Twitch Streamer Makes $ 552,000, Says: He's Receiving a Tiny Fraction of It

 

The streamer Ludwig “Ludwig” Ahgren (25) has been live on Twitch for 326 hours. He now has about $ 552,000 in revenue. But he pays off poorly. According to his calculation, he only gets a small fraction of it after taxes, Twitch share and other expenses: He sees himself at around $ 10,000.

This is why Ludwig earns so much money:

• The streamer Ludwig started a "marathon" stream on Twitch about 2 weeks ago . The more money he earns in the stream through donations and subscriptions, the longer he is on the air: a countdown increases when viewers donate money to him. The stream now lasts 326 hours - almost 14 days.
• Fans log his earnings and take a lot of notes. He himself is transparent with his income and shows it again and again. It currently stands at around $ 552,216. When he did his billing a few days ago, he took on $ 471,000 in gross receipts.
• The streamer himself said in the stream that after all the deductions, he gets very little money out of the total income: He calculated himself down from $ 471,000 to $ 3,000

Taxes, donations, mods and Twitch eat up most of the money

Why does he get so little of his share? On the stream, Ludwig explained why he would only be left with a tiny $ 3,000 of the $ 471,000 he had made at the time:

"It is not so easy. I can't count on that much money because there are things in life that you have to pay for. This is called taxes. But before I pay taxes, we have to talk about my share. Because Twitch also takes money. So that's not all my money, it's Twitch's money too. "

Ludwig

Ludwig says: Twitch takes 35% of the revenue because the streamer is still in an "old Twitch contract" that dates back to before Among Us got so big. So 35% are lost, Twitch takes them. That leaves him about $ 300,000.

The proportion of the subscription money that Twitch takes is a matter of negotiation. Usually you assume 50%. Big streamers negotiate significantly better conditions. Ludwig also seems to be dissatisfied with 35%.

Half of the $ 300,000 goes to taxes. Because he lives in California, there are extra taxes, the state income tax. That is why many streamers and YouTubers lived in Texas, New Hamsphire or Floria and paid less tax, explains Ludwig. But he lives in Californians, because more taxes go out: In California you pay 13.3% income tax.

Of the approximately $ 150,000 that was now left, he still had to give his team their share. He employs around 15 moderators and pays them along with around 5,000 a day. So it was down to $ 83,000.

Of this $ 83,000, however, he has promised to be charitable. He wants to donate one US dollar to a charitable organization for every subscription. With around 80,000 subscriptions, the remaining money dropped to around $ 3,000.

However, Ludwig also says: Tax write-offs would ultimately leave him between $ 10,000 and $ 15,000.

 

Is it still worth it for him? Although he counted himself so poor, Ludwig explained to the fans that the marathon stream still pays off for him. Because the long-term growth of his channel through the event stream is impressive. An article about him was published in the New York Times. The attention is priceless.

Ludwig is considered one of the big winners on Twitch last year. The former “Super Smash Bros.” Pro is looking for contact with the established Twitch stars: He paid $ 43,000 to play with shroud for an hour.

Are the numbers correct? As the US side Kotaku found out in conversation with a tax expert, Ludwig made a few mistakes in his calculation. Because Ludwig would only have to pay the taxes after he has pulled money on Twitch, paid the moderators and donated it to the charity. So the tax portion is significantly less than the $ 150,000 he assumed.

A lot of money would indeed be gone, but of the $ 450,000 he had at the time, he would be left with about $ 80,000. Since he has added about $ 100,000 in total revenue since then, he would be safe with a profit of over $ 100,000.

That's not a bad net hourly wage at 330 hours.

Marathon stream is currently running in the absence of the streamer

How is the Twitch stream going? It's weird. Ludwig's marathon stream continues, but without Ludwig. He's set out on a trip. He had already arranged the trip before the stream started. He couldn't and didn't want to break it off.

Ludwig's roommate “Slime” can currently be seen in the stream. He represents Ludwig. The timer continues to tick down and is at 13 hours and 37 minutes. arrived.

The announcement is: If the timer continues to run down, it will be stopped at one hour and will only continue when Ludwig takes over again. That would be a “new start” so to speak, Ludwig would then have to convince the viewers again to donate in order to keep him on Twitch.

A bizarre situation with a stream that is already making Twitch history.

With around 130,500 subscribers, Ludwig is currently in second place on the “all-time best list” - but he will probably not reach the legendary 270,000 from Ninja to “Amazon pushes Fortnite” peak times.