We’ll just come right out and say it – if there was a way to play video games and get paid for it, we’d be out of our offices in a heartbeat. The fact that there are people who do so – and not even good players that are going pro, but pretty average Joes and Janes, also known as Twitch streamers, that manage to accrue enough of a following to make a living from streaming.
Who the richest streamer?
This is a question which gets asked a lot and there is no way to know who it is. We can however work out a rough estimate of how much these streamers earn.
We’re not talking living paycheck to paycheck either – no, some streamers make more than our 9-5s will ever get us. In case you want to feel bad about your life and career choices today, but you don’t want to call your parents, here is a handy alternative: Have a look at some of the richest streamers out there.
1. PhantomL0rd
How much does Phantoml0rd make?
It is estimated that in his prime Phantoml0rd managed to rake in over $4 Million.
Some streamers earn their cash through subscribers and donations alone – not so this guy. He became extremely popular on Twitch after winning numerous incredibly risky CSGO skin gambles. He repeatedly won bets as large as $10000, and for a good while, nobody suspected anything. In 2016, a hacker revealed that PhantomL0rd was the owner of the site he had been betting on, and had been rigging the whole thing in his favour.

Well, not all streamers are good guys, and after the site was shut down, Steam went so far as to ban all gambling sites that used Steam, and also all gambling broadcasts. The guy himself was never prosecuted though, and made off with millions. He began streaming again in 2017, if you’re curious. Remorse is for people who didn’t get away with stealing millions of other people’s money.
2. ImaQtPie
How much does ImaQtPie make?
Estimated $3 Million.
Michael Santana is a LoL streamer and former pro player. If you’re up to date on that sort of thing, he retired in 2014 from the well-known team Digitas, and now works as a full-time Streamer. This already sets him a little apart as it proves that he at the very least has some pretty good skills.
He’s modest too, as he didn’t expect that too many people would be interested in watching him, but when his skills set him apart easily, he discovered he was making far more money than he did as a pro. He made about $2 million dollars in 2016 – how about you?
ImaQtPie is one of, if not the most popular League of Legends streamer, and he seems to be a pretty okay dude on top of that.
3. Summit1G
How much does Summit1G make?
Estimated $2.5 Million.
Jaryt Lazar is a semi-pro CSGO player who started playing in 2012. Shortly after he started playing competitively, and was one of the very first skiled CSGO players to start streaming. Despite its age, the game is still immensely popular, so because of that and because of his good timing, he managed to accrue a huge base of fans and subscribers.
He has been involved in skin gambling too – that is to say, he has bet expensive CSGO skins with the hope of making a profit. It’s a legal grey area, although unlike PhantomL0rd, Summit1G did his bit of gambling legally. He was still able to make some pretty good profits, which are only bolstered by the merch he sells. That alone makes him over six figures per year.
4. Reckful
How much does Reckful make?
Estimated $1.5 Million
Byron Berstein is a veteran World of Warcraft player (with a name perfect for a character in the game!) and event caster. He’s played competitively for several years, and was at one point a top ranked player.
He’s branched out since then and is also playing Hearthstone as well as some other games now, but when he switched to playing Hearthstone exclusively (which coincided with him getting a girlfriend), the popularity of his stream tanked, and his viewer numbers with it.
He is now much less popular than before, but he is quite transparent about his earnings. He is fond of investing and also makes money through selling t-shirts – in addition to being good at games, he definitely has a good head for investment.
5. Lirik – $1.3 Million
How much does Lirik make?
Estimated $1.3 Million.
Sabiq Zahid is one of the most successful streamers of 2017. His presentation style and entertainment skills helped him build a large following in a short period of time. He streams up to 10 hours per day, and has about 20-30000 views per day.
His chosen games include LoL, Wow, DayZ, but also other games that his viewers ask him to play. He makes over $200000 from subscribers alone each year, and has also received several endorsement deals from different companies. If you couple that with the ad revenue he gets from both Twitch and YouTube, as well as his donations, he is believed to make almost seven figures per year.
6. Sodapoppin
How much does Sodapoppin make?
Estimated $1 Million.
Sodapoppin is one of the OG Twitch streamers and is a WoW legend – he was the number 1 ranked gamer at one point and more than half of Twitch’s World of Warcraft viewers were watching him on any given day. Needless to say, he played competitvely for quite a long time.
Eventually, he added other games to his repertoire and can now be seen playing a wide variety of different games. With around 7000 active subscribers, this guy has made a fortune – thanks to a little accident he revealed his all-time donations instead of the ones for a single session as he was trying to do – In the first few months of 2017, he totalled over $230000 alone.
He has previously claimed to have had over 70000 total subscribers throughout his career – we could do the math but decided not to. We already envy these guys enough. Unlike quite a few others, Chance Morris (the much less fun name this guy goes by), relies mostly on his streaming business to earn money, and less on things like merch. Well, it’s not like he’s going hungry for it.
How much can I make from streaming?
Judging by our list you can make a whole load of cash. Getting there however, is no easy task.