Over the past few years, streaming has exploded in popularity with millions of people tuning in everyday to watch their favorite streamers. This increase in popularity has also led to many choosing streaming as a way to make a living. But is it all that it’s cracked up to be?
Is Streaming a Good Career?
If you enjoy interacting with other people, entertaining others and having a flexible schedule then yes, streaming can be a great career for you; however, you should know that unless you have built up an audience on another platform that will follow you over to your live streaming platform, it will take you some time before you will make enough money to consider streaming your career.
If you already have an audience built up that will follow you over to your live streaming platform, or if you are willing to put in the time and effort to become a full time streamer, then streaming can be an awesome career.
Imagine getting to play video games everyday and getting paid to do so!? Or getting to vibe everyday with hundreds, or even thousands of people who tune in to watch your streams. Sounds pretty awesome right?
Not to mention there is so much flexibility in being a full time streamer. You can take off when you want and you don’t have a boss telling you how many days you are allowed to get sick.
This is not to say that you will not have to work hard. In fact, you will probably have to work harder than you ever have before in order to stay afloat.
Think about it, as a streamer you have to continuously come up with new content to keep people coming back. If your content gets old and stale, people will dip out.
Nobody likes the same thing over and over. Always having to create something new can be a bit stressful.
Something else that can be stressful as a content creator is the feeling that someone is always coming up behind you. And in many ways, people are doing just that. As a content creator people are constantly stealing ideas and just doing them a little better.
So as a content creator yourself you always have to keep it fresh and keep things up to date or you can very easily get left behind.
Now I know those were two reasons as to why streaming might be a bit of a challenge, but if you think about it, a lot of these stressors are alleviated by the fact that you will be doing something you love. So all in all I would consider streaming a good career if you are able to break through.
But do streamers really make enough to live off of? Or is it just a cool hobby?
Can You Make a Living as a Streamer?
You can absolutely make a living as a streamer. In fact, there are thousands of people who make a living from live streaming across the world; however, it will take time and effort on your part if you want to make a living as a live streamer. It is not an easy thing to do.
Making a living as a live streamer will also depend how much money you need to live off of. Can you get by with $1,000 a month or do you need more like $3,000 – $4,000 a month to get by. If you can get by with less, then yeah, you will have a much easier time making a living as a streamer.
But for most, streaming starts off as a hobby or a side hustle and then turns into something more. This will depend on your goals as well. Are you trying to be a full time streamer or are you just in it for fun?
For example, I like streaming because I think it is fun. It is cool networking with people and having people watch me game, but I am not trying to be some big shot streamer.
So my approach and mentality towards streaming is completely different from someone who is trying to turn streaming into a full time gig.
With that being said, there is a ton of potential in streaming and it is a booming industry so there are plenty of opportunities to be had.
Do Streamers Make Good Money?
Streamers can make good money if they have enough supporters in their stream who are willing to sub and donate to help support their stream; however, for a majority of streamers, streaming is done as a hobby and most make little to no money streaming.
To say how much an “average” streamer makes would be extremely difficult to do. So many streamers come and go, but I will say that for the big time streamers streaming can be quite lucrative.
For example, Nickmercs usually hovers around 60 thousand subscribers on Twitch and so he makes close to or over $200,000 a month just off of subscribers!
Now that is a lot of dinero my friends! And he may make even more than that depending on how his contract is structured since he is a Twitch Partner.
And this doesn’t even include all the money he gets from Twitch bits, donations and partnerships/affiliates that he is linked up with. When you think about it, his monthly income is insane!
What’s crazy is that he is not the only one. There are tons of streamers making tens of thousands or even hundreds of thousands every month.
But keep in mind, that this is not common. Like I said, most streamers make no money or very little money from their streams.
So I guess streaming can be good money, but it is very difficult to grow and reach a point where you are making enough money to get by. It takes a lot of work and a lot of dedication to make good money streaming.
For this reason, if you are interested in streaming, I recommend going into it as a hobby. Something you just enjoy doing and not as your get rich scheme because you may put a lot of time and energy into something that may not work out in the end.
And if you put in the time, and it starts to pay off, then more power to you my friends. Just enjoy the journey.
Is It Difficult to Become a Streamer?
It can be very difficult to become a streamer. Many streamers will stream for several years with little to no growth. But for the few who manage to break through and build a community that helps to support them, it can be a great career.
Is It Worth Becoming a Streamer?
If you enjoy entertaining and interacting with people then becoming a streamer is absolutely worth it. More and more people are turning their love for streaming into a full time job each and everyday. Not to mention you will be working at doing something you enjoy.
That is something that I have grown to learn. It is important to love what you do for a living. If you do not enjoy what you do for a career then your life will be miserable.
Although streaming can be a lot of work, I think it can be worth it. Streaming can be a great career, it just might take some time for you to get there.
As always, if you have any questions or just want to hang with me, stop by my Twitch channel here and say what’s up!
For even more streaming tips and how-to content check out my Youtube channel here. And if you want to check out my streams then stop by my Twitch channel here.
Streaming can be an awesome way to do what you love, but just keep in mind that it could take a long time for you to get there so don’t quit your day job just yet. But for those who are willing to put in the work to succeed they can end up with a super fun and super rewarding career.
Good luck out there my friends!
Eric streams 3 days a week on Twitch and uploads weekly to Youtube under the moniker, StreamersPlaybook. He loves gaming, PCs, and anything else related to tech. He’s the founder of the website StreamersPlaybook and loves helping people answer their streaming, gaming, and PC questions.
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