Why I stopped streaming on Twitch

[@ashnichrist]

if you are struggling as a streamer out there you are not alone! I still love you and want to help so pls let me know what your goals are below and how I can help you!! ps let's be friends on X: x.com/ashnichrist 2nd channel about ai: ▸ it's just ai | youtube.com/@itsjustai 3rd channel about my journey from the trailer park to financial freedom: ▸ unnamed | youtube.com/@financebrew (i'm changing the name, but not sure yet)

[@suthaa6983]

Is ur name actually Ashni? Because my name is Ashni I thought it would be fun to ask you

[@ashnichrist]

unfortunately no. it's a very pretty name though :) @@suthaa6983

[@suthaa6983]

@@ashnichrist thank you 😊

[@streamguyentertainment]

There is so much that is involved in streaming full time. People only see what is on screen. There is so much behind the scenes that keeps it all happening

[@ashnichrist]

100% I don't think I could get paid enough money tbh

[@Lord_Maldred]

Hey Ash, MepTech here. So good to see you again and glad to here you are doing great. You are right....streaming became a far cry from what it was when I started in 2016. The toxicity, demand for attention and being forced to walk on eggshells with everything we do on our socials sucked the joy out of it. I too walked away in November of 2021 and never looked back. As far as your course goes I was happy to pay it and support you. I learned a ton about the industry and the coaches were awesome. It was a small price to pay for the amount of things I learned. Take care and keep killing it.

[@ashnichrist]

dude this makes me so happy to hear. it's a bummer you and other students were burned by the industry, but Im delighted to hear you got some longterm skills and joy from it. still appreciate you so much

[@samurai_JD55]

I totally felt this. I started streaming in 2017 and just got so consumed with streaming that I just basically trashed my social life. I was always worried if I didn't go live, I'd lose followers/subs. So I'd work 12 hour shifts, hit the gym and stream literally all the time. I ended up getting to a point after a few years of streaming that it was draining me, so keeping a smile every stream and pretending to be happy all the time pushed me to drink during streams to get all gitty, laughable and what not. It became so unhealthy that I ended up with issues physically from sitting too much.... and drinking... I finally quit it all and just do youtube now. Streaming just doesn't pay enough and I make plenty of money so I have no real incentive to go back and do it again. But Ashni, I'm happy for you and wish you all the luck! I've been watching your videos forever it seems like

[@ashnichrist]

i relate to this SO MUCH it was truly awful to be so consumed by content

[@samurai_JD55]

We live and we learn 👌

[@Arkanes_Ark]

KZbin is the way to go. I think its ok to go live though and use that footage for videos.

[@Dexilic]

This is so true! So glad to hear about someone talking about some of the downsides to streaming and how much of a toll its takes on your mental health always being plugged in. 👍

[@ashnichrist]

exactlyyyyy

[@Ellelaith]

I'm very thankful to have a full time job and stream around it two days a week. It's fun, I go into my lives with no expectations. Glad to see you're doing well and enjoying what you're doing!

[@ashnichrist]

that is such a healthy way to think about it elle. love that

[@gundambassexe31]

Very understanding and meta. Twitch I honestly stopped using twitch after 2021 especially after my god eater 3 fam disbanded, social media toxic environments and many others. Ex anime fandom is very toxic and horrible work environment , always nitpicking over details skipped, attacking animators, mangaka over a chapter/ episode and I just got sick and tired of the constant bickering with them. Hence why I stopped paying attention to it and just got back to my office job and my Gaming backlog of stuff I was interested in. Sure it's lonely but at least it's quiet and less drama time bombs Everytime a pin drops 😢😢😢😢

[@ashnichrist]

totally empathize with you here!

[@gundambassexe31]

@@ashnichrist thx !

[@WaaaveKingTTTrent]

THANK you for this video Ashni. Was a full time streamer myself & you vocalized the EXACT means & ways of the lifestyle perfectly. A lifestyle that I’m STILL recovering from even AFTER no longer doing it full time. Best of luck to you & all your future endeavors! 👏🏾 Instant sub!

[@DaleLRoberts]

This is a HUGE reason why I bailed on Twitch awhile ago. It's entirely WAY too much work for the reward. I found KZbin to be a bit more my speed. So glad you shared your story. I'd wondered whatever happened, but I'm glad you pulled out before it got even worse.

