On Twitch, streamers have to be online all the time and can’t take a longer break, this is a widely held belief. A short clip of the player, Joseph Manuel “Mang0” Marquez, shows the problem: After 5 days away from Twitch over Thanksgiving, the pro is down almost 1000 subscribers and thus $2,500.
Who is he? Mang0 is a professional player for Cloud 9 in Super Smash Bros.. He has now earned around $170,000 in prize money and also runs a Twitch channel. Here, Mang0 has 277,369 followers.
Mang0 is usually online on Twitch every day and streams between 5 and 10 hours, mostly Super Smash Bros. Melee, but also CS:GO or Super Smash Bros. Ultimate.
This is shown in the clip: On Twitter, Mang0 uploaded a short clip. He took 5 days off Twitch to relax over Thanksgiving (via sullygnome):
- He turned off Twitch on Thursday – he had 7378 subscribers at that time
- And only turned it back on Tuesday – now he has only 6387
His subscriber count fell by 991 during these 5 days. He comments on the clip with “Streaming in a nutshell” – “Streaming summarized.”
5 Days Off Cost Streamers About €2200
How much did he lose? A Twitch subscription costs at least $4.99 per month – depending on the tier. The streamer gets at least half of it – depending on his deal with Twitch.
Mang0 lost at least $2,447 during his 5 days off, monthly, should the payers not return. That’s about €2,210.
This is not just about money, but also about the “loss” – Mang0 lost something that he had previously worked for. That hurts particularly.
That’s Why Twitch Devours Its Streamers
This is what makes the situation so difficult: The mechanic on Twitch that subscribers sign up for a “month” and then have to renew, but likely won’t if the streamer is offline, creates great psychological pressure on streamers.
Because financially, for many professional streamers, everything revolves around the “subscriber count”, the number of people who bring them money monthly.
Therefore, streamers are afraid to take longer breaks, as the subscriber count will drop. This mechanic of Twitch caused someone like Ninja to work practically non-stop in 2018 and not take breaks.
The Twitch streamer Courage has been driven to YouTube to get rid of the “subscriber” hunt and feel free again.
The Destiny streamer, ProfessorBroman, once said, Twitch consumes his life.
From Broman also comes the quote: “The only one who can turn off the camera is the one who benefits the most from keeping it on” – namely the streamer himself.
