Becoming famous while streaming games: Is it Luck vs. skill?

Many gamers dream of becoming professional streamers. Who wouldn’t want to be paid to play games all day? The money will come with recognition and adoring fans as well as a great deal of negative attention. How realistic is it that you’ll reach that level? If you’re a hard worker, good at games, and have a decent personality, what are the odds that you’ll just “make it”?

Being a streamer professional requires a lot more than just skill. It also takes luck. You don’t have to give up on your dream, but you need to be realistic about the facts. Whether it’s becoming a streamer, a TikTok star, or even a musician, there has been a lot of research around the balance between luck and skill.

Duncan Watts from the University of Pennsylvania is an expert in this area. He’s a computational social scientist, which means he studies human behavior in systems and analyzes large-scale data. He’s conducted numerous experiments to see what makes things popular, and one of his most famous studies in 2006 looked into what made songs popular. Watts used 14,000 participants in order to find out if it was possible to predict which song will be popular.

The experiment was conducted using a program which hosted several songs, and allowed the participants to rate them. One would expect that if there was an objective way to determine which song would be a hit, you’d see most of the participants rate the same song the highest, but this wasn’t the case. The results often turned out to be completely random. After the first round, however, they tried a couple of variables and found one that could be used to predict which songs would do well.

A variation on the study added an additional information to include the artist and title of each song. It was the number downloaded. The researchers created this number, and it was found that those songs which have the most downloaded songs would be rated highest. People would give a lower-rated song a greater number of downloads and they would continue to be at the top.

This is why it happened. We’re a social species, and oftentimes we turn to others to see what’s “good,” which is why these results were so easily manipulated.

Now, it’s important to note that there is a baseline standard required, and popularity isn’t entirely dependent on existing success — if it was, no one would ever get there. On average, there are 7.4 million people streaming each month, so you need to stand out in the first place, whether it’s being incredible at the game you’re playing or having a charismatic personality, separating yourself from the pack is important. Never underestimate the power of marketing, and other little tricks that can help you increase your number.

However, the data clearly shows that luck is a major factor in the outcome of things at the top.

In order to better understand what’s happening and why it’s so hard to break out in the streaming world, you need to know about The Matthew Effect. This social phenomenon is named after a biblical verse, Matthew 25:29, which states, “For unto every one that have shall be given, and he shall have abundance; but him that have not shall be taken, even that which he have.” Basically, this means the rich get richer and the poor get poorer. This is the definition of success. It refers to bigger winners.

According to social scientists, The Matthew Effect is caused by the same factors that Watts discovered in his music studies. We turn to others to see what’s good, and we follow their lead. So, when a streamer has hundreds or thousands of people watching them, if someone doesn’t know who to watch, they’ll assume that this person must be great because they have such a large audience. And so it continues.

Now, you might be thinking that there’s no chance you’ll ever become a hit streamer, but don’t quit just yet. While it’s impossible to control your luck, you can certainly improve your odds. His book is here. Luck FactorRichard Wiseman is a psychologist who explains why people are lucky.

One study involved giving participants an impossible puzzle. However, before they gave them the solution, researchers had to ask people a series of questions. The results showed that participants who perceived themselves to be lucky were more successful at solving impossible puzzles than those who consider themselves unlucky. Further research that he discusses shows that “lucky” people are always looking for opportunities that they can capitalize on.

If you’re trying to become a hit streamer, you just need to remember to be realistic because there’s only so much that you can do to control your fate. You can perform a risk assessment to determine how much money and time you are willing to invest without suffering severe consequences. For many, it would be a bad idea to spend thousands of dollars on high-end streaming equipment, and it’s a lot safer to start out with an affordable webcam and some free software.

Even though it’s difficult to become a full-time streamer, it’s definitely possible. You should keep an open mind and be persistent. As we learned from the impossible puzzle study, if you don’t give up before the competition, you’ll increase your chances of getting that lucky break.