Video game streaming is a comparably new business sector that only starts developing, and careers of streamers are discussed and studied today as an innovative trend in the context of eSports. From this point, the career of a professional streamer is a developing business phenomenon that requires its detailed examination because of the increased interest of partners and viewers in this sphere. The main platform where professional streamers can broadcast their experience in playing online is Twitch.tv that was founded in 2011 by Emmett Shear (Hollist 829). Today, the platform has the monthly flow of visitors in more than 30 million people (Edge 1). The rise of similar platforms for streaming online game playing or tournaments during the recent years indicated the development of the new type of the Internet entertainment industry that guarantees profits not only for platform owners but also to professional players in the sphere of eSports who began to develop the career of streamers (Hollist 829). The most popular streamers are those ones who succeeded in developing the career at Twitch.tv, playing League of Legends. From this point, in spite of the fact that the Twitch.tv platform can be viewed as belonging to the live-streaming industry, the careers of streamers develop according to the traditional principles of the entertainment business.
The potential of Twitch.tv as the live-streaming platform is significant for people seeking job opportunities and having the experience of playing the online games or participating in game tournaments. The most attractive feature of this career is a possibility to do the job that is pleasant and usually discussed as a hobby. Observers note that professional players in League of Legends and similar games presented at Twitch.tv choose this platform in order to stream their online playing and receive monetary benefits (Aaron par. 2). On the one hand, people discuss the career of a streamer as the perfect opportunity to earn with few efforts. On the other hand, the building of the career of a League of Legends streamer at Twitch.tv is a rather challenging task as a development of any other professional career. The challenges include addressing Twitch.tv requirements to become a partner; the development of a strategy for gaining the revenue from such sources as advertisements, the subscription program, and viewers’ donations; and the improvement of the professional level of a player (Aaron par. 3-4; Hollist 829).
In addition, there is a necessity to attract viewers, support the popularity, and focus on developing the nickname as the brand, as well as gaining of the customer loyalty to increase the potential for donations (Aaron par. 3-4). In his work, Edge notes that “streaming platforms like Twitch TV have created a new interactive Internet exclusive marketplace that does not require traditional broadcasting methods” (1). As a result, there are many unique opportunities to gain from this type of business. From this perspective, a streamer can succeed when all these conditions of the live-streaming and eSports business are addressed.
In order to develop a career of a League of Legends streamer at Twitch.tv, a person needs to become a partner to allow Twitch.tv to set advertisements in the streamer’s canal and attract sponsors. Twitch.tv partnership program is the main source of developing the career in this sphere. A player needs to have more than 500 of views at his canal and broadcast during a week regularly (Aaron par. 5). The focus is on attracting concurrent viewers. This factor is important to decide about locating the advertisements at the streamer’s channel. When thousands of viewers watch the streamer playing online regularly, there is a potential for gaining monetary benefits. The practice of playing one or two advertisements during a playing session is usual for streamers to earn when they broadcast, and streamers usually receive $3-4 for each advertisement played to 1,000 viewers in an hour. Subscriptions are effective sources of income and motivating factors to improve the strategy for new streamers because each subscription of a viewer guarantees a streamer about $2.5 a month (Aaron par. 6). Donations are also not rare practices if professional streamers have the good reputation and recognition among the audience (Hope 89; Lee and Schoenstedt 40). Sponsorships as the source of revenues are also available to the most popular professional streamers.
Streamers who are professionals in League of Legends can play as individuals or as team members, and their earnings differ depending on the type of streaming. According to Hope, those streamers who develop the career of team players has the higher potential to gain more benefits because of sponsorships. The researcher states that “many of these professional teams are already beginning to be sponsored by big brand companies from everyday life. One such company, believe it or not, is Pringles” (Hope 88). Researchers and professional streamers estimated that it is possible to earn the comparable income only when the number of regular viewers is more than 4,500-5,000 people (Aaron par. 6; Hope 88). Therefore, revenues can be discussed as dependent on the success of a streamer in making its broadcasts attractive to a large number of viewers.
From this point, it is important to pay attention the fact that the main barrier to starting the successful full-time career of a League of Legends streamer and gain profits is the attraction of the large audience who will become the regular viewers and even fans who will donate to the preferred streamer. In this context, the industry justifies its discussion as the eSports because the main focus is on qualities of online players that are similar to sportsmen’s attributes: the high-quality play, speed, and strategy (Lee and Schoenstedt 40; Quiring 3). Nevertheless, in the case of live-streaming, much attention is paid to the creativity and ability to entertain the audience in order to motivate viewers to watch the playing one more time. According to Hope, “it is not unusual for some streamers of a game called League of Legends to have over 30,000 concurrent viewers at any one point in time” (88). The popularity of such professional streamers is a result of their efforts in developing their unique playing strategy and image of a successful trainer among viewers. Researchers note that the reason is that the majority of visitors of Twitch.tv are inclined to learn how streamers play, what approaches they use, and how attractively their way of playing is presented (Hope 88; Lee and Schoenstedt 40). From this perspective, developing a career of a streamer, people focus on the regular efforts to improve the quality of playing and their image of a gamer.
To attract the audience, professional League of Legends streamers should develop such qualities and skills as persistence, creativity, and strategic thinking in order to develop their careers. The reason is that the profits of streamers depend on their popularity among the viewers. From this point, professional streamers need to contribute to developing their image. The business strategies used for improving the brand or name recognition and for gaining the customer loyalty are usually adapted by streamers playing League of Legends in order to expand their viewers’ base (Hope 89). Hollist states that in the sphere of live-streaming, the successful career can be expected by the most active gamers who demonstrate “stability” in broadcasting and the quality of playing in order to increase the number of subscribers who are ready to follow the streaming on a daily basis (830). As a result, the majority of streamers cannot demonstrate the required dedication in order to gain more than 2,000 viewers, and such streamers cannot build the successful careers in the industry. Therefore, it is possible to note that those streamers who have no required attributes to succeed as individual gamers can work as team members.
The launch of Twitch.tv in 2011 put the emphasis on the development of the new industry and career area. Today, the number of professional streamers who play League of Legends and other games while focusing on live-streaming is constantly increasing. This business area develops actively, and more viewers and subscribers are expected to pay for live-streaming of the high quality. As a result, those streamers who chose to play the online games try to work hard in order to attract more viewers and increase their revenues. The tendency is rather new, but it is possible to predict the appearance of more career opportunities in the sphere of online platforms similar to Twitch.tv.
Works Cited
Aaron, Jesse. How Much Can You Make Streaming as a Professional Video Gamer? 2015. Web.
Edge, Nathan. “Evolution of the Gaming Experience: Live Video Streaming and the Emergence of a New Web Community.” Elon Journal of Undergraduate Research in Communications 4.2 (2013): 1-2. Web. 2015.
Hollist, Katherine. “Time to Be Grown-Ups about Video Gaming: The Rising eSports Industry and the Need for Regulation.” Arizona Law Review 57.1 (2015): 823-870. Print.
Hope, Alex. “The Evolution of the Electronic Sports Entertainment Industry and its Popularity.” Computers for Everyone 1.1 (2014): 85-89. Web.
Lee, Donghun, and Linda Schoenstedt. “Comparison of eSports and Traditional Sports Consumption Motives.” ICHPER-SD Journal of Research 6.2 (2011): 39-44. Print.
Quiring, Tyler. “From Voxel Vistas: Place-Making in Minecraft.” Journal for Virtual Worlds Research 8.1 (2015): 1-19. Web. 2015.