Ask HN: Is making a living off YouTube/Twitch viable?

Viable technically yes. Someone I’ve been following for a few years was a under 1k viewers on Twitch with a decent but niche YouTube audience when he went full time and now he’s doing very well & building a house with money earned almost entirely on Twitch.

On the other hand my ex girlfriend did it full time but couldn’t get partnered and ultimately made less than minimum wage anyways, she just didn’t want to actually work.

For the vast majority of people it’s actually worse than both of these examples and you shouldn’t even attempt it full time unless you are already approaching the level of income from it you need while you still have a job.

I recommend starting with YouTube as a hobby if you’re interested though — discoverability on Twitch is terrible and you’re going to have a hard time even hitting a monthly payout there without something like a YouTube presence that can drive traffic to your channel.

Also I feel like I might get some negative reaction to saying this BUT it is much easier to monetize on Twitch at the low end as a woman even without sexualizing your content. They simply have an easier time getting viewers and higher revenue per viewer on the low to mid end of things. Of course they also have to deal with a lot of really creepy harassment & they’re underrepresented in the top 0.1% or so as well so it’s not like this is strictly an advantage. But statistically speaking you’d have better odds of it being worth your time.

I'll assume you mean streaming video game content. In that case, probably not - as in the probability of making a living level of income is not very probable. It is time-sensitive content, content that does better is timeless.

I would argue most video game content expires in a week to a couple months. The exception being content geared towards general strategies, building (e.g. minecraft) or complex content that requires sequences of activity, secrets, etc.

An example in the woodworking realm is the Shop Nation channel on YT. He detailed in one of his videos the income streams he has and I think he is in six figure territory for revenue. He has by-products of selling plans to build things, amazon links for tools, etc.

That is an example of timeless content. If you strike up the hobby and want to build shop cabinets, etc. you could find his videos 5 years from now and they would still be relevant.

It’s certainly possible to make a living off of YouTube/Twitch streaming but you certainly won’t “make it”. It’s basically the same as asking if you can make a living off of being a musician or a painter. The competition is so fierce and the market is so saturated that it will take a miracle to get noticed and be popular. Don’t get me wrong, if it’s something you enjoy doing then give it a shot. But realize just how much of a longshot it will be and be prepared to move on to something else.

It's the same as any other content based profession. The top X% make a good living, everybody else makes peanuts and are trying to claw their way to the top.

I think it's viable, but most people won't make it. Living off youtube is the same as living off indie gamedev or indie prop trading. The good ones grabbed millions and millions of cash while others (95%) can barely pay bills.

I know quite a few low profile streamers on twitch that are barely scraping a living (i.e. ~$1k a month), with average viewership at ~1-200 in niche topics (Geoguessr for instance).

There are a lot more youtubers making a living, but very few (probably less than 5%) make it to a reasonable income. So as others mentioned, it's best to do it as a hobby and switch to it full time when/if it takes off. If you're under pressure to deliver your content will be negatively impacted.

Relying on any platform you don't control is a bad idea.

Using it temporarily for what it's good at is great.

Relying on it and hoping for it to support you on a long term is not a good idea.

I wonder if it's more or less likely than making a living as a professional athlete. Or movie star.

It happens, but you should probably have a pretty solid plan B.

For a select few: Yes.

For most: No.

Joining that select few is extremely hard, and becomes harder as the space gets more crowded. The winners approach it as a business with a lot of effort, money, and even risky bets poured into making it work.

The real money doesn’t come from YouTube any more. It comes from sponsorships. You have to be able to invest the years it takes to build an audience of millions before you can get decent sponsorship money.

Something I didn't see mentioned. Are you any good a gaming and/or are you entertaining?

what would make you unique?

possible yet improbable

Absolutely! Don't rely on ads, though.