pop off in live streaming platforms and their content on youtube the gaming sessions themselves usually isnt the content they push out its mostly them reacting to the game they are playing or interacting with other people.
this is a hot take?
I do gaming stuff just cuz I do this for fun. If I was trying to make a big channel and earn mad cash I'd be a finance channel.
Spot on! Everyone thinks it's easy and you can make a tonne of money from gaming channels. Good luck with that!😂
Tons of people love to talk about "The top 1%" when the truth is rather bleak. For example there is a streamer i watch a lot sitting at 150 avg viewers is at the top 0.15% ranking him around top 13,000 streamers after 8000 hours streamed. Theres millions of accounts streaming with no viewers... Having 20 viewers probably already slots you in the top 1%.
i wish sushi dragon would get his flowers.
gaming influencer = stick to one game and create 5 million videos about it?
not even game devs create that much content, lol...
that's so dumb.
patchnotes, new meta, new skins, new battlepass, new way to cheese something..
there are already hundreds of thousands of people doing that everyday, why should I?
it's not necessary, it's trash, it's junk thats not relevant in a few weeks..
gaming content creator should be defined very different from that...
There are some games that have surprisingly few content on. Starcraft 2 for example has a lot of videos on eSports matches on the base game, but when it comes to its custom maps and mods, there's hardly anyone doing decent production quality videos about them.
theradbrad and mkiceandfire are legends
I WILL MAKE IT REVIVAL i mean some gaming influ are there but some a young growing like me
tho u can see zizaran with 2.7k vids and pirate with 1k vids, it is mostly effort and as long as the content is on point you good
Yeah and effort is what most people don't want, they think they can sit in their chair and react haphazardly and get 10k live viewers and 1m video views.
It's all marketing, and there's ALWAYS a path for people that know how to market well.
99% of these guys that are sitting at 10-20 viewers waiting to blow up, have probably been doing the same stream, the same way for years and nothing has really changed. Aka terrible at marketing.
EVERQUEST!
@0:16 what is a decent amount of money?
Gamers will give you $1 per 50 hours of entertainment and expect you to be grateful
Damn, I better make a thousand more videos 😂
7:28 i think you're wrong. The only competitior on twitch (the place you stream and got famous for) is Atrioc, i don't follow the other guys but Gary V is famous for cripto/nft the dude is not even trying.
DarthMicro has been youtubing for like 10 years too though, he has like 7 channels
I didn't know Hassan even did gaming. I assumed he was a political drama content creator.
Got it. I’ll be a P. Diddy influencer
check out AsumSaus he gets lots of views uploading pretty infequently on a smaller game like melee
lot of checkmarks missing the point of the video in this here comment section 🤠
watch me succeed anyway >:D
Reality check
So the lesson to learn here is make a video about p diddy.
Somehow finds a way to bring up Hasan lmao
Northernlion is a gaming influencer
Northernlion is a comedian that plays games during improv comedy streams tbh
Also I think he has like 20k yourube vids released atm
Gold. I used to get 0 views in months on different channels gaming. Then on others I talked about a popular news topic and instantly got hundreds and even some likes. I needed to hear this. Thank you.
This may sound rude, but i mean it genuinly - Your style of video is NEVER (within a reasonable timeframe) going to hit 150k Views regularly.
I enjoy the laid back, low effort visuals kind of content - but your production quality is nonexistent. All your videos are are cut together segments from your livestream, without any relevant information beeing shown. Yes you may sometimes pull up what you are talking about while beeing live, but it never has any real impact.
You talked about it yourself - why would anyone watch you over someone who actually puts effort into presenting nice visuals?
You are AWESOME as a podcaster, or radio host. But you really do not do video content well, i am sorry.
Cooking steak in a parking lot is just as low bar as gaming streams.
8 minutes and only 4 contents? damm you fallen
Child
So many layers of irony and projection in this rant lol.
The assumption that someone with "only" a couple/few hundred consistent viewers isn't making a full time income is just.... not smart. A HIGH number/percentage of "small time" streamers make $100 - $150k a year. I put that in quotes because comparative to the vast majority of streamers, having a few hundred consistent viewers is like top 1% and Devin.... should know this? But who am i kidding this guy doesn't even understand the glycemic index
Saying a high number of small time streamers make $100K+ just isn’t true. Streaming is an absolute grind and the return on your investment isn’t that high. If you’re making 6 figures by purely streaming you’re most likely a decent sized creator.
Yeah no. I know many streamers who are in the low 3 digit viewers and can't make it full time. The money has spread out too much and people don't donate as much. Full time viewer numbers are closer to 4 digits.
That’s what you’d call an outlier. Yes, they exist. But it’s not the case for most.
@@UnbeatableJacob About a quarter of content creators in that view range are making around $100K. 25% != "outlier." And it isn't just DIRECTLY from streaming but other income sources FOUNDED in their stream audience. I should have added that before but obvs streamers/content creators branch out to other income sources that are related to streaming
@@SirTigerLee Of ppl getting a consistent 200-300 viewers, about a quarter are making $100K/yr. I would consider that "high" in this context where he implied it's almost nil. I'm not saying ppl should go out out and stream, I'm just saying what he said was factually incorrect. Some of the laziest dirtbag VERY small streamers are making 6 figures and I actually wish ya'll were right and they were not tbh. Also I never said anything about "purely streaming"
The comments are full of haters, so let me dispel some myths so Devin doesn't waste his time and energy
- Devin charges 500 an hour for his services. This video is 14 minutes long, so do the math to figure out the value of this video
- If you think this video has low production value and Devin is hypocritical, you would hate Ivy league lectures where the production value is "old man yells at clouds"
- Speaking of traditional education, while the professors are world class experts, they are not live streaming experts - Devin is
- Name another way to gain access to this level of information for free. I'm patiently waiting.
- Devin hates these creators? Devin is using metrics to come to logical conclusions. As a literal expert in his field mind you.
- Devin spends his time running a business, playing video games and having sex with his wife. You spend your time running a minecraft youtube channel with 3000 subscribers.
- Haters gonna hate I guess 🏆
Lol you had good points but "having sex with his wife" is such high levels of glazing it hurt to read
@@potatoplayer420 its clearly there as bait and you took it.
Hey Devin. I can't find the tweet in the thumbnail.
You're claiming that RUclips tweeted "To all RUclips influencers: We're Sorry" on October 29th, 2029. This is wild if true.
I blocked Ludwig's channel because he fabricates tweets for clicks on his thumbnails. I love your takes, but nothing riles me up more than trading disinformation for clicks.
sounds like you wont be following a lot of youtubers 🤷♀ hes running a business he doesnt care about the legitimacy of his clickbait are you fr?
@@cami5173 I have 300 videos on my home page. Only two of them have thumbnails with tweets and they are both Devin Nash videos.
I've given my feedback at a time when there wasn't many comments. If Devin has read it, then he can make the choice.
I am for real. We're probably two years away from bot accounts complaining about thumbnails.
I used to respect Devin, but once he said Thor uses EQ in his mic to get a deep voice, lol.
He likely has an eq to make his deep voice sound better, but obviously the deep voice itself isn't fake. I think that is what he means
First?
second ;)