Am I the only one noticing streams from pro players has actually declined over the years? You would think with less tournaments and less prize money this would, if anything, incentivize professional players to diversify their income and either stream or put out more content but it doesn't seem to be the case. Are most players treating this as just an off-season or vacation or what do you guys think is going on?

TequilaMockingbird

Germany62 Posts

January 02 2025 20:08 GMT

"You would think with less tournaments and less prize money this would, if anything, incentivize professional players to diversify their income and either stream or put out more content but"

Well I, personally, would think that many people go look for other opportunities. Be it other games, or college, or playing poker or some kind of regular job. I don`t want to beat the "dead game" horse any more into the ground right now but well... you said it yourself.

Waxangel

United States32997 Posts

January 02 2025 21:47 GMT

Well, you're asking two questions about different time frames: "over the years," and this current off-season.

Over the years, the pro-player base has been slowly shrinking, so inevitably there's going to be less streamers than before.

As for this current off-season, I think most players (and honestly, everyone in the community) are just in a holding pattern waiting on some official announcement before they make any big decisions. If you're not one of the TOP pros, you have to commit to a lot of regular streaming to make meaningful money, and I can see why no one is eager to do it 'just for fun' during the off-season. That's more of a big career decision you make AFTER you know what's happening to the SC2 scene.

kAra

Germany1313 Posts

January 03 2025 09:20 GMT

seems like money was mostly keeping this game alive, not people actually enjoy playing it

ProTech1

33 Posts

January 03 2025 09:35 GMT

Very likely won't be many streamers this year either as Twitch has gutted our ad revenue by 90%. You need to stream 200+ hours a month to even come close to paying your bills.

For korean pros, you might be able to find them on Afreeca, as Twitch has closed all business operations for Korean twitch users entirely, but SC2 doesn't have much a fan-base in Korea so I doubt people will spend much time trying to make a streaming career with the game. Most of them have gone back to SC1 as the game still has a huge viewer base.

Balnazza

Germany1009 Posts

January 03 2025 18:07 GMT

On January 03 2025 18:35 ProTech1 wrote:
Very likely won't be many streamers this year either as Twitch has gutted our ad revenue by 90%. You need to stream 200+ hours a month to even come close to paying your bills.

For korean pros, you might be able to find them on Afreeca, as Twitch has closed all business operations for Korean twitch users entirely, but SC2 doesn't have much a fan-base in Korea so I doubt people will spend much time trying to make a streaming career with the game. Most of them have gone back to SC1 as the game still has a huge viewer base.

Are you refering to the Twitch Adpocalypse who turned out to be mostly a hoax?

yubo56

678 Posts

January 03 2025 18:58 GMT

On January 04 2025 03:07 Balnazza wrote:

Show nested quote +

Are you refering to the Twitch Adpocalypse who turned out to be mostly a hoax?

Hoax seems to be a bit strong of a word, sounds like there were legitimate misconfigurations from streamers that resulted in real decreased ad revenue? Source: https://www.reddit.com/r/OutOfTheLoop/comments/1gu92xn/whats_going_on_with_supposed_twitch_adpocalypse/lxtub9c/

But also, in response to OP, yeah, korean pros not being on Twitch due to Twitch pulling out KR really hurts the streaming scene

ZombieGrub

United States689 Posts

January 03 2025 19:52 GMT

On January 03 2025 18:20 kAra wrote:
seems like money was mostly keeping this game alive, not people actually enjoy playing it

Because everyone involved in SC was making so much money.

Streaming is different than playing or casting. Many people don't want to be streamers or content creators, but instead want to compete or watch competitions, or they enjoy SC without streaming. Technically one could stream without a webcam or mic, and some do, but it's not very fruitful is it? No one likes streaming when chat is at 0 interaction and you're better off just playing the game you like off-stream.

To the OP - some are taking it as a vacation, some are questioning further commitment without the esports scene since that what they've staked their livelihood on, and some are just reeling from their identity as a "SC person" being in question now. It makes the situation look especially bad which sucks, but this is/could be a colossal shift in StarCraft's identity and it's going to push the hardcore-esports side of things out. Maybe people who do simply enjoy laddering/streaming/content creation will emerge, but since SC2 was born super intertwined with esports and competition, it's gonna take a hit when that is gone.

Kreuger

Sweden613 Posts

January 03 2025 20:29 GMT

On January 03 2025 18:20 kAra wrote:
seems like money was mostly keeping this game alive, not people actually enjoy playing it

Im pretty sure alot of regular people are still playing it just for fun.

Lots of pros are playing aswell, thinking that since they dont stream they arent playing is kinda stupid.

And ofc money is a huge incentive, when talking about pros that pretty much is what they live from.

HornyHerring

Papua New Guinea1055 Posts

January 04 2025 00:35 GMT

#10

It's only natural. It's a 15 year old game, with the last big update coming 10 years ago. RTS is already a niche game and not very appealing to the younger crowd. With lack of interest from the developers and sponsors, lack of new players the streamer scene is dwindling the same way the player numbers are. Moving on to other things, other games, it's normal you wont see the same amount of streamers as you did years ago. Fewer players = Fewer viewers = Fewer streamers.

EDIT: Just checked on twitch. There are 688 viewers right now. Why would the streamers stream this game?