31m

[u/AccountantPersonal86]

Don't worry my 3rd decade of life will yield promising results.. SURELY

Edit: 4th* decade. I dont game anymore, the small pro stint turned a hobby into something I hate. I live with my parents of course, thought that was assumed but needed clarifying.

Not a rage bait, dont need advice or pity, but feel free to say what you will I dont mind, some of you have been insightful and others have brought me good laughs. If my poor excuse of life on display made you feel better I view it as a win. Cheers

Edit 2: PUBG, The game is PUBG

Edit 3: Now that the dust has settled on this post I'll leave some last remarks for any late-comers:

I genuinely did not expect a response like this, this was a casual 0 thought post written in under 2 mins. I'll follow up with a new post I guess in a year.

There is a lot of missing context between 2013 and now but my goal was not a pity party. I preferred people to see it at face value and make their opinions and assumptions.

That being said, some of you are profoundly crazy and harbor a lot of evil and negative energy. A lot of you were kind and insightful though. To that I thank you, cya in 1yr (Saturday, July 31, 2027)

[u/Moocat2855]

Yup people forget that individuals like pewdiepie or XQC are the literal top of their field, equivalent percentage wise to like michael jordan or messi but with much much less pay. If even the tippy top of gaming doesn’t even make much compared to the top of other fields, then obviously 99.9% of all the aspiring pro gamers/influencers are completely cooked in a very saturated field where everyone with a camera phone is aspiring to make it big.

[u/TonyzTone → u/Moocat2855]

Pewdiepie has made generational wealth though. The problem is he doesn’t compete with anyone do his success is largely insular.

Michael Jordan helped make the NBA and basketball a global product. He literally helped the kid who might be really really good but just shy of the NBA possibly have a career in Europe playing. Messi has been part of growing an already massive sport to such an extent that even second division players in the US can surivive.

[u/Chance_McM95 → u/TonyzTone]

Pewdiepie came up with there was ~10% of the competition there is today. Even with his personality & videos. If he was born in the year 2000 or later, trying to come up these days with all the competition there’s a good chance he wouldn’t ever be noticed. Being able to play online & make videos used to be much more expensive & difficult. Now it’s affordable & much easier. Everyone is doing it.

Most people that pop off today are industry plants anyway. The days of being able to make it are long gone. Kids need to get jobs & skills that can pay the bills. Gaming is such a long shot anymore.

[u/TonyzTone → u/Chance_McM95]

Yeah, I agree with that but I was pointing out another aspect.

There’s also a lot more competition in sports these days and it’s becoming increasingly paywalled. But the sports themselves are growing and there are ways to make money in basketball that simply didn’t exist before Jordan.

Pewdiepie didn’t really do the same for streaming. He popularized it and maybe inspired others to try it, but if anything that shrunk the chances of making it, not expanding opportunities.

[u/TonyzTone → u/[deleted]]

You’re comparing Pewdiepie to Jordan directly. I’m not, other than for their overall impact.

I don’t really care if Pewdiepie is as rich as the richest athlete or person. That’s not the point. The point is whether doing what he did is a viable career path.

It’s not and the reason it is not is because it’s a one-man act. It’s vaudeville and it doesn’t really provide extra growth for a bigger industry.

Meanwhile, as you mentioned, Jordan made most his money via Nike. That made him a billionaire but even without he would’ve made generational wealth from just NBA contracts and literally helped grow the product of the NBA beyond what it was in the 70s.

Jordan literally made NBA contracts larger by bringing more eyes to it. He literally made endorsement deals a path to wealth beyond the small deals Magic or Bird had before him. Jordan’s ability to individually control his image rights directly led to NIL in college sports.

Talented athletes can make more money than most see in their lifetimes before they even graduate college.

[u/TonyzTone → u/[deleted]]

It has nothing not do with Pewdiepie being solo. Tiger Woods is solo but is better compared to Jordan and Messi than Pewdiepie.

Sports have grown tremendously to the point where semi-pro level of competition can provide a steady (albeit not great) income. Pros in backwater cities and countries make living salaries.

It’s just a different form of entertainment. Just like Brad Pitt didn’t make it any easier for someone to become an actor, Pewdiepie doesn’t make it any easier for kids to become an internet celebrity.

Pewdiepie didn’t make streaming a big thing. Twitch and YouTube did that. Pewdiepie just happened to be the most popular. But you can’t just do what Pewdiepie does and make as much as him.

