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No mention of Dr. Disrespect - a Twitch persona who recently won "Streamer of the Year" at the Esports Industry Awards. Just a passing mention of PlayerUnknown

by EA 9y ago

No mention of Dr. Disrespect - a Twitch persona who recently won "Streamer of the Year" at the Esports Industry Awards. Just a passing mention of PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds, a game which according to some is growing faster than Minecraft did. PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds (PUBG) is the most popular streamed game on Twitch right now. The game regularly has over 2,000,000 concurrent players, has sold over 13,000,000 copies, and is still in beta with just one multiplayer map. It has been the most popular game on Steam for a few months. Some digital items obtained from loot crates have sold for over $1,000. There is a whole ecosystem that has developed underneath the Twitch platform where secondary services help gamers overlay responsive graphics over the video stream as well as take donations. Top PUBG streamers can make well over $1,000 per night in donations on top of their cut of the Twitch subscription fee.

olegkikin 9y ago
Shroud is the real high-roller. He regularly gets $100, $200, $500 tips. I think the highest single tip he's got was like $5000.
- tomschlick 9y ago
  He also takes in a lot through Twitch subscriptions. He has 30k+ subscribers from what he last said and each would pay him $2.50-$10 / mo. Of course Twitch would take their cut but thats insane.
  - zitterbewegung 9y ago
    Twitch negotiates cuts at 30k and they scale it back a bunch at that level also.
    - harrisjt 9y ago
      From what I've heard at around 10k subs you are getting around $4 a sub.
onewaystreet 9y ago
Towelliee (Garcia) has been streaming on Twitch since the start. He's not the most popular streamer by far but is one of the few still streaming from back then. It will be interesting to see if newer more popular streamers like Dr. Disrespect can maintain their viewership.
SantiagoElf 9y ago
I didn't know about Dr. Disrespect, until recently when I watched him on the h3h3 podcast. The man is pure gold, hilarious and the sinth 80's tracks that he plays on his stream are yummy :)
rtkwe 9y ago
> Some digital items obtained from loot crates have sold for over $1,000. Last time I looked nothing from current crates were going for that much it was just the special items from the pre-order crates that were going for that much, which is a pretty important difference I think.
rndmwlk 9y ago
I don't mean to be rude, but so what? There's no need to specifically mention your favorite streamer, or your favorite game. Just because PUBG is popular right now doesn't mean this is a phenomenon centered around PUBG. There have been many streamers making A LOT of money for years now. League of Legends, Counterstrike, and DotA 2, for example, have always had large fan bases with "Top streamers" making similarly ridiculous amount of money in tips.
- sillysaurus3 9y ago
  They were just plugging their favorite steamer. It's related, which is fine.
- EA 9y ago
  There is basically no mention of the hit game on HN. It is presently a video game phenomenon and is inspiring video game developers to explore that video game genre. That particular streamer is changing the streaming game and is invested in some third party streamer support apps. He has broad appeal as little kids dressed up as this Twitch streamer for Halloween this year. I think an article about the game, its streamers, the revenue sharing, and how Twitch is evolving would make the front page of HN. That is all. No hidden agenda.
  - dvt 9y ago
    > That particular streamer is changing the streaming game and is invested in some third party streamer support apps. He has broad appeal as little kids dressed up as this Twitch streamer for Halloween this year. He's not really changing the streaming game. There's streamers out there much more successful than he is (Lirik, Shroud, IcePoseidon, etc, etc.) Don't get me wrong, he's fun to watch, but no mention of him isn't a big deal in the least.
    - fnovd 9y ago
      He's involved with boom.tv, which is creating a suite of tools streamers can use to interact with viewers in real time. He's not necessarily the best player or the most highly-paid streamer, but the production value of his stream is unmatched. He's innovating how people use the medium that is streaming. He uses live transitions with synchronized music, pre-configured greenscreens for his character's various gags, live viewer-triggered replays, and many other small touches that really do give the stream a better feel. Other streamers are going to have to match pace.
chrisper 9y ago
A big chunk of those 2,000,000 players are Chinese no?
- pc86 9y ago
  What does that have to do with... literally anything?
  - Mtinie 9y ago
    Yeah, that was an odd comment, but it did get me thinking about how Twitch subscription sharing works when you have viewers in countries with wildly different costs of living.
  - chrisper 9y ago
