Kind of crazy. I didn’t expect to see people get financial success streaming games.

I must be getting old, I just don't understand how/why streaming & followers make you money.

Ad revenue.

That's only for the absolute biggest channels and streamers. Online CPM are really, really low.

The more viable model is a patronage/sponsorship one. It's not unusual for streamers to get some small percentage of their large following to make small monthly payments in return for preferential treatment (early content access, text/voice chat during events, or actually playing with the streamer).

What's perhaps more surprising to me is that the advertising business has become granular enough that ads and ad revenue can get to viewer and participant on these much smaller scales. But it certainly makes more sense to me than blasting a Ford ad to anyone that is watching Football.

Kind of crazy. I didn’t expect to see people get financial success streaming games.

I must be getting old, I just don't understand how/why streaming & followers make you money.

Ad revenue.

One if my music videos has over 30,000 views. I made $0.68 in ad revenue from it.

Of course, one of my Forward Unto Dawn BTS videos has over 500,000 views, but that one I didn't monetize.

#Fail

Kind of crazy. I didn’t expect to see people get financial success streaming games.

I must be getting old, I just don't understand how/why streaming & followers make you money.

Ad revenue.

Sure, but I think perhaps what dogcow is questioning is the popularity of it.

Exactly. It's just surprising to me that there's such a market for it (on both sides, advertisers wanting to use streamers, & people wanting to watch streamers).

Well, with the latter come the former.

Kind of crazy. I didn’t expect to see people get financial success streaming games.

I must be getting old, I just don't understand how/why streaming & followers make you money.

Ad revenue.

Yeah, I get that. The rates must be much better than what my gut says they would be.

Well, if you break it down, it doesn't seem so crazy.

For instance, when Twitch agrees to "partner" a streamer, viewers are allowed to "subscribe" to that streamer for a $5.00/month fee, half of which goes to the streamer. The Subscriber gets custom chat emotes and the knowledge that they are supporting something that they enjoy, and has already been offered for free.

Popular streamers rarely talk about how many subscribers they get, but a good rule of thumb is about 10-20% of their viewership. So if a streamer has around 1000 subscribers, they're making $2500 a month out of that.

Then you throw in tips (which can be substantial, if what I've seen streamers getting is any indication), advertising deals, and twitch ads, and suddenly it's not so hard to see how these people are able to afford a living, or at least the "successful" ones.

Kind of crazy. I didn’t expect to see people get financial success streaming games.

I must be getting old, I just don't understand how/why streaming & followers make you money.

Ad revenue.

Sure, but I think perhaps what dogcow is questioning is the popularity of it.

Exactly. It's just surprising to me that there's such a market for it (on both sides, advertisers wanting to use streamers, & people wanting to watch streamers).

Kind of crazy. I didn’t expect to see people get financial success streaming games.

I must be getting old, I just don't understand how/why streaming & followers make you money.

Ad revenue.

Yeah, I get that. The rates must be much better than what my gut says they would be.

Kind of crazy. I didn’t expect to see people get financial success streaming games.

I must be getting old, I just don't understand how/why streaming & followers make you money.

Ad revenue.

Sure, but I think perhaps what dogcow is questioning is the popularity of it.

Kind of crazy. I didn’t expect to see people get financial success streaming games.

I must be getting old, I just don't understand how/why streaming & followers make you money.

Ad revenue.

Kind of crazy. I didn’t expect to see people get financial success streaming games.

I must be getting old, I just don't understand how/why streaming & followers make you money.

Then again, I didn’t think Angry Birds would ever be much of anything, so there’s that. :-P

Angry Birds... I just... I can't... I don't... I mean, it's the very first thing you do when you have your physics engine up and running, you throw something at a pile of blocks, you essentially make the equivalent of angry birds as one of the first tests/demos of your shiny little physics engine that you've coded up. I don't understand why it's so successful, must be marketing to kids or something.

-- DogCow (Curmudgeon)

Kind of crazy. I didn’t expect to see people get financial success streaming games.

Then again, I didn’t think Angry Birds would ever be much of anything, so there’s that. :-P

Yeah, it was pretty fun. The last hour or so turned into a bit of a grind and we were pretty worn down. I think we went for about 4 hours.

Have we confirmed that the regular heroic allows this? Or is it only when it's the daily? If it's the heroic let me know when you want run it again, I'll join you.

I believe a Bungie designer said (via twitter) that you can only do it during the daily heroic, but Little Light will be in frequent rotation.

I've heard reports that some people did it by selecting the regular heroic mission, but apparently that only worked because Little Light was the daily heroic yesterday.

Have we confirmed that the regular heroic allows this? Or is it only when it's the daily? If it's the heroic let me know when you want run it again, I'll join you.