The largest game publishers pay huge sums to top streamers for broadcasting new titles. The earnings of some of them can reach $ 50 thousand per hour.
Ninja Streamer
This is reported by The Wall Street Journal.
It notes that deals with streamers are a very effective method of attracting an audience. Publishers such as Electronic Arts, Activision Blizzard, Ubisoft and Take-Two understand this and make deals with influencers on Twitch. The amounts may vary depending on the popularity of the streamer. The most famous of them — for example, Tyler Blevins, better known as Ninja — can receive up to $ 50,000 per hour.
The fact that at least EA pays streamers in the hope of making them a powerful advertising tool was said back in March. Shortly before that, a new battle royale Apex Legends was released, which became a hit on Twitch overnight. Then the Reuters edition, citing a source, reported that the same Ninja received about $ 1 million from EA for streaming Apex Legends on Twitch within the first 24 hours after the release*. Some other streamers confirmed that they also made a deal with this publisher.
* EA later refused to confirm the amount agreed with Ninja. The streamer’s team also did not wish to comment.
Although the price tag of $50 thousand /hour is the ceiling, according to TWSJ, many well—known streamers can count on $25-30 thousand /hour. To do this, they need to collect at least 15 thousand simultaneous viewers on streams. Ninja, CouRage, TimTheTatman, of course, get much more.
At the same time, as the publication notes, EA and similar publishers take a lot of risks by hiring streamers. After all, publishers do not control which frames from the game will eventually be broadcast live. They are also not responsible for the quality of the broadcast, and the streamer who leads it may even scare away viewers with poorly chosen words. In all these cases, the audience may have a bad first impression of the new product.
Nevertheless, publishers are taking risks, since attracting streamers has a good effect on the recognition of the title and on income. The audience is much more willing to try new games if they see their favorite streamer playing in them.
This year, TWSJ adds, Take-Two intends to attract a large number of streamers. Their task will be to promote Borderlands 3. The game is being prepared for release in September this year.
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