

Husky Starcraft: From Burgerville to 500K YouTube Subscribers in 2 Years - joshmattvander
http://www.startupsopensourced.com/2011/06/07/husky-starcraft-from-burgerville-to-500k-youtube-subscribers-in-2-years/

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MatthewB
I really like stories like this. I was a pretty decent Starcraft player myself
and I started watching his videos last year. He does a great job of announcing
the matches and just watching the videos makes you a better player. Congrats
to him.

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tejaswiy
It's also interesting that Starcraft players themselves don't make anything
close to this. new-age movie studios if you will. Not that there's anything
wrong with that. These guys actually love what they do, and spend a lot of
time doing it.

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light3
The top players make quite decent salaries, over 200k USD/yr:

<http://www.teamliquid.net/blogs/viewblog.php?topic_id=142342>

Although you literally have to be in the top 2.

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w1ntermute
Don't forget to check out their parody of Bieber's "Baby", entitled
"Banelings": <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fzMhh8zhTiY>

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protomyth
They also put it on iTunes. I wonder how many they sold?

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staunch
200 million views is somewhere around $400k - $600k ($2 - $3 CPM).

It's crazy how many people are earning a good living off YouTube. Not a lot in
absolute numbers, but when you compare it to the number of TV show hosts on
cable/broadcast TV it's quite impressive.

The dream of independent niche content producers finding an audience and
making good money is actually happening.

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thadeus_venture
So you are estimating 100% click through rate on those pre video commercials?
They are not even shown every time.

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mlinsey
staunch's estimates were using CPM, not CPC, so click throughs are irrelevant
(CPM - cost per 1,000 impressions displayed).

That said, $2-3 CPM sounds high to me. But I don't know anything about the
YouTube ad market.

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ryanjmo
I know about the YouTube ad market and $2-$3 is reasonable, especially for
gamers who get higher CPM thanks to very targeted advertising.

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thadeus_venture
Ah yea, missed the CPM part there. That's a ridiculous amount of money then.
Husky and HD have 10+ videos a week with 150-200K views.

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Tyrant505
Any HN Starcraft2 players looking to do some playing?

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makeramen
Forget the downvotes. SC2 is actually a great way to meet and befriend people
remotely, especially if you're on skype. Conversations quickly move to other
common interests, which should be pretty easy among hn folks.

How about hn peeps meet in channel HackerNews?

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davidhollander
> _How about hn peeps meet in channel HackerNews?_

I'm taking a coding break and will be on for the next hour. HNers are free to
add me on BNET using the email in my profile.

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Tyrant505
This is why I love Starcraft2(prev war2 even only couple years ago) because
you can play the quick game as a mental break but not break(even boost)
adrenaline! Just saw this reply so I missed playing with you man but another
time! Was watching MLG matches of recent. gg

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henryprecheur
Husky & HD (another StarCraft caster) both have a healthy revenue stream from
their Youtube Channel. There are at least 12 other casters/players in North
America/Europe making a living casting StarCraft II games.

Husky wasn't the first to cast. Guys like Day9, Artosis, & Tasteless cast too,
and are quite popular. But HD & Husky were the first to focus mostly on
"Virtual" tournaments. The other successful casters focused more on "Real
life" tournaments. Artosis & Tasteless even went to Korea for a year to
comment StarCraft II games on GomTV. Day9 regularly travel to big tournaments.

And yet, none of them make as much money as Husky & HD (supposedly, I don't
have hard numbers.)

It shows the power of the web. The old medias are here to stay, but most of
the creativity & growth today comes from the web.

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jergason
Husky and HD appeal to the more casual audience. Their casts are more for
entertainment, and they don't do too much in-depth analysis. Artosis, Day9 and
Tasteless among others are pretty friendly for the average viewer, but they
are definitely more knowledgeable and insightful.

Just a slight correction. Artosis and Tasteless are actually still living in
Korea and casting fulltime.

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JeremyBanks
_Just a slight correction. Artosis and Tasteless are actually still living in
Korea and casting fulltime._

Aye; this past weekend at MLG they even identified themselves as "from South
Korea", not America. They'be been there for a few years and haven't announced
any plans to move.

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MikeCapone
Anyone wanting to see their stuff can go to <http://www.gomtv.net/>

You'll need to pay 10$ to watch all matches from a 'season', but many are
free.

