Streaming online is becoming more and more popular, with the best streamers able to make big money if they can build a large following on a site such as Twitch.
Players such as Ninja are now effectively household names as a result of their success with streaming video games, with a younger audience particularly keen on watching live streams.
But what are some of the main games that are earning streamers the most cash?
Apex Legends
With so many games out there that streamers can choose from, one of the main challenges for studios and developers is to get the top streamers to pick their games over any other.
Last year, it was reported by Reuters that Ninja – whose real name is Tyler Blevins – received a fee of $1 million for playing the free-to-play game Apex Legends.
Ninja had around 13 million followers on Twitch at the time, making him an obvious choice for Electronic Arts when they were trying to raise the public profile of their newest game release.
Shroud, another of the most-followed streamers, was also paid a substantial amount of money by EA in exchange for playing Apex Legends on live streams to his millions of followers.
“We had streamers from all over Europe, LatAm, North America, Korea, Japan so that we could get our message out there and people would see the game,” said EA’s lead producer Drew McCoy in an interview.
Online Slot Games
While they may not offer the same type of gameplay, online slots are an increasingly popular option for the biggest and best streamers in the world. They get paid through linking up with a casino site in an affiliate deal.
How this partnership works is like this: the streamer needs a casino offering a great selection of games and bonuses for players. Such a casino is Playamo. After negotiating a good deal, the streamer simply plays at the casino and streams it to all their fans. By publishing their affiliate link, they will be paid by the casino for any new players that join Playamo via the link.
Fans love to see streamers rack up big wins playing slots at their favored online casinos, with the unpredictable action from spinning the reels helping to pull in large audiences.
Some of the top slot games that streamers play on platforms including Twitch include Money Train, Rich Wilde and the Book of Dead, and Jammin’ Jars.
FIFA 21
The recent release of FIFA 21 has catapulted the game into the list of the titles that are earning streamers the most money. FIFA, a football game from EA, is always one of the top-selling titles of the year and watching streams of the game has become a lot more popular during 2020.
This is partly due to professional sports leagues around the world being cancelled due to the coronavirus crisis earlier in the year, with FIFA tournaments helping to fill the void.
West Ham and England star Declan Rice recently signed up to play in the FIFA Global Series 21 Challenge alongside the likes of Trent Alexander-Arnold, Achraf Hakimi and Giovanni Reyna.
One former footballer, David Meyler, has even turned playing FIFA on online streams into a new career. Meyler, who represented the Republic of Ireland and played in the Premier League, initially started streaming his FIFA gameplay as a hobby before amassing a large audience.
With his YouTube videos of FIFA play often earning millions of views, Meyler has shown there is a new potential post-playing career available to footballers these days.
Call of Duty
The Call of Duty franchise is nothing short of a behemoth having grown into one of the top-selling video game series of all time.
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare is now one of the most popular games for streamers to make big money on, having become another major hit on its release.
The most popular Call of Duty streamers on Twitch include NickMercs, who has around four million followers on the platform. Another is TimTheTatman, who also plays games such as Fortnite and Valorant on his highly popular streams.
DrDisrespect, a controversial streamer whose real name is Herschel “Guy” Beahm IV, is another gamer who has played Call of Duty games to help bring in large amounts of money.
Streaming games is going to keep getting more popular in the coming years, with new titles expected to provide competition for the likes of FIFA, Call of Duty and Apex Legends.