Student streams video games as a job

Student+streams+video+games+as+a+job

“Streaming” is a term that is growing bigger and bigger with the rise of video game popularity. Streaming is playing games live with a certain amount of concurrent viewers.

Eli Wilson is one of these “streamers” and is a junior at De Soto High School.  Wilson streams a popular video game called “Fortnite.”

“I usually have 30 to 50 live viewers each time I stream,” sophomore Eli Wilson said.

While some streamers can range for 10 to 50 viewers, others can have over 100,000 concurrent viewers at a time.  All of this happens on a popular website called Twitch.

“I’ve been streaming on Twitch for a year and six months,” Wilson said.

In that time, Eli has accumulated over 1,500 followers and has over 20,000 views.  

“Twitch is one of the hardest sites to grow on and gain more followers,” said Woodsie, a friend and and streamer of Wilson’s from Pennsylvania.

Twitch is a site who has creators on it such as Post Malone, Snoop Dogg, Herman Li and many more.  

Twitch isn’t all about playing video games, they have other categories such as “Just Chatting” and “IRL,” also known as in real life.

“I’ve been watching LegitElement [Wilson’s streams on twitch] for over a year almost everyday,” said long-time friend of Wilson, Joe Holiday.

Wilson streams everyday after school and during the evenings on weekends.  A lot of his time is consumed on his passion for growth on Twitch.

“I don’t have a lot of time for friends or outside of school activities. It’s a big commitment, and I enjoy doing it everyday,” Wilson said.

A lot of creators on Twitch stream as a full-time job because there is money to be made, and in some cases, a lot. Wilson doesn’t have a part-time job after school because he makes most of his money off streaming.  

“I make about $400 a month if I stay on my stream schedule and work hard,” Wilson said.

Although streaming is a unique hobby and job, it is something that really interests  people. It can be very time consuming with little results, but that doesn’t stop Wilson as a creator.