You can now have a lucrative career in video games without creating a blockbuster video game of your own.
Nowadays, people who are interested in video games consume different kinds of content about video games. Millions watch other people play video games for hours on YouTube, Twitch, Facebook, and other streaming platforms.
An Introduction to Video Game Streaming
Twitch, which is a platform that primarily caters to video game fans, closed 2020 with 17 billion hours of live video content streamed. Probably propelled by the pandemic lockdowns, its viewership saw an increase of 83 percent compared to 2019.
And, it is not just Twitch that experienced a boost in the past year; Facebook Gaming and YouTube Gaming also saw their online traffic rise.
While no one knows if all three platforms will sustain the growth they witnessed in 2020, video game streaming will likely continue to be popular for years to come. Already, streamers are earning thousands of dollars per video.
The most popular, Ninja, has 16.7 million followers on Twitch and earns between $400,000 and $800,000 per month, according to estimates.
To outsiders, it might seem odd that millions of people spend hours of their day watching other people play video games. However, there are many reasons why people decide to watch rather than play.
Looking for Buying Advice
For one, when gamers stream video game content online, they are seeking reviews. Playing video games is an expensive hobby. You have to have a video game console or a PC. The best gaming computers can cost hundreds of dollars.
While there are low-cost laptops out there, if you want your video games to run seamlessly on your device, you will need to shell out a bit more money.
Then, the video games. In recent years, more video games came out to the market. Not everyone has the time or the budget to buy and try every promising new title. Copies of video games, whether physical or digital, can be quite expensive, too.
By watching streamers, gamers can filter out which video games they would not likely enjoy and which one will engage them for hours.
They can save money by not buying video games that, while promising in the trailers and promotions, turns out to be disappointing upon release.
To Gain Playing Tips and Tricks
Playing video games requires skills and thinking. Sometimes, gamers are put in situations where they have to use their minds in order to escape. It is not always easy.
So, players who are stuck at a certain level or cannot defeat an opponent will look to streamers to guide them out of the situation. They learn tips and tricks to play video games better.
It is most helpful to newbies who still do not know their way around video games. They start armed with techniques and strategies that they will otherwise spend hours developing on their own.
Following Because of the Streamer
Streamers do not amass millions of followers and, therefore, millions of dollars by playing video games alone. Often, the most famous streamers are also very fun to watch.
Streamers also talk over the video game, react to the content, and chat with their audience. PewDiePie, who has over 100 million subscribers on YouTube, is a very funny guy.
Aside from playing video games, he tells jokes and shows over-the-top reactions to whatever is happening on the screen. His audience is not just watching because of the video games he features. They are watching because of him.
In fact, when he was in danger of losing the title of the most-subscribed channel on YouTube, his fans rallied to further increase his subscriber count.
Meanwhile, Tobuscus, who has over 6 million subscribers on YouTube, caused a small riot in 2012 when he attended the Eurogamer Expo in London. His fans crowded to meet him when they spotted them on the street.
Streamers are celebrities who people watch not just because of video games but also for their personalities.
Streaming video games has become very popular in the past couple of years, but especially in 2020 when countries went into lockdowns to control the spread of COVID-19.
Millions of people stream for a variety of reasons, but the most common is to seek feedback for a new video game or to pick up skills and tricks that will make them better gamers.
Moreover, people log onto Twitch or YouTube in order to watch content for several hours throughout the week, or sometimes within the day, because they are entertained by the streamers themselves who make jokes over the video game and interact with their audience.
