Facing economic headwinds, platforms and esports teams alike are becoming more wary about spending millions of dollars to work with popular gaming creators — creating an opportunity for smaller to mid-sized creators to take advantage.
For years, scoring big contracts with platforms and esports orgs has been gaming creators’ ideal endgame scenario. Streaming platforms have jockeyed for top talent, offering creators splashy exclusivity deals worth tens of millions to convince their fans to make the jump, while esports orgs have tossed multi-million-dollar salaries at top players to help juice their own streaming and social numbers.
In 2023, the top-gaming-creator gravy train might finally be coming to an end. Twitch and YouTube are reportedly pulling away from big-name streamer contracts, and esports organizations are increasingly shying away from multi-million-dollar deals as well. Earlier this year, for example, Luminosity Gaming declined to re-sign its contract with streamer Felix “xQc” Lengyel — the organization’s most famous, and most expensive, player by a significant margin — openly choosing to prioritize building relationships with less expensive talent instead.
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