It is no longer news that hundreds of gamers get paid to play their favorite games online, and even stream it live. But the unbelievable story is that some Twitch gamers get paid up to $50,000 per hour to game-stream, while some earn nearly half of that or far less. Various developers and game companies reportedly cough out thousands of dollars to savvy gamers to play and promote their latest game titles to their worldwide audiences.
Wall Street Journal reported that Twitch game channels with over 15,000 simultaneous viewers earn between $25,000 and $35,000 per hour. While prominent Twitch streamers such as DrLupo and Tyler Blevins, popularly known as Ninja, earn up to $50,000 per hour with gaming companies. Reed Duchscher, president of Night Media, a firm representing many top gamers around the world, confirmed this development as very true.
High-Profile Gamers Can Earn $500,000 Every Month Streaming Popular Games
In March, EA reportedly paid Blevins $1 million to stream and promote Apex Legends to his audience on the game the game launched. The popular gamer revealed that he made almost $10 in 2018, and earned over $500,000 each month that business was good.
Analysts say it might be difficult to believe that anyone can earn such huge amounts from playing online games. But then, game companies do not mind forking out such amounts of money given that it will promote their products and attract worldwide exposure. To drive home this point, Apex Legend reportedly attracted a whooping 50 million players in its first month of launch.
Viewers Trust the Judgments of Gamers Because of Physical Interactions
Apart from the fact that gamers help companies to generate buzz for their games, viewers trust the opinions of popular gamers when they stream games. Viewers do not trust written reviews because they are used to it and they believe they are paid for. But with live gamers, they see real faces and engage in real interactions that boost trust in content promoted.
This is the experience with DrLupo, who was also paid heavily to stream Apex Legends.
“They see us as more trustworthy than a name they don’t recognize that wrote a review. They can see our faces. It’s live interaction,” said DrLupo.
Game companies consider paying high-profile gamers to stream major games a form of advertising. It is a kind of advertising campaign that that has been working in the most unconventional manner. To this extent, Ubisoft revealed gamers will be paid to stream Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon Breakpoint; and Take-Two Interactive confirmed gamers will equally be paid to stream-play Borderland 3.