Twitch is King

By Ryan Shuts

Stonehill College News Blog Journalist

EASTON— Dylan Yerkes, a notorious twitch streamer, dropped out of college last year to play video games.

In a society that thrives on education, this may seem like a terrible idea but things have worked out well for Yerkes. Using the Twitch streaming platform he has generated a revenue-making business in video game streaming while building a positive fan base for his image.

Amazon purchased a company known as Twitch back in 2014 for $1.1 billion. Twitch is a website that allows individuals to live stream video games and ultimately gather a fan base depending on how successful you are at playing video games.

“I dropped out of school once I gathered an audience for my streams. In January of 2018 I received my first ever 1,000 viewer stream and that’s when I first realized this is something serious,” said Yerkes.

In the last few years Twitch has become intensely popular as more and more video game players found they can produce an income playing video games.

Yerkes has started making serious income through streaming video games like Madden and Fortnite. He went from a college dropout to a successful gamer who is able to afford an apartment in Boca Raton, Florida. Once he moved down south he decided to stream ten hours a day for six days a week making streaming on Twitch his full-time job. 

Yerkes is now a professional Madden streamer but received a lot of interest in his streams when he started streaming Fortnite on Twitch.

“I had a set fan base with my Madden following but once I started uploading clips of Fortnite people began viewing my work to simply see how to play the game and what the entire buzz about the game was,” said Yerkes.

Once Yerkes started obtaining more and more subscribers for his gaming of Fortnite he transitioned back into the Madden world because that’s where he felt most comfortable.

“I stepped away from Fortnite because of the amount of streamers online nowadays. It’s hard to reach recognition with the biggest game out so I took my popularity with me as I moved back into Madden streaming,” said Yerkes.

Streaming through Twitch isn’t just Yerkes’ source of income. With his popularity on Twitch he was able to create his own brand in Madden.

“I now am the founder and CEO of my own website and subscription channel. People pay for monthly subscriptions to get to know my opinions on players and what they should do to build a successful Madden team,” said Yerkes.

“Sometimes it’s a slow job but hey, I get paid to play video games,” said Yerkes.

There isn’t any other streaming site quite like Twitch. According to Anotnio Hicks, author of Streamlabs Live Streaming Report blog which was published back in August 2017, twitch is the most popular and it obtains the most amount of revenue over any other streaming site. Twitch also has the largest number of streamers registered under any streaming website. 

Tristan Dunn is a Stonehill College student and captain of Stonehill’s Overwatch team, which plays under the Stonehill gaming club and Stonehill esports. The team also streams their matches through Twitch. Dunn said Twitch is the best streaming site for gaming.

“The reason why Twitch is THE place for gaming is because it was here first. Youtube streams, Facebook streams, and Mixer all came after the success of Twitch. It’s much like the application Steam, where that option has existed for so long and has invented the medium, that fans refuse to use any other site,” said Dunn.

Dunn is not wrong about Twitch being the place for gaming. According to Streamlabs data, Twitch currently leads in total number of average concurrent streamers and viewers at any given moment. Over the last quarter Twitch averaged just over 15,000 concurrent streamers while also averaging over 743,000 total viewers. Youtube Gaming Live totals the second highest average streamers and viewers at 9,000 and 318,000.

Dunn said Twitch set the stage for gamers, changing the game of esports and  opening opportunities.

“Streaming video games have become very special in the hearts of the gaming community because it started off as showing off your ability, explaining ways to beat bosses/levels, or exploiting a funny cheat or glitch,” said Dunn

Dunn said the gaming community isn’t for everybody. A big reason why Twitch and other streaming platforms are so successful is because gamers now have a site they can go to when they want to communicate in the gaming world.

“Gamers love to watch other gamers because they can relate to them when their parents and/or friends wouldn't understand them,” said Dunn.

One of the most famous Twitch streamers is Tyler Blevins who plays under the name Ninja. He was the first gamer to be featured on the cover of ESPN magazine, has endorsement deals with Samsung and Red Bull, and makes around $500,000 a month strictly from streaming Fortnite on Twitch.

Guys  like Blevins are the reason Twitch streaming has become so popular; everyone wants to get rich through streaming video games. 

There are currently 2.4 million streamers like Blevins and Yerkes who look to gain attention through the Twitch platform.

Through the success of Twitch and its streamers, the game Fortnite is able to do things that no other game has ever done.

Epic , the creators of Fortnite is able to partner up with Twitch and generate tournaments that not only give away life changing amounts of money, but allows viewers to access the live stream of the tournaments which gives individuals a feel of what it’s like playing in these competitive leagues.

Matthew Haite is a Stonehill Economics major and avid Twitch streamer and viewer. Haite feels Fortnite’s partnership with Twitch and their cash prize tournaments sends positive messages to the gaming community.

“Coming soon this summer is the Fortnite World Cup where 100 of the top Twitch streamers will compete for a $100,000,000 cash prize. This concept is great for viewers of the Twitch community because it’s the most competitive tournament yet,” said Haite.

Not only will individuals be able to view the content themselves, but the competitive leagues now give people a chance to get excited for players and follow their content much more vividly by adding some emotion to it.

“We’ll be able to watch and root for our favorite streamers as they battle it out for an unspeakable amount of money,” said Haite

Haite feels that Twitch is here to stay. Twitch has become so popular in just few years that its competition has a long way to catch up. 

“The best and most popular gamers are on Twitch. In the gaming community, you’re sort of looked at as different if you stream through any other site,” said Haite. “Twitch is king.”