    I was refering to this: >The game regularly has over 2,000,000 concurrent players Well, I think it is interesting to point out what demographics tend to play a game the most. If the game has 1,999,999 Chinese players then, I think, that is less interesting than if it had 2,000,000 global players (from all over the place). Not sure why you think it is so far fetched....
    - simias 9y ago
      You need to explain your reasoning a bit better. "Less interesting" for what exactly? If anything from a streaming standpoint it's better to have a more "unified" player base, at least linguistically speaking. I doubt chinese players watch american streamers en masse, or vice-versa.
      - derefr 9y ago
        Less interesting as an investment vehicle, maybe. If cross-cultural interest in the phenomenon hadn’t yet been proven out, it might still hit an adoption cap at the boundary of the originating culture, and so stop growing. > I doubt chinese players watch american streamers en masse, or vice-versa. I agree. But are there any streamers who make use of live closed-caption transcription + translation services, the way broadcast news does? It’d Be interesting to see if just removing the language barrier would remove the culture barrier, or if it’s more fundamental.
kwijibob 9y ago
I have just discovered how enjoyable Twitch is. Dr Disrespect is amazing. He is an online performer and a gamer. Most surprising are the people who talk about how watching Dr D has helped them through depression or cancer. He talked about this movingly but briefly in his speech this week. This is a whole new form of entertainment. It will be fascinating to see where it unfolds. I think Amazon will get a very good return for their investment.
- DougN7 9y ago
  I'm not into watching gaming at all (I'd rather play), but this is really just another twist on 'Reality TV', and one with less dysfunction IMHO.
  - ForRealsies 9y ago
    Exactly, livestreaming == reality TV. It's too easy to turn off my brain and be 'entertained' for hours. I've recently forced myself back to watching films/TV instead. The difference in creative stimulation is like night & day.
    - bennyg 9y ago
      Check out the Creative streams on Twitch if you'd like to watch some sweet DIY/artistic creations in progress.
    - socialist_coder 9y ago
      Many people watch streams to learn new tactics and strategies. You don't get that from reality TV at all. No one is watching Survivor or The Bachelor and then using what they learned in real life.
      - toomanybeersies 9y ago
        > No one is watching Survivor or The Bachelor and then using what they learned in real life Never say never. I am sure there are people who do, probably not with much success.
huac 9y ago
> Some digital items obtained from loot crates have sold for over $1,000. That's been happening for years. Hats in Team Fortress 2 sold for ~1500 (Burning Kabuto was around there IIRC), and a knife in CSGO went for 24k (apparently, http://read.navi-gaming.com/en/team_news/Rarest_and_expensive_knives http://read.navi-gaming.com/en/team_news/Rarest_and_expensiv...).
- Namrog84 9y ago
  I think the point was that PUBG is still in early access, and has been out for less than a year. CounterStrike and Team Fortress have been full fledged releases for many years prior to reaching those numbers. Its not the absolute number that is impressive, its how quickly it has reached comparable values with these longstanding behemoths.
- kofejnik 9y ago
  Golden Frying Pan in TF2 is around $2500 currently and has been reported to sell at over $5k at some point
- berbec 9y ago
  Sounds like what I ended paying^H^H^H^H^H^H to buy http://www.wowhead.com/item=21025/recipe-dirges-kickin-chimaerok-chops http://www.wowhead.com/item=21025/recipe-dirges-kickin-chima...
LoSboccacc 9y ago
Not to mention that the article is four year late at least. The market for top streamers is almost saturated and the low hanging fruit places are filled with softcore pretend-to-be-drunk “opsies” And as far as mentions go, there’s no word on pewdiepie either, he’s one of the pioneer of the genre along with videogamdunkey... The whole article reeks of “I know nothing about it so must be new” mentality.
benlower 9y ago
The snub seems perfectly in line with the Dr's last name
rrhd 9y ago
> is still in beta Is it though? The label ceases to have meaning at some point.
notlisted 9y ago
I totally agree, Dr D. is funny as hell and PUBG is something else. I never got the attraction to Twitch/game streaming. Before I came across Dr D/PUBG, I used Twitch to see if a game was interesting & simple enough to grasp, to assist in the purchase decision. The Dr D/PUBG combo (and a few other lesser-known faves, e.g. BananaMan, P4wnyhof/Larsen) have made it fun to watch, actual entertainment, that I tune into. Daily...
oliyoung 9y ago
Arguably, PUBG's success is completely attributable to it being a spectacularly fun game to watch and therefore RIDICULOUSLY popular on Twitch. I don't think it's anywhere near as popular without the Twitch streams
rb666 9y ago
On the other hand, PUBG is getting absolutely destroyed in reviews: http://store.steampowered.com/app/578080/PLAYERUNKNOWNS_BATTLEGROUNDS/ http://store.steampowered.com/app/578080/PLAYERUNKNOWNS_BATT...

