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Twitch Explains How Professional Video Gamers Make a Living

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For those not immersed in video game culture, it's an obvious question: How do people make a living playing games? While Justin Ignacio, broadcast manger for Twitch, was at Streaming Media West to talk about producing live events, he had to explain the financials for those curious.

"There's people who make livings off of streaming video games on our platform," Ignacio said. "They actually leave college. They're so good at their games that they have tens of thousands of people watching them all the time, and they can just quit their day job and make enough money to play games for—I don't know—forever, I guess."

Sponsorships from gaming companies are one big way that pros pay the bills.

"The way these guys make their money is off these sponsorships," Ignacio explained. "Let's say this guy is known for being the best at this computer game. A keyboard sponsor would love to give him a keyboard and would pay for him to use their keyboard brand. So when they go to events, and they travel to like, Denmark or Korea, they will put their keyboard down and you can see clearly from these productions what brand they're using. That's how these people make a living—not only through Twitch with our ad platform…but these guys make a living off their sponsorships. They get paid by just using their gear."

For more on producing live events, and not much more on video game revenue, watch the session below.

 

Streaming Live Events When There Is No Room for Failure

It is one thing to stream a live event for free but another thing entirely when people have paid to see it or the event is being sponsored. This session explores the technical, operational, and business challenges presented when your live streamed events just cannot falter. This session covers the best technical approaches to take, what operational precautions to put in place, and what contingencies to be prepared for in advance. Learn the best practices from experts who have successfully pulled off live events, and hear some of the things they encountered that they never expected.

Moderator: Jeff Gilbert, Manager, Media & Entertainment - Verizon Digital Media Services
Chris Mangum, Sr. Digital Media Manager, Live & On-Demand Video Streaming - Yahoo!
Ryan Currier, Head of Digital Products - Pac-12
Justin Ignacio, Broadcast Manager - Twitch
John Petrocelli, CEO, Founder - Bulldog Digital Media

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