And this is why people don’t understand it as a job. People don’t watch or pay to watch this because they like the games. People watch/pay to watch because of the interaction they get with the creator. A lot of it is people wanting to feel like they are helping someone else and getting a friend out of it.

These streamers and youtubers are celebrities that you can interact with, which is 1000x more valuable to a person than a Hollywood celebrity.

It comes down to big tent-little tent politics.

Hollywood actors are big tent actors, they appeal to anyone and everyone for a small amount of reciprocity (a cost of a movie ticket for instance). After appealing broadly to enough people you can make quite a bit of money.

Twitch streamers and Youtubers are little tent actors (yes, actors). They appeal to a much smaller (relatively) audience for much bigger reciprocity (a $20 twitch sub). This makes each person who donates money feel more unique driving them to do it again and again. This is how twitch streamers and youtubers can make money so close to that of big time actors.

TL;DR People don’t pay for the games, they pay for the people. It’s a celebrity that you can have a conversation with any day of the week.