Twitch's rally cry "Lets get top five!" refers to a leaderboard for video games. In the wake of a massive data breach, gamers are now focused on a new leaderboard that ranks streamers based on how much they earn from Twitch.
An anonymous 4chan user accessed 125GB of streaming data and leaked payout information for more than 10,000 Twitch streamers. This led to a circus of controversy on Wednesday. Twitch later confirmed the breach, stating that the server configuration had been changed to allow a malicious third-party access to the data. The revenue data that covered subscriptions, donations and ads between August 2019 and October 2021 went viral immediately on 4chan, Twitter and Reddit. Although Twitch payments are not their sole source of income, streamers claim that the information is accurate in large part. Streamers are rightly concerned about privacy issues due to the data breach. However, streamers have been meme-ing on their money and making money from the memes.
Ludwig Ahgren, top streamer, called his Wednesday livestream NUMBA 6 BEGS for PRIMES. He was referring to Twitchs Prime subscriptions. Twenty-four thousand people tuned in. Ahgren scrolled through a website which organized payout information into a leaderboard and typed in streamer usernames to see what they made. The website was taken down. Ahgren called Matthew Mizkif Rinaudo to continue the gossip. Ahgren was number six, Rinaudo shouted in greeting. Scroll down to see my number. It's quite embarrassing.
Ahgren says that I wouldn't want to hide the amount I earn so I decided to make a meme of it. Since a long time, I have had a meme: larger number, better person. This is how it feels to be a content creator. It directly correlates with your value as an individual to how rich you are and how much you make. Ludwig confirmed that he earned about $3.3 million through Twitch Bits, Twitch Bits, ads, and subscriptions from late 2019 to October 2021.
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Twitch earnings leaderboard numbers were used by streamers and fans to refer to their favorite gamers all day Wednesday. Popular Twitch gossip subreddit, r/LivestreamFail saw posts with titles such as #6 talks to #23, #137's worst nightmare, or #6, #188 and #264.
Streamers who were paid huge amounts of money are part of what gave rise to the meme phenomenon. The leaked data shows that the top 81 streamers earned more than $1 million each through Twitch since the end of 2019. Five streamers earned more than $5million each. Although the financial information was shocking, it is not surprising that streamers make millions. Some streamers' revenue information might actually be calculated by savvy viewers, with no leaks required. Twitch earns 50 percent of the earnings from subscriptions to streamers who have Partner status. Most streaming subscriptions cost $5. If a streamer with Partner status has 50 subscribers who pay $5 per month, the streamer will make $125 per month from subscriptions. Alex Curry, Upfluence's gaming marketing strategist, said that streamers also earn money from Bit donations (30 percent of Twitch) and partner program ads (20-30 percent of Twitch).
Curry says that this leak shows how lucrative streaming can become. We are only referring to direct incomes from Twitch (subscriptions plus ads plus bits). This is not the complete picture of streamers' earnings. You can also add sponsorships, brand collaborations, merchandising, donations, and donations to these figures. This means that the reality of top-streamer salaries is much higher than that. However, the mystery is how much streamers make from private deals. These numbers, which weren't in the hackers data dump, can be enormous. Wednesday's spreadsheet showed Ahgren sharing that he earned $3 million from October 2021 to late 2019, 44 percent of which was from sponsors.
