Varrone at Nintendo World (Christopher Zoia) I don’t know if that’s a good thing or not.”
“A lot of my life now exists online,” Varrone told me. He has never visited the Fullscreen office in Los Angeles, met an employee in person, or even talked to one by phone. Typical of Let’s Players, Varrone’s interactions with viewers, other players, and Fullscreen take place entirely online.
#PEWDIEPIE YOUTUBERS LIFE SOFTWARE#
Maker Studios, like the company that represents Varonne, Fullscreen, Inc., represents various kinds of YouTube content creators, such as gamers and musicians.*Īlthough players realize that their chances of making millions are slim, many plan to parlay the skills they’ve acquired on YouTube into careers in video editing, game testing, or software design. PewDiePie’s network, Maker Studios, a Hollywood media company, provides marketing and publicity exclusively for “YouTube artists,” taking a cut of the proceeds. He’s otherwise unemployed, and hopes eventually to support himself by playing video games.īecause YouTube’s advent eight years ago made it possible, albeit unlikely, for young gamers to become millionaires, online talent agencies, dubbed “networks,” have sprouted around the Let’s Play phenomenon. His YouTube channel, “ Awesomefaceprod,” has drawn 20,000 subscribers since he started Let’s Playing in 2011. Matthew Varrone, 20, makes between $600 and $1,000 a month in ad revenue from his videos-not enough to rent an apartment, so he still lives with his parents in Milford, Connecticut-but still impressive considering he earns it doing something millions of people do every day for fun, for free.
Other players bank much smaller paychecks. PewDiePie’s estimated monthly revenue from YouTube ads fluctuates between $140,000 and $1.4 million depending on viewership, according to Social Blade, a company that monitors YouTube channels. Many hope to one day make a living playing games on YouTube a few already do. Let’s Players aren’t driven only by love of gaming. And the Wikia page acknowledges that this isn’t a comprehensive list. A user-generated Wikia page tracking current Let’s Players, their subscriber totals, and their videographies lists about 950 players with active YouTube channels, collectively followed by more than 60 million subscribers. The top five Let’s Players collectively have more YouTube subscribers than Peru has people.
As a Let’s Player navigates a game, he (or more rarely, she) provides running commentary, usually funny and profane.ĭifficult as it may be to believe that online audiences throng to watch strangers play video games, Let’s Plays have surged in popularity. PewDiePie is a Let’s Player, one of hundreds of gamers who post “Let’s Plays” online (as in “Let’s Play Super Mario Bros.” or “Let’s Play Grand Theft Auto”), videos that are part “Mystery Science Theater,” part Siskel and Ebert reviews. But 23 million people subscribe to his YouTube channel. In his videos, PewDiePie laughs, swears, and goofs around as if he were hanging out with his best friend. Together, these two clips have attracted nearly 7 million views.
In another, featuring the game “ Trouble in Terrorist Town,” PewDiePie controls a military gunman who gleefully mows down other soldiers. “It doesn’t get more hardcore than this.” “What am I supposed to do?” he wails shortly before his grey kitten with a jetpack dies. In one November video, for instance, he plays the Xbox Indie game “Techno Kitten Adventure,” helping a feline avatar navigate dangerous terrain filled with unicorns and narwhals, and shrieking in frustration each time his cat crashes into an obstacle. PewDiePie has made his name-and a fortune-posting videos of himself playing video games. That honor goes to a 24-year-old Swede named Felix Kjellberg, better known by his YouTube handle, PewDiePie. The YouTube personality with the most subscribers isn’t Justin Bieber (8 million) or Rihanna (12.5 million).
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