by EA 9y ago

olegkikin 9y ago

Shroud is the real high-roller. He regularly gets $100, $200, $500 tips. I think the highest single tip he's got was like $5000.

tomschlick 9y ago
He also takes in a lot through Twitch subscriptions. He has 30k+ subscribers from what he last said and each would pay him $2.50-$10 / mo. Of course Twitch would take their cut but thats insane.
- zitterbewegung 9y ago
  Twitch negotiates cuts at 30k and they scale it back a bunch at that level also.
  - harrisjt 9y ago
    From what I've heard at around 10k subs you are getting around $4 a sub.

onewaystreet 9y ago

Towelliee (Garcia) has been streaming on Twitch since the start. He's not the most popular streamer by far but is one of the few still streaming from back then. It will be interesting to see if newer more popular streamers like Dr. Disrespect can maintain their viewership.

SantiagoElf 9y ago

I didn't know about Dr. Disrespect, until recently when I watched him on the h3h3 podcast. The man is pure gold, hilarious and the sinth 80's tracks that he plays on his stream are yummy :)

rtkwe 9y ago

> Some digital items obtained from loot crates have sold for over $1,000. Last time I looked nothing from current crates were going for that much it was just the special items from the pre-order crates that were going for that much, which is a pretty important difference I think.

rndmwlk 9y ago

I don't mean to be rude, but so what? There's no need to specifically mention your favorite streamer, or your favorite game. Just because PUBG is popular right now doesn't mean this is a phenomenon centered around PUBG. There have been many streamers making A LOT of money for years now. League of Legends, Counterstrike, and DotA 2, for example, have always had large fan bases with "Top streamers" making similarly ridiculous amount of money in tips.

sillysaurus3 9y ago
They were just plugging their favorite steamer. It's related, which is fine.
EA 9y ago
There is basically no mention of the hit game on HN. It is presently a video game phenomenon and is inspiring video game developers to explore that video game genre. That particular streamer is changing the streaming game and is invested in some third party streamer support apps. He has broad appeal as little kids dressed up as this Twitch streamer for Halloween this year. I think an article about the game, its streamers, the revenue sharing, and how Twitch is evolving would make the front page of HN. That is all. No hidden agenda.
- dvt 9y ago
  > That particular streamer is changing the streaming game and is invested in some third party streamer support apps. He has broad appeal as little kids dressed up as this Twitch streamer for Halloween this year. He's not really changing the streaming game. There's streamers out there much more successful than he is (Lirik, Shroud, IcePoseidon, etc, etc.) Don't get me wrong, he's fun to watch, but no mention of him isn't a big deal in the least.
  - fnovd 9y ago
    He's involved with boom.tv, which is creating a suite of tools streamers can use to interact with viewers in real time. He's not necessarily the best player or the most highly-paid streamer, but the production value of his stream is unmatched. He's innovating how people use the medium that is streaming. He uses live transitions with synchronized music, pre-configured greenscreens for his character's various gags, live viewer-triggered replays, and many other small touches that really do give the stream a better feel. Other streamers are going to have to match pace.

chrisper 9y ago

A big chunk of those 2,000,000 players are Chinese no?

pc86 9y ago
What does that have to do with... literally anything?
- Mtinie 9y ago
  Yeah, that was an odd comment, but it did get me thinking about how Twitch subscription sharing works when you have viewers in countries with wildly different costs of living.
- chrisper 9y ago
  I was refering to this: >The game regularly has over 2,000,000 concurrent players Well, I think it is interesting to point out what demographics tend to play a game the most. If the game has 1,999,999 Chinese players then, I think, that is less interesting than if it had 2,000,000 global players (from all over the place). Not sure why you think it is so far fetched....
  - simias 9y ago
    You need to explain your reasoning a bit better. "Less interesting" for what exactly? If anything from a streaming standpoint it's better to have a more "unified" player base, at least linguistically speaking. I doubt chinese players watch american streamers en masse, or vice-versa.
    - derefr 9y ago
      Less interesting as an investment vehicle, maybe. If cross-cultural interest in the phenomenon hadn’t yet been proven out, it might still hit an adoption cap at the boundary of the originating culture, and so stop growing. > I doubt chinese players watch american streamers en masse, or vice-versa. I agree. But are there any streamers who make use of live closed-caption transcription + translation services, the way broadcast news does? It’d Be interesting to see if just removing the language barrier would remove the culture barrier, or if it’s more fundamental.

