The emergence of platforms such as Twitch has meant that gamers can now make serious money by broadcasting to the world, with thousands of people tuning in to see them play their favourite games.
For some, it’s just a hobby, but for those who can combine being a skilled gamer as well as an entertaining on-screen presence, the rewards can be lucrative.
Some of the world’s most popular streamers are taking home hundreds of thousands of dollars each year, but who’s currently making the most?
People often ask exactly how gamers can make so much money, but it actually comes from a couple of different sources, such as donations from fans, revenue from adverts on their channels and maybe even sponsorship deals with brands, although the primary avenue of income is from their subscribers.
Below we’ve estimated how much Twitch’s most subscribed channels have made in the past year and month, based on their number of subscribers throughout the year.
Note that two of the industry’s wealthiest names, Ninja and Shroud, recently left Twitch for the rival service, Mixer, but have been estimated to have net worths of about $10 million and $4 million, respectively.
The most
followed:
Tfue
7,319,821
followers
xQcOW
32,282
subscribers
Tfue
378,189
annual subscriptions
Nickmercs
$1,516,358
|
Rank |
Streamer |
Followers |
Total |
Tier 1 ($4.99)** |
Tier 2 ($9.99) |
Tier 3 ($24.99) |
Tier 1 Earnings** |
Tier 2 Earnings |
Tier 3 Earnings |
Annual |
|---|
*Refers to the total number of monthly subscriptions over the
last twelve months. For example if someone subscribed to an account for twelve months,
this would count as twelve subscriptions.
**Includes Tier 1, Prime, Gifted and Unshared subscriptions
While streamers on Twitch can make money from multiple different avenues, we’ve chosen to focus strictly on income from subscriptions, as it’s the only one that can be estimated with a degree of accuracy.
Subscribers to Twitch streamers can choose from three levels of subscription, costing $5, $10 and $25. According to popular streamer Disguised Toast, Twitch keep 30% of this revenue for themselves, with the streamer taking the other 70%.
Using TwitchTracker, we then found the number of monthly subscribers at each tier for each month of the year, to calculate estimated annual subscriber income, before calculating the 70% that goes to the streamer, doing so for the 100 accounts with the most subscribers.
Note that we’ve assumed Twitch subscriptions listed as ‘gifted’ or ‘unshared’ to be Tier 1 ($4.99).
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