After watching the League of Legends Championship Series online, one could assume that from the thousands of live viewers the program receives weekly and only via an internet connection that streaming service providers like Azubu.tv and Twitch.tv are raking in the money.
Well, the answer to that question is yes, they are raking in a lot money actually.
Twitch.tv and Azubu.tv are the leading stream providers for the LCS in Europe and North America, which gathers at least 40,000 thousand viewers daily when it’s online.
That’s quite literally competing with live sports broadcasts around the world (not including big titles like Super Bowl and Stanley Cup).
This then, in turn, means that the companies or organizations that run the streaming services are probably making a lot of extra pocket change for their efforts.
While the companies like Riot Games and Twitch.tv are making a hefty amount of money from streaming video game tournaments online, there’s also the factor that the gaming community has always wondered about. How much are the pro gamers that stream the video games making per year on average?
There has been great amounts of speculation and rumors floating around the internet and message boards about how much some of the professional players make directly from streaming themselves playing video games.
The most logical response I have seen came directly from the LeagueOfLegends.com forums, where a user commented by saying that on average a professional player like TSM Dyrus or Crs SaintVicious would make around $100,000 annually. P layers like TSM Reginald would be making around $150,000 annually.
If we were to add in the other bonuses that come along with playing professionally in LoL we would have to add in the salary each player of the LCS receives from Riot Games which is $20,000.
Basically, these streaming services have opened up a whole new meaning to playing video games for a lot of us who have always been looking at ways to making money for simply entertaining ourselves.
The money is out there to be made and there has been a lot of money made already if you account for just two games (League of Legends + StarCraft II), there is millions in cash pools each season with last year’s winner of the Worlds (Taipei Assassins) bringing home $1,000,000,000 in winnings.
In the future, there is going to be more and more people looking at these streaming companies and thinking of ways to branch out into them or even expand the companies into other areas.
Streaming video games has become a phenomenon for a lot of us, while on the other hand, the professional players who have become successful in doing this are making big time money by the looks of things.
Have A Question? Ask Jessica!
-
Jessica: Hi, I'm Jessica, the Consumer Press AI, can I help you with a consumer question?