kwijibob 9y ago

I have just discovered how enjoyable Twitch is. Dr Disrespect is amazing. He is an online performer and a gamer. Most surprising are the people who talk about how watching Dr D has helped them through depression or cancer. He talked about this movingly but briefly in his speech this week. This is a whole new form of entertainment. It will be fascinating to see where it unfolds. I think Amazon will get a very good return for their investment.

DougN7 9y ago
I'm not into watching gaming at all (I'd rather play), but this is really just another twist on 'Reality TV', and one with less dysfunction IMHO.
- ForRealsies 9y ago
  Exactly, livestreaming == reality TV. It's too easy to turn off my brain and be 'entertained' for hours. I've recently forced myself back to watching films/TV instead. The difference in creative stimulation is like night & day.
  - bennyg 9y ago
    Check out the Creative streams on Twitch if you'd like to watch some sweet DIY/artistic creations in progress.
  - socialist_coder 9y ago
    Many people watch streams to learn new tactics and strategies. You don't get that from reality TV at all. No one is watching Survivor or The Bachelor and then using what they learned in real life.
    - toomanybeersies 9y ago
      > No one is watching Survivor or The Bachelor and then using what they learned in real life Never say never. I am sure there are people who do, probably not with much success.

huac 9y ago

> Some digital items obtained from loot crates have sold for over $1,000. That's been happening for years. Hats in Team Fortress 2 sold for ~1500 (Burning Kabuto was around there IIRC), and a knife in CSGO went for 24k (apparently, http://read.navi-gaming.com/en/team_news/Rarest_and_expensive_knives http://read.navi-gaming.com/en/team_news/Rarest_and_expensiv...).

Namrog84 9y ago
I think the point was that PUBG is still in early access, and has been out for less than a year. CounterStrike and Team Fortress have been full fledged releases for many years prior to reaching those numbers. Its not the absolute number that is impressive, its how quickly it has reached comparable values with these longstanding behemoths.
kofejnik 9y ago
Golden Frying Pan in TF2 is around $2500 currently and has been reported to sell at over $5k at some point
berbec 9y ago
Sounds like what I ended paying^H^H^H^H^H^H to buy http://www.wowhead.com/item=21025/recipe-dirges-kickin-chimaerok-chops http://www.wowhead.com/item=21025/recipe-dirges-kickin-chima...

LoSboccacc 9y ago

Not to mention that the article is four year late at least. The market for top streamers is almost saturated and the low hanging fruit places are filled with softcore pretend-to-be-drunk “opsies” And as far as mentions go, there’s no word on pewdiepie either, he’s one of the pioneer of the genre along with videogamdunkey... The whole article reeks of “I know nothing about it so must be new” mentality.

benlower 9y ago

The snub seems perfectly in line with the Dr's last name

rrhd 9y ago

> is still in beta Is it though? The label ceases to have meaning at some point.

notlisted 9y ago

I totally agree, Dr D. is funny as hell and PUBG is something else. I never got the attraction to Twitch/game streaming. Before I came across Dr D/PUBG, I used Twitch to see if a game was interesting & simple enough to grasp, to assist in the purchase decision. The Dr D/PUBG combo (and a few other lesser-known faves, e.g. BananaMan, P4wnyhof/Larsen) have made it fun to watch, actual entertainment, that I tune into. Daily...

oliyoung 9y ago

Arguably, PUBG's success is completely attributable to it being a spectacularly fun game to watch and therefore RIDICULOUSLY popular on Twitch. I don't think it's anywhere near as popular without the Twitch streams

rb666 9y ago

On the other hand, PUBG is getting absolutely destroyed in reviews: http://store.steampowered.com/app/578080/PLAYERUNKNOWNS_BATTLEGROUNDS/ http://store.steampowered.com/app/578080/PLAYERUNKNOWNS_BATT...