Far from the humble Twitch origins of 2011, modern streaming has become an enormous industry which many enjoy as their full-time way of making money. By simply recording themselves doing what they love, successful streamers can claim subscriber money, tips, and have items bought from wish lists by friends and fans.
Live streaming had a start in video games, which are still an important component, but there are many other avenues through which streamers can find fans too. Whether you’re a gamer or you have other interests, making money being a streamer is about understanding your audience, and catering to them in a way that makes everyone happy.
Working by the Numbers
The gaming arena on Twitch is one of the most stacked, so before you think about getting started in this realm you need to consider demographics. According to this survey from ExpressVPN, the people with the most free time for gaming tend to be in older age groups.
Here, 9% of the people aged 36-45 spend more than 24 hours playing games a week, while 18% of the people aged 46-55 found themselves spending that amount of time. Of games, men were more likely to play sports and action games, while women also liked action games, but found larger homes in creative titles like The Sims and Minecraft.
Paying close attention to stats like these should give you some indication of where to start, but this should only be treated as a starting position. If you don’t love what you’re streaming, then streaming is going to feel like a job, and that’s exactly what we’re trying to avoid. To this end, even if a game is niche, you’ll be more successful in streaming it with a passion than you’d be streaming something more popular that you hated.
Being Yourself
The biggest draw of viewers to streamers who drift from topic to topic (called variety streamers), is personality. If someone is funny or interesting, they’ll get much further, which as The Scottish Sun details, is exactly what happened to international streaming star Brian ‘Limmy’ Limond. Even though Limmy is mostly playing a character on screen, his personas are a close part of him as a comedian, making a natural fit that the audience can appreciate.
This concept also applies to streaming activities that are outside of the landscape of gaming. As it now stands, the Just Chatting category on Twitch is routinely the most popular, and streamers engage in all sorts of regular and unusual activities. From directly talking to the audience to showing off makeup tutorials, studying, and even watching and commenting on other streamers, the natural experience is the best, even if you get weird with it.
Make no mistake, the possibilities in streaming are immense, but that doesn’t mean that breaking in will be easy. There’s considerable competition out there, so being a big name is about dedication, honesty, and delivering something that works on both sides of the screen. Stick with it, however, and it’s possible to turn streaming from a side activity into something that pays the bills, just don’t expect the process to be quick.