[@ashnichrist]

DALEEEEE man I missed you!! Yeah thats exactly how I feel as well. Twitch just takes so much time and energy for very little benefits. The relationships are great but man. You can get so much more for the same amount of effort in other places

[@capsilam8787]

That’s great to hear, glad you found your place you really enjoy. I have always appreciated your content ❤

[@ashnichrist]

appreciate you

[@yuckyhamsandwich]

You made some excellent points about the toxic nature of the full-time streamer lifestyle and the challenges of forming genuine connections in such a growth-focused industry. I have stop streaming on Twitch because of so many of these reasons. That being said I would like to live stream on KZbin from time to time when I get the time in the future. I appreciate your thoughts. Is nice to hear from you again.

[@ashnichrist]

I'm so glad to hear I'm not alone!!!

[@thebiolithic]

This is one of the best videos I've seen in a year or years, Ashni. Thanks again! Hope you are doing well as a whole person (sounds like you are) and God bless :)

[@ashnichrist]

you are the best bio!!!!

[@TheMirandalorian]

I agree with a lot of these points! And the sad thing is... when you're deep into the streamer culture, you can act out too, and maybe not even realize it because you're entrenched in your own feedback loop, echo chamber thing. I don't regret for a minute quitting fulltime streaming and switching to edited videos! Now the sky's the limit with content, and you're not as limited like you kinda are with streaming.

[@ashnichrist]

ugh thats SUCH a good point. its really easy to get lost in that toxic culture

[@AngryVikingBiker]

I know exactly how you mean and feel ashni, I'm a Twitch streamer myself... well was... but I've not done a stream on Twitch now in months and my reason being is cause yeah Twitch has changed a whole lot and not for the better, but also there's other reasons to why I also stopped streaming other than the issues you mentioned and I'll name a few... I got tired of raiding other streamers out the good of my heart and also telling my viewers to please give them a follow as well as saying hello and also join their discords ect... but a whole lot of those same streamers wouldn't go returning the favour and I barely got raided at all, because I'm a guy who likes to help others and try help them grow and stuff, but now I realise that a lot of streamers are just self self self... that's just not me, another issue was as you mentioned was the income and payout from streaming on Twitch plus adds... now my final issue I have with Twitch to why I stopped streaming because this last issue has really put me off from wanting to even be on Twitch, and that is because how can Twitch even condone all these young girls and women who are now streaming live just sitting in an outdoor or indoor jacuzzi with their big a*s fake breasts bulging and almost popping out of their very skimpy bikinis and just sitting there doing nothing except waffling on chatting crap and still they get thousands of followers and viewers... I mean where is the talent and productivity in that?... to me that kinda thing shouldn't be allowed on Twitch, if they wanna do streams like that?... then I feel they should be taking that kinda thing to OnlyFans Live or some other adult content streaming platform, I just feel that Twitch isn't the appropriate place to be doing them kind of streams on... so yeah those are my reasons to why I've not done any streams on Twitch now for almost nearly six months ashni

[@ashnichrist]

yeah its really become a place I don't recognize anymore

[@AngryVikingBiker]

@ashnichrist it's a great shame really cause I was really enjoying streaming a few years back when I first started streaming on Twitch.

[@centerfold7678]

Dam I watched you sometime ago when I first streamed. Glad you’re doing well.

[@ashnichrist]

aw glad I was helpful for you!

[@triselda]

it is so good to see you again!! you've helped me in more ways than you know

[@ashnichrist]

im so glad to hear that

[@ZacR4k]

I'm super happy how healthy you are now, and I would love to hear more about marketing. That is something I've always thought about doing.

[@ashnichrist]

yay im so glad to hear!!!

[@TKDPandaa]

I agree with all your points. I used to watch your content all the time to grow my stream back in 2020 and they worked well! Unfortunately Twitch is hard to turn into a job, it was my part time job but through the years it fluctuates heavily and not sustainable unless you are the 1%. I would love to keep this as a Job but its slowly turning more into just a side hobby than a job for me. But love this type of content you are putting out!

[@PeaceWarrior187]

Thank you so much for this. As an affiliate streamer now of 3 years I felt every bit of your pain. 😢 Stay strong and determined Queen.

[@ashnichrist]

You got this!

[@VeiraWolfGaming]

Well your brave and inspirational, I'm just starting out as a video creator, I dont have the best equipment but it took a lot to just make videos, its weird seeing my self on the camera. I'm very passionate about video games and creativity and to be able to put that all together properly and share with the world is a dream. Going to take some time for sure ;) thank you for being you

[@Clawstorm]

You really nailed it with this one ash. Great introspective!

[@ashnichrist]

dang that makes me so happy!!! i love to reflect and learn

[@Hako_exe]

That’s my best friend!! Taking care of her mental health! Lets gooo 🎉❤

[@ashnichrist]

thats right!!!

[@CandiWare]

Love you ash happy to see you and see your points of the streaming world. I agree with a lot of what you have to say. Looking