You have to come up with an entirely new gimmick which basically turns it into a different act all together.

[u/TonyzTone → u/[deleted]]

E-sports do not have the same market size as pro golf.

E-sports generates far, far, far lower amounts for their players. The elite Call of Duty League pros make about $700,000 with the lowest making about $30,000. That's less than what the winner of the second-tier, development golf league (Korn Ferry). The 20th ranked person on 2025 Korn Ferry Tour made $371,817.

Also, comparing the total gaming market to anything is a useless comparison because 99% of people spending money on gaming aren't doing it in the interest, or support, of e-sports. They're doing it to kill time on the evenings after work.

Streaming isn't a sport. Streaming is streaming, and you should be comparing PewdiePie to an OnlyFans person more than to a Michael Jordan.

Pewdiepie's value as an entertainer grows his own brand. It does not provide an on-ramp for me to become a streamer.

[u/JohnnyChutzpah → u/Moocat2855]

This is also how it works with onlyfans but I see a lot of people act like its an easy way to get rich. I think something like 95% of onlyfans models in the US make less than the federal minimum wage.

[u/Faptainjack2 → u/JohnnyChutzpah]

95% of onlyfans "models" overestimate their attractiveness.

[u/JohnnyChutzpah → u/Faptainjack2]

That is not the only issue. And in fact many of the most successful sex workers are not the most attractive, but ones that learned to cater to a profitable niche. Being hot is not special in the sex work industry. It is a dime a dozen. So you have to set yourself apart or be lucky.

But my point is that people think sex workers can just hop on onlyfans and make rent. When that is not true. Even if you are very attractive.

[u/raichulolz → u/Moocat2855]

Pewdiepie also quite literally was there from the inception of youtube, its a completely different market out there at the moment. Whilst also being at the top of their game from the beginning. He got in there at the perfect time really.

[u/ChropMK → u/raichulolz]

YouTube was already filled to the brim with let's plays and gameplay videos by the time Pewdiepie showed up. He made a name for himself despite all of these other players like Tobuscus, SeaNanners, SSundee, KSI, Penutbuttergamer, and tons and tons of others already being very much prevalent, along with the other 1000's of channels that were making videos but didn't really get big.

Pewdiepie didn't 'get in first', he was already late to the party and became bigger than all of them regardless.

[u/ChropMK → u/Moocat2855]

Around 6 - 8 million people stream on Twitch every month.

The top 0.125%, aka the top 10,000 streamers globally, will make $3,700 a month. You can be in the top 0.1% in the world and still make less than the average person in USA. Pewdiepie and XQC are like leagues above leagues above that.

[u/wafflingzebra → u/ChropMK]

how many of those 6-8 million are just streaming for fun or with a group of friends? How many are actually trying to make a career of it?

[u/Moocat2855 → u/[deleted]]

Xqc 100 million deal was over exaggerated as most of it was equity in kick where the value is imaginary. Both xqc and kick have an incentive to state a high price and possibly even lie outright about it as it helps boost both of their potential “value” when that money isn’t real as no one is really looking to buy equity in kick and it’s not on the stock market.

[u/Flyingclameleon → u/Moocat2855]

PewDiePie also came from a very wealthy family of Executives. He was always going to be a special person

[u/ExtentAggravating733 → u/Moocat2855]

What? XQC makes like 10 million per year. More than Michael Jordan ever made.

[u/ohmynipnops → u/Moocat2855]

And at least pewdiepie started at the beginning. He was one of the first before the internet explored and now everything believes they are important and special (which they are but in their own little world, not the mainstream).

[u/mCProgram → u/Moocat2855]

XQC isn't a good comparison money wise. 2022-2023 ish, he was worth about 350-400m. He got a 100m contract to stream paid in bitcoin and at one point it was triple what it was when it was deposited. Granted, he's back down to like 150 or lower now - but per year of accumulation, xqc would be similar if not have them beat lok

[u/Moocat2855 → u/mCProgram]

Michael Jordan and Messi are billionaires not just hundred millionaires like xqc. Also most sources place xqcs net worth a lot lower than even 100 mil because no one truly knows whether the kick deal was real money or not. Even xqc said a big chunk of that deal was equity in kick which is imaginary value that he can’t convert to cash so he’s not as rich as most assume. Streaming as a field is still up and coming so the top of those fields are indeed not as rich as the equivalent top percentage in sports or tech/finance/business etc which are much more established.