Sodapoppin, Ninja, Ice Poseidon.  If you  are not familiar with at least one of these names then you may have been living under a rock the last few years.

I am of course talking about live streaming, on Twitch specifically. These guys sit down in front of a computer and record themselves playing games, and some of them make up to $6million a year doing this.

Is it hard work, or is the money not well-earned? I will try to discuss this topic so click read more and let us begin.

I personally am split between the two so let us break down the pros and cons I see in supporting streaming as a “career” and full time job.

Pros

Streaming is the new way of watching telly: With the technology today you can basically watch anything on demand without paying a cent. Wanna watch your favourite show? It might be on YouTube or some of the millions of streaming sites on the web.
Not enough? Well you’ve got Netflix from £5.99 a month, a price way beneath any TV package you can find anywhere! Plus the selection is bigger, you can watch whatever you want when you want to, pause and skip episodes if you have already watched them… the list goes on.
With this confirmed then it is the perfect platform for these streamers to broadcast themselves, and it is not much different from the reality TV that airs on BBC.

Raw and uncut: A thing that makes the content from these guys so attractive is the realness of the live stream. They dont read off a script or play a role in front of the camera but are instead themselves. Bloopers are not cut out so we get the whole thing, and when we see a streamer fail at something or rage over losing it reminds us that these people are just like us.

A lot of the money goes to the stream: A big percentage of their monthly earnings goes to improving the stream whether it’s a better mic, camera, CPU, streaming device or something else – it is not a cheap hobby to have.

Cons

Money vs effort: While doctors in America make a average salary of around $140,000 a year, Twitch streamer Ninja has come forward and told that he makes $500,000 a month. This means he makes more than 40 times the salary of a doctor while what he does is play Fortnite at home. You can watch Ninja talk about his income here.

Big percentage of Twitch viewers are minors: A big percentage of your viewer count will probably be minors – is it morally correct to accept money or donations from minors or young adults who have not really understood the value of money yet?

So I have not reached a conclusion yet. On one hand I do realise this is the future and will probably be a norm in society in a couple of years to be employed as live streamer. On the other side I understand how bad you must feel when you have fought your way through 9 years of studying to become a doctor just to find out a kid makes 40 times your salary by playing Fortnite…

What do you guys think?

Leave your comments below – do you support live streaming as a full time job or do you think these guys should go out and find a real job?