Fortnite streamer Daniel Harrison’s journey to 1 million YouTube subscribers

Daniel Harrison has joined an elite club and become one of the country’s biggest professional gamers. But success has been a struggle.

Jack Gramenz

6 min read

July 9, 2020 - 12:24PM

Daniel Harrison was just 17 when he left home with $20 to his name.

Now, a little more than five years later he’s one of our country’s biggest video game streamers.

He’s managed to become a YouTube Gold Creator after passing 1 million subscribers, a feat only around 0.5 per cent of YouTubers have pulled off.

But success didn’t come overnight.

His parents told him he couldn’t do it.

“They were right,” he now acknowledges.

“I wanted to prove I could make something of myself without the help of anybody else,” he said.

The now 23-year-old found himself starting over several times, lurching through apprenticeships and retail jobs and even having a brief stint of homelessness before getting a break.

i mean i used to dream about this happening but i never thought i'd actually be here, i'm just a normal dude that loves making videos

eternally grateful for each and every person that's helped me along the way, thank you pic.twitter.com/jJWtOip3kC
— danielharrison (@hanieldarrison) May 24, 2020

One of his first jobs was as an apprentice but he struggled to support himself and ended up living in an abandoned caravan, telling people it was owned by an aunt.

“I was ashamed, I didn’t want to tell my friends and family I was homeless, I was embarrassed,” Daniel said.

The apprenticeship soon fizzled out and he stumbled from job to job, including a side hustle as a poker player, a manager at a fast-fashion menswear store and at a sneaker store.

Spurred by childhood dreams of being an actor, he did a short stint at acting school — selling his Xbox to pay for it — and while he said he didn’t learn much in those two semesters, he did gain confidence at performing in front of a crowd.

And that’s when he turned to YouTube.

“I watched YouTubers for a long time. I thought, ‘I can write my own scripts, direct my own projects, get in front of the camera and play video games’”, so even though he was living in dodgy shared accommodation, he turned the space into a studio.

Daniel built his audience through regular uploads and livestreams.

Daniel began making “Let’s Play” videos, where gamers commentate themselves playing through levels, either to show other gamers how to do it or simply for entertainment.

After a couple of recordings Daniel decided to go all in, taking out a loan to buy the best equipment and pouring all his energy into YouTube.

And the viewers started to grow.

“When I hit a thousand followers it was just as meaningful as hitting a million,” he said.

He was still working at the shoe store and staying up late at night to produce his videos and the hours took a toll.

“I got hit by a car running for the train, I was so over tired from making videos,” he said.

He decided to switch to livestreaming on YouTube to reduce the time it took to create each videos, and because YouTube was promoting livestreaming, his subscriber count started climbing.

Within a few months he was at 10,000 subscribers, and making around $200 from streaming and Patreon (a website that allows artists and creators to receive donations from “patrons”).

Daniel quit the shoe store to focus full-time on streaming, and then everything changed.

“This game comes out called Fortnite and uh … wow,” Daniel said.

Fortnite ended up being quite a big deal.

Fortnite has been one of the biggest video game phenomena in recent history, with a 250 million strong player base.

Around the same time he started playing Fortnite, Daniel switched from YouTube to Twitch, streaming on there while keeping his YouTube account for highlight plays.

“I got really, really good, I was insane in this game,” the normally self-deprecating Daniel reluctantly said.

“I was very, very good in the early stages. You do anything 14 hours a day you’re going to get pretty good.”

He was good enough to embarrass another streamer into teaming up with him.

“I was sitting there after a stream one day and I got this notification on my phone that said ‘McCreamy has sent you a DM: wanna play some time’?”

McCreamy is one of the Fortnite streaming scene’s biggest stars, someone Daniel had idolised.

“I used to copy his thumbnails, I looked up to this guy … then he messages me like, ‘you killed me three times in a row, back to back consecutive games, I just thought you were insane and I was so angry’.”

The pair became fast friends and decided to team up, looking to an early pioneer in the streaming scene for inspiration.

Daniel and his new collaborator teamed up to form the XD Clan and began making trickshot videos, similar to those that made American e-sports organisation FaZe Clan famous.

“It went astronomically viral,” he said.

“We made a video and said anyone can join, and basically anyone did. It did two, three million views.”

An invite soon followed from Faze to the “clout house“, and one of its founders, Faze Banks, encouraged Daniel to get back onto YouTube as well and with his new clout the subscribers started flooding.

“I hit 30,000, then two days later 50,000, then 100,000.”

“I released this one video on having zero ping,” Daniel said, referring to the latency that impacts online games, where the lower your ping is the better you can perform.

“I was living in this dingy shared accommodation where people get stabbed around the corner but somehow I have zero ping?”

The video was a huge hit.

“My channel went, one week I started getting millions of views, I didn’t even know how, I don’t know what to think.”

“It was just a big blur of success really, everything was going crazy. XD was the real start for me.”

But after their early success came the darker sides of being in the spotlight and family and friends “started seeing me differently”, Daniel said.

“People become intimidated by your success and assume you think you’re better than them. It caused a tear between me and the people I loved.”

The comments section under his videos, where he used to interact with every new comment posted from his tiny fan base, became toxic and vile.

“I didn’t even want to do it anymore,” Daniel said.

“I was incredibly depressed, I had no friends, no one to lean on, I thought YouTube was over. The dark side had gotten to me, I wasn’t completely ready to handle criticism, I couldn’t handle people not liking me.”

He decided to take a break but found not even the money he had started to make (around $300,000 in the last financial year) helped him cope.

“I moved into this incredible home and I was miserable,” he said of the marble floored Sydney house he no longer lives in.

He moved to a cheaper, low budget spot, started meditating and going to the gym and eventually regained his love for the craft.

But the game wasn’t the same when he returned.

“I came back and my YouTube channel had died … I lost it all and that really puts things in perspective for you. I was on a new level so I looked at my old content and critiqued it, I found myself again.”

Daniel decided to just start making the videos he wanted to make, and saw “a massive resurgence”.

“I bounced back from people saying I should kill myself, people saying I was a horrible person. I hit 1 million subscribers and got a big pretty plaque, and I’m doing it all from not even a crazy expensive place.

“Mentally I’m happy, now it’s all sights ahead for the future.”

And the future might still involve his past dreams of the movie set.

“When I get enough money I’d like to buy a place here, then move to LA try again there,” Daniel said.

“Start on a new level.”

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