Unlikely way these friends make over $14 million a year

Twitch streamers earn millions of dollars just by playing games from the comfort of their homes. Here’s how they do it.

The most popular streamers on live gaming platform Twitch earn millions of dollars every year by playing their favourite games, often in the comfort of their homes.

In October 2021, the service suffered a major security breach, and hackers posted internal data which until then had been kept private. This allowed Twitch viewers to be able to see just how much their favourite streamers had been paid out by the company between August 2019 and October 2021. The amount was the share that each creator earned through channel subscriptions and Twitch donations (known as bits), and not the cut that Twitch itself takes. As Twitch and its partners do not release earnings information, this is still the most reliable source for estimated earnings to date.

Over the two year period Critical Role took the top spot earning more than $14 million. But just who is Critical Role? And how did they end up becoming the highest earning channel on Twitch?

Critical Role’s main cast. Picture: Critical Role Productions

Critical Role is a group of video game and animation voice actors who began playing Dungeons & Dragons in 2012. By 2015, the team decided to stream its weekly game on Twitch and since then the empire has only grown.

Due to the cast’s professional talents of breathing life into imagined characters, the group garnered more than a million followers on the streaming platform and about 500,000 views per episode of the show across its channels.

Unlike the majority of Twitch streamers, there are eight people in Critical Role’s main cast, and many more people working behind the scenes. The troupe only goes live twice a week. On Tuesdays there is a stream under the Just Chatting category, where the group talks more casually about their theories and opinions on the main campaign.

Thursday is the main show, which streams Dungeons & Dragons for about four-and-a-half hours each week.

Critical Role stream their main shows every Thursday. Picture: Critical Role Productions

Twitch isn’t the only revenue for the Critical Role team. The show has branched out into several different avenues creating what it calls a “multi-platform entertainment sensation”. Like most Twitch Streamers, Critical Role has a YouTube channel with about two million followers and 500 million views. The channel’s content is mostly long-form.

These are the kind of videos YouTube pays out the most money for, as they carry the highest number of adverts.

The majority of Critical Role’s videos are several hours long. The shows are also converted into podcasts which are available on all major podcasting platforms.

However, streaming and videos are only the tip of the iceberg. The group also receives money via donations. It donates a whopping 85 per cent of the money earnt via donations to a number of charitable causes. However, 15 per cent is kept back to help fund the team, which is not an insubstantial amount of money.

The website also links to a store, which sells merchandise such as die, clothes, pins, and books. A percentage of these profits also goes to its charities.

Critical Role sell merchandise such as D&D dice sets, water bottles, clothes and books. Picture: Critical Role Productions

The books sold here are produced by Critical Role’s own company, Darrington Press. This press produces large coffee books filled with stories and illustrations based on the campaigns from the show. These books are also sold in partner stores all over the United States, and seem to be a financial success for the company selling for up to $155.

Finally, a substantial channel of revenue for Critical Role is its animated series The Legend of Vox Machina.

In 2019, the group announced a Kickstarter to create an animated series voiced by the cast, and based on a Dungeons & Dragons campaign.

The campaign hit its $1 million target within minutes of being announced, and reached almost $17 million by the time it ended.

The character line-up of The Legend of Vox Machina animated series, voiced by Critical Role. Picture: Critical Role Productions

According to Twitch leaks from October 2021, Critical Role is the highest earning Twitch channel via subs and bits. Picture: Critical Role

Amazon commissioned 24 episodes of the show for exclusivity on its Prime subscription service.

As earnings for all these different revenue streams aren’t released to the public, it’s impossible to know how much the group earns outside of Twitch.

However, Critical Role has extended its reach far beyond the game streaming service, and enters into the realms that most content creators can only dream of.

— written by Georgina Young on behalf of GLHF