In 2018, Megan was making $400/month posting YouTube videos of herself gaming.
Today, she takes in millions of dollars a year, has 3.6 million subscribers, & launched a game studio that will bring in $8 million this year.
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Megan started out by posting YouTube videos of herself playing The Sims.
She made about $400/month.
Then, she switched to Roblox and everything clicked. She says: “I immediately saw a turnaround. I could actually pay my bills.”
Megan is a triple threat:
She's part entertainer: she's high-energy and charismatic and uses bright colors (including her signature pink & purple hair) to engage viewers.
She's part gamer, livestreaming her gameplay.
And she's part developer, creating games for Roblox.
After switching to Roblox, Megan started earning thousands of dollars a month.
She started to build an engaged audience, mostly made up of preteen and teen girls.
From September 2018 to September 2019, Megan grew from 240K subs to 1M subs.
Megan's success speaks to how big Roblox has become:
Roblox daily active users jumped 85% in 2020 and two-thirds of US kids 9 to 12 play Roblox.
Roblox went public this year and has a ~$40 billion market cap.
Roblox is an example of the burgeoning creator economy:
• Roblox paid out ~$300M to creators in 2020
• More than 1,250 earned $10,000 or more
• More than 300 made $100,000 or more
Many of these Roblox creators are teenagers.
Megan & her husband launched a game studio that's on track to bring in $8 million this year. They have 8 employees.
Their first game, Overlook Bay, has had 160 million visits on Roblox.
Oh yeah—they also have an online store, Stay Peachy, which grossed over $1 million in 2020.
Megan is building a multi-pronged, diversified approach to life as a creator:
YouTube ad revenue
+ Roblox game development
+ merchandise
+ brand promotion deals
+ multiple new channels
Megan says:
“I think it is massively important for YouTube creators to step out of the box and try to diversify while they can. If you think it’s too early to sell merchandise, it’s not! You never want to blink and feel like you’ve missed your opportunity."
@MeganPlays has built an empire in 3 years. She's defining a new form of work—one that she says anyone can do:
“There’s nothing I’ve done that anybody else can’t do. It’s about learning—learning the code, learning how the game works, & creating. All you have to do is start.”
The most important trend of our generation is the disaggregation of work.
In 2027, America will become a majority freelance economy for the first time.
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Young people today are skeptical of "traditional" career paths. Many watched their parents lose jobs during the 2008 financial crisis. Many lost their own jobs during the pandemic.
This skepticism is breeding a distrust of institutions and a backlash to centralized authority.
Millennials & Gen Zs don't want to "rent" time to a corporation or work within "the system".
They'd rather use their own hustle and savvy to dictate their own fortunes.
Every Wednesday, I send out a piece of writing. Topics include: creators, internet culture, digital economies, Web3, & social media
You can subscribe here. Below are 10 of my favorite recent Digital Native pieces 👇 digitalnative.substack.com
📹 What People Misunderstand About The Creator Economy 📹
5 reasons it's important:
• It's about self-expression
• It's horizontal, not vertical
• It enables diverse voices
• It lets workers reclaim agency
• It breaks down outdated power structures digitalnative.substack.com/p/what-people-…
🏛️ The Memeification of American Capitalism 🏛️
There are common threads between r/WallStreetBets and NFT mania. Both are emblematic of a growing backlash to institutions.
This is Miko. She's a virtual streamer who is controlled by a real-life woman known only as The Technician.
The Technician uses the Unreal Engine and a $30,000 motion-capture suit to create Miko.
Thread 👇
The Technician's story starts like that of many other creators:
At the beginning of the pandemic, The Technician was laid off from the animation studio she worked at, just weeks after moving to Los Angeles.
She found herself unemployed and stuck with a $2,000-a-month lease.
In her words: “I thought, you know what would be the good thing to do right now isn’t to try to look for work. Let me put down $20K and try to make it on Twitch.”
The early days were slow-going. She made $300 a month and was thousands of dollars in debt from expensive equipment.
OnlyFans 2020 numbers:
• Revenue grew +553% to $391 million
• Users grew 5x from 20 million to 120 million
• Over 300 creators made more than $1 million
OnlyFans' success is a fascinating combination of business model innovation & the desire for online belonging.
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OnlyFans' business model lets creators stitch together subscriptions, tipping, & microtransactions.
Creators can send out locked DMs that look like personal messages, but are sent en masse to thousands of subscribers. One message can earn a creator thousands of dollars.
Locked DMs are a way for creators to earn income at scale and for subscribers to feel personally connected to the creator.
@lucymort_ calls this “the commodification of intimacy.” Online relationships with OnlyFans creators can become replacements for real-life intimacy.