The Twitch streamer Kaitlyn “Amouranth” Siragusa is now the largest streamer on Twitch. But it wasn’t always like that. As a small streamer, she mainly lived off of “whales” – men who donated to outdo each other. In a conversation with xQc, she explains what changed for her when she broke the threshold of 5,000 viewers.
In what context does Amouranth speak? Amouranth has been on Twitch since 2016 and has had a slow but steady career:
- In 2016, she had an average of 50 viewers – back then, she mainly showed cosplay
- In 2017, it was already 809
- In 2018, she reached 2042 viewers – in 2019 and 2020, her channel slowly but steadily grew to 3032 viewers
- Only in 2021 did she break through with the highly sexualized “Hot Tub” and “ASMR” meta, reaching 9700 viewers. ASMR is the meta where she licks microphones.
Visiting xQc, Amouranth talks about her growth and the comparison between women and men on Twitch. xQc, who listens with interest and shares his own experiences, is the biggest male streamer on the platform.
Small female streamers benefit the most from donations from wealthy men
This is what Amouranth says about her life as a small streamer: Amouranth says that until she surpassed a certain viewer threshold, she had 3 to 5 men in her chat, each donating about $90,000 a year (83,000 €). Such people who spend excessively are called “whales”, a term that has crept from the animal world into the world of gambling and casinos.
The men would donate so much to gain the attention of the streamer. They would even compete with each other and outdo one another with donations. Amouranth talks about “donation wars”:
I had 3 to 5 guys who donated over $90,000 a year. So each one. But when you exceed 5,000 viewers, then you might collectively reach around $90,000. As you grow, the whales don’t give you as much anymore because there are so many people in the chat – but you make more money through ads, subs, and directing people to other sites. So it’s a question of whether you create a scalable model or stay small but with high donations.
How does xQc react? He is shocked by the idea that whales compete with each other on who spends more money. He hadn’t thought of that at all.
As a male streamer, he has experienced a completely different growth on Twitch: The Canadian began his career as a Twitch streamer after being kicked out of the Overwatch League for lack of impulse control. But his outbursts of rage, which cost him his eSports career, made him a star on Twitch.
He had his breakthrough in December 2019, when the previous big names on Twitch switched to Mixer for a lot of money.
What are the disadvantages of being a small streamer? Amouranth says that among small streamers, “parasocial relationships” often develop, which carry problems: men would expect to receive something in return for high donations, such as private video chats or messages.
Especially with small channels, there is an extremely high risk of having a stalker among the viewers. Already with 10 viewers, one could expect to have a stalker in the mix.
Large female streamers receive more money from companies
What changes with a large female streamer? Amouranth says that when one reaches over 2,000 viewers, the game changes completely. The men who donated so much would stay away now, as they would expect not to receive as much attention from a streamer. The chat is simply too full for the streamer to focus on individual viewers.
Furthermore, the men calculate that such a large streamer is not financially dependent on donations.
Strangely enough, stalkers tend to become fewer with larger streamers.
From this size, the business model changes: one can no longer expect such high donations, but advertising revenue is higher. Now one earns “industry money,” that is from Amazon, through subs, ads, or indeed OnlyFans.
Amouranth’s business model involves posting free, suggestive images and videos on Twitter, Twitch, and Instagram while offering more explicit content on OnlyFans – but charging for that.
Women grow “small” very quickly on Twitch – but encounter difficulties
What does the streamer say about growth on Twitch? The streamer says, as a woman, it is relatively easy to reach a certain level with good looks, an attractive face, breasts, or butt, but beyond that, it becomes difficult.
Women can grow quickly at a low level.
xQc adds: Smaller female streamers have less competition from men and receive a lot of attention from the streamer. But this growth quickly hits limits; it is “capped.”
Amouranth continues: A man starting on Twitch, without contacts or any relationships, can reach over 100 viewers – for him, “The Sky is the Limit,” because he can be sure of being watched because he is genuinely entertaining.
“For girls, it is hard to build a large audience on Twitch because you stream to men and every man has different preferences. It is also a weird vibe. Men feel they cannot watch a woman without expecting something from her, fantasizing about her, and feeling guilty for watching a woman they will never have sex with. So it is harder for women to grow.”
Amouranth says that as a small streamer, there is the pressure to keep the viewers one has and to make them happy without giving them the feeling that they are part of the streamer’s real life, as that would create problems.
As a large streamer, one could also tell people to get lost.
When Amouranth talks about “girls on Twitch,” she actually only means herself
How is this to be classified? When Amouranth talks about “women,” she does not really mean all women, but she means herself.
In many ways, Amouranth is an exception on Twitch because she is not just a “shameless E-girl” as she describes herself; she works extremely disciplined and goal-oriented while demonstrating a large business acumen.
Therefore, her earnings are in regions that most female streamers, no matter how they present themselves, can only dream of.
The idea that someone can simply replicate Amouranth’s model is illusory. Female streamers who walked similar paths as Amouranth have since been banned and disappeared from Twitch.
However, both stand at the top of Twitch and different rules apply to them. There is certainly no formula that one could easily follow to replicate either of them.
When Amouranth once talked about how high her earnings are on OnlyFans, other users of that platform came forward and stated that while they also belonged to the top of OnlyFans, they surely did not reach Amouranth’s incredible numbers:
