Living the Dream: Man Gets Paid to Play Video Games All Day

This transcript was generated from the episode audio and may contain minor errors.

For years, I used to tell a story about the lesson of how you can't just follow your passion to the bank. Or at least you have to follow the right passion because not everything you're passionate about is valuable to others or is marketable or is viable. And to teach this lesson, I used to say, "You know, when I was a kid, when I was a teenager or in my early 20s, I was really passionate about playing video games." But yet, no matter how passionate I was, nobody was coming along to say, "Hey, Chris, here's some money for playing video games." So again, you have to do something that actually has value to other people, not just something you enjoy. Well, welcome to Side Hustle School. My name is Chris Guillebeau.

And today's story actually features a man who achieves a goal that I only dreamed about as a young man hundreds of years ago. When he began live streaming his video games for a faraway friend, he had no idea he'd end up building a 30,000 person community and earning up to $3,000 a month. So we call this story Living the Dream. Man gets paid to play video games all day. Here's a quick thank you to our sponsor, and then I'll tell you exactly how he does it.

For Brad Driscoll and millions of others, video games are a pathway not only for fun, but also for finding friends and communities. For a long time, however, these friendships and communities built over games couldn't be transmitted across countries or continents. At least not in the early years. So when Brad's best friend and college roommate moved to Tokyo, he wasn't sure how they were going to continue to connect. That is, until they discovered Twitch.

By streaming his gaming on this new website, Twitch.com, Brad could still interact with his friend all the way across the world. They could even talk with only a 20 second delay. Time zones were now an issue, but technology enabled their close friendship to survive. It also produced an unexpected side hustle. Brad began to notice random strangers subscribing to his channel and watching his streams.

Lots of them. It was weird, he thought, but also pretty cool. He started paying attention to other streams and noticed some people appeared to be making pretty good money by offering premium subscriptions for anywhere from $2 to $10 per month. These people would host special sessions for subscribers, have giveaways, and do all sorts of community activities. This also seemed a little weird, but the thought of making money while playing video games, that was the dream.

Just three months after signing up for Twitch, Brad took on an enormous challenge, 365 days of streaming. He committed to stream at least three hours per night for an entire year. What a challenge. I mean, some people go out and train for ultra marathons, but Brad thought, man, I'm going to do something harder. I'm going to play those games, whether I feel like it or not.

It was a difficult year, lots of hard work engaging with followers and creating streaming plans. And he almost broke the streak a few times. But by the end, Brad had increased his followers from a humble 3,000 to over 30,000. At the time, this put him in the top 1,000 Twitch streamers. As part of this challenge, Brad created some special streaming events that really boosted his following.

The most successful of all was a 24-hour charity stream that coincided with the release of a popular game called Five Nights at Freddy's. The developer of this game is known for creating integrate experiences with hundreds of Easter eggs and hard to find secrets. When he reached out to Brad and asked if he'd like to get the game four hours earlier than the official release date so he could stream it to his followers, Brad accepted. Then when release day arrived, Brad rushed home from work and began his 24-hour stream. Thousands from all over the world tuned in, including his friend from Tokyo.

During that 24-hour stream, he took donations through a platform called Extra Life, which allowed subscribers to donate to a hospital of their choice. One guy chose to give $75 to Brad instead and told him to buy himself some pizza and wings. Brad turned into an hour-long journey of trying to help the pizza guy find Brad's house, and the audience loved it. That day Brad raised hundreds of dollars for hospitals around the country, and his follower count increased by thousands. But when you ask Brad about how he grew his following so fast, he says it's not just about those events, it's about the way he engages with his audience.

He didn't know much about marketing when he started streaming, but he did know how to make people feel welcomed and appreciated. From the very beginning, when someone joined his stream, he would give them a quick shout-out and invite them to ask questions if they had any. This simple habit helped new viewers know that they were welcome. It led to Brad's chat room being highly active during his streams, which led to a community being formed among his followers. So while the events drew people to subscribe, it was his warm and friendly personality, on and off his channel, that kept him tuning in.

And this, in turn, helped Brad earn some good money. At the height of his streaming days in 2015 and 2016, Brad was bringing in $3,000 a month from paying subscribers, which was actually more than he was making from his day job at a cybersecurity company. These days, he still streams several times per week and has a large community of gamers that tunes in. But he slowed down to focus on building a new business with his brother. In his new business, he's going to take his passion for building communities and engaging with fans, and help brands do it in their own ways.

But he's not about to quit on Twitch. The community that surrounds his channel remains. Many of these random internet people aren't strangers anymore, they're friends. All those years training as a gamer have paid off in more than just extra lives. His video game playing hustle is still bringing in $1,000 to $3,000 a month.

Well, talk about living the dream. I guess I need a new opening line for my talks about making money from your passion. But how you can't get paid for playing video games, or at least I can't. But that said, I think the general principle still applies. Because yes, this guy Brad, he gets paid while he plays video games, but the true value he provides is through his community.

People don't just go to watch him play the games, they go because all these other people are also watching, and talking about it, and he's having back and forth commentary with them. So it's just another form of entertainment. It's just like going to a sporting event, or paying for a TV subscription or Netflix or whatever. And for all my jokes about running an ultramarathon aside, I actually do really respect the 365 day streak of streaming three hours every night. I think that's actually pretty cool, it does take a lot of dedication.

Also the 24 hour charity stream, that's cool. So we should do a 24 hour side hustle school stream sometime. Which would be what, something like 140 episodes? Don't put it past me. In our show notes today, we're going to include several resources about Twitch, that platform, and some other people who are making money from it.

If you want to check that stuff out, it's all free. Just come to sidehustleschool.com/571. That's for episode 571. Don't forget inspiration is good, but inspiration with action is so much better. I'll be back tomorrow for the next installment of my 572 day streak.

My name is Chris Guillebeau and this is Side Hustle School.