The YouTuber and Twitch streamer Josh Strife Hayes talks about why he would never play on a Minecraft MMO server on his YouTube channel.
Who is it about? Josh Strife Hayes is an MMORPG YouTuber and Twitch streamer. He covers a variety of MMOs and MMORPGs on his YouTube channel in a highly elaborate style: His videos are almost like mini-documentaries.
With this, he has built a large following: On YouTube, he has nearly 1 million subscribers and on Twitch, his channel reaches over 210,000 followers.
In the past, Josh Strife Hayes has repeatedly been asked by his community if he could play on a specific Minecraft MMO server to review it as part of his video series “Worst MMO Ever?”: Wynncraft. However, the YouTuber refuses this for a very specific reason: An alleged side effect on YouTube.
Less Revenue Due to Younger Viewers
Why can’t the MMORPG expert play Minecraft? Josh Strife Hayes believes that Minecraft would attract a young audience to his YouTube channel, ultimately leading to a decline in his revenue on the channel.
According to Josh Strife Hayes, YouTube and Twitch are supposed to create a kind of profile for creators depending on the audiences they attract. For this purpose, the platforms use viewers’ cookies to determine demographics.
If Josh Strife Hayes were to upload a video about the MMO server Wynncraft now, he believes it would primarily attract young viewers who have already watched other Minecraft videos.
The problem: His videos might not be interesting enough for such a young audience. They might not click on his videos, thereby reducing his reach. Should they watch the content, according to Josh Strife Hayes, it could be even worse.
Minecraft players and viewers are considered “less valuable” by advertisers, says the YouTuber. After all, they tend to be younger and may therefore have less disposable income to purchase the advertised products.
In contrast, the MMORPG audience is rarer and therefore more valuable. This means more money could be paid for advertising on such videos. Josh Strife Hayes is thus very careful about which content he produces to target a specific audience that is also lucrative for him.
Can this be proven? Platforms like Twitch and YouTube can’t reveal their cards that easily. However, Josh Strife Hayes’ explanation gives an interesting insight behind the scenes.
It is clear: How much a creator earns on YouTube depends on several factors. In addition to the number of views, the length of videos also plays a role. For instance, it could be that a musician might receive over 90 million views with a video, but doesn’t earn that much money from it.
The viewer demographics mentioned by Josh Strife Hayes are another piece of the puzzle. This also makes it clear that the success of influencers is often not as random as it may seem, as there can be significant calculation behind it.
The MMORPG expert, however, has very different advertising concerns: In the course of a collaboration with World of Warcraft and Pinterest, Josh Strife Hayes released a series of shorts on his channel. Fans raised the accusation that the YouTuber sold out, which he vehemently denied. You can read more about this here on MeinMMO: MMORPG expert on YouTube defends himself for a deal with WoW: “I prefer to take money from companies rather than from you”
