I know YouTubers who couldn't live without Patreon. It's their only source of income. To make a living from YT you have to have a pretty huge number of viewers.
Fortunately, their viewers are hard-core fans and ~0.5% - 1.0% of their subscribers donate to them. Seems little, but it's actually a lot (consider that you have to view 1000 videos to "give" a Youtuber $1 via ads).
As a comparison: A certain Youtuber with 1.8M subscribers makes about as much from ads as another with 300K subscribers from Patreon.
Fortunately, their viewers are hard-core fans and ~0.5% - 1.0% of their subscribers donate to them. Seems little, but it's actually a lot (consider that you have to view 1000 videos to "give" a Youtuber $1 via ads).
As a comparison: A certain Youtuber with 1.8M subscribers makes about as much from ads as another with 300K subscribers from Patreon.