“I’m like Julius — I have a lot of jobs!”
The first woman to compete in the elite division of FIFA, the most popular soccer video game, Stephanie Santos compares her professional life to that of the comic character in the series “Everybody Hates Chris”, famous for juggling several jobs.
In addition to dedicating herself to a career as a “pro player”, as video game players who make their living playing in tournaments around the world are known, Stephanie does a double shift as a “streamer”, broadcasting and playing FIFA matches in real time over the internet. (listen to the interview in the archive above starting at 9:58).
Pro players and streamers are among the most successful professionals in a job market that doesn’t stop growing: the video game industry. To get an idea of the strength of this segment of the digital economy, the specialized consultancy Newzoo estimates that the turnover of companies in the sector in 2023 will exceed US$ 200 billion.
The relationship between these two occupations, so characteristic of these times marked by the advancement of technology, is the theme of the second episode of the new season of the podcast Trabajo, available in the above file.
Produced by Repórter Brasil and distributed by UOL, the program’s mission is to discuss the main interfaces between the job market and the digital world. In its first season, Trabalhoira was elected one of the highlights of the year by Spotify in Brazil.
After all, how much does a video game professional earn?
Current world champion of Valorant, a well-known game of the “first-person shooter” genre (first-person shooter, in a free translation), Argentine Matias Delipetro moved years ago to Brazil to live with his girlfriend and redesign his professional career. player. Today, he has a contract with Loud — one of the biggest esports teams in the country.
Questioned about how much a pro player like himself earns, Delipetro claims that it is difficult to set a precise figure, because there are differences between the types of game, for example. However, he hazards an estimate.
“In dollars, the average is 3 thousand, 4 thousand upwards (between BRL 16 thousand and BRL 21 thousand)”, he says. But, as in the case of professional football or basketball athletes, Delipetro points out that other sources of income can exceed the monthly remuneration provided for in the contract signed between a pro player and his team.
“The player can have a stream, he can do live, and earn even more than his salary. At the same time, he can have partnerships with some headset brands (headset), mouse, keyboard”, completes (from 08:53).
streamers union
In 2021, a data leak from Twitch, the Amazon platform that is the main stage for streamers around the world, went viral on social media.
According to the information made public, 135 large Brazilian streamers, mostly linked to the universe of video games, jointly earned US$ 22 million over the course of a year.
But these values do not even remotely represent the reality of most producers of live digital content. So much so that a curious movement formed in August 2021: a streamers union.
Basically, the joint contested Twitch’s subscription policy. Fans paid a full amount to the platform, which in turn passed less than a third of the total to streamers.
According to Matheus Tavares, one of the founders of the movement, the initiative failed to raise awareness in the company. For this reason, streamers had to resort to creativity to circumvent Twitch’s terms of use and boost their earnings.
“Pix saved a lot of smaller streamers, right? So, now we don’t depend entirely on the platform, we depend more on the collaborators [que, em vez de pagarem pelas assinaturas à Twitch, depositam diretamente na conta dos streamers]”, explains Tavares (from 16:52).
the podcast
The new season of “Trabalheira” will feature five episodes, always published on Thursdays, in this space.
The program is scripted and presented by this columnist in partnership with journalist Ana Aranha, from Repórter Brasil.
You can listen to this and other episodes of Trabalhoira on UOL, Youtube, Spotify, Apple Podcasts and all podcast platforms.
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