2. Felix Arvid Ulf Kjellberg (PewDiePie)

$15 million

Next to Ninja in terms of Twitch earnings is Felix Kjellberg, the internet sensation known as PewDiePie. According to reports, he made an estimated $15 million from his video game content on Twitch, trailing just behind Ninja in total earnings.

PewDiePie initially rose to fame on YouTube in 2010, when he first started his live-streaming journey. The 30-year-old Swedish creator would post videos on his channel daily, showcasing his gameplay and adding entertaining commentary for his viewers. Then, in 2017, he started streaming on Twitch through his channel Netglow.

While he was able to amass a sizeable following and generate millions of dollars, PewDiePie's time on Twitch was not without controversy. In one memorable incident, he lashed out at another player while playing PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds (PUBG), making racial slurs and offensive remarks in the heat of the moment. That incident, plus the criticism he received for leaving YouTube for its competitor Dlive, caused him to re-evaluate his options.

Eventually, PewDiePie returned to YouTube, stating that he was excited to try out the features it had rolled out to its top creators. "Live-streaming is something I'm focusing a lot on in 2020 and beyond, so to be able to partner with YouTube and be at the forefront of new product features is special and exciting for the future," he said.

https://www.instagram.com/p/BocKbe1FrA7/

3. Michael Grzesiek (Shroud)

$12.5 million

The third richest Twitch streamer to date is Michael Grzesiek, who is known in the gaming world as Shroud. As of this year, he generated $12.5 million in income on Twitch from streaming his FPS and battle royale gameplay.

Shroud became a professional gamer in 2012 when he was still in high school. His dad, who was also very into gaming and technology, was the one who introduced him to Counter-Strike: Global Offensive (CS), through which he started gaining traction. When he later joined Twitch in 2017, he expanded his repertoire, streaming up-and-coming games like Apex Legends and Valorant.

In no time, Shroud would become known as one of the best "aimers" in the first-person shooter category. While he typically flies solo in his videos, he sometimes collaborates with other well-known personalities on Twitch, such as Ninja and DrDisrespect. Surely, those collaborations have contributed to his rise to fame.

Today, Shroud reportedly makes around $150K to $250K per month. He also has the third-highest number of followers on Twitch with an impressive 9.2 million subscribers.

"There isn't a rule book for how to become a professional video game player. You don't just grow up planning for it, or even knowing it's an option. Honestly, it's the kind of ride that you pinch yourself during to make sure you're not dreaming it up. When you're young, just playing because you love it, you don't plan on 'going pro,' you just want to beat your friends or the boss character. And then you wake up, one day, and you're trying to figure out how to write a retirement statement."

https://www.instagram.com/p/B4InML2BN1C/

Can you make a living wage from Twitch?

Ninja, PewDiePie, and Shroud make it look easy, but just how feasible is streaming on Twitch as a full-time job? Well, turns out, it's a little more complicated than just posting videos and hoping for the best.

According to Life Hacker, concurrent views are a key metric for estimating revenue, as Twitch and its advertisers are looking to measure engagement. Having high engagement also helps to attract paid subscribers that dish out monthly fees between $4.99 and $24.99 to see your content, and those add to your total earnings.

So, let's say you've managed to establish a stable 1,000 concurrent views per stream, as well as 1,000 channel subscribers, as per the example scenario outlined on Life Hacker. Given that the subscribers pay an average of $3.50 per 1,000 views, and sponsorships pay around three cents per view, an average Twitch streamer's income could look something like this:

10 streams a week = $140 per month

1,000 subscribers paying $3.50 each = $3,500 per month

Bit donations (approximate) = $100

Sponsorships (3 cents per five 1,000-view streams) = $150

YouTube ($5 per 1,000 views) = $50

Altogether, that comes up to $3,940 a month, or $51,220 per year...before taxes and expenses. Fo course, those earnings can always increase as your audience keeps growing, but building a channel takes time, and it's almost necessary to build followings outside of the app, as it can be quite difficult to generate concurrent views organically on Twitch.

Would you ever quit your job to do live streaming full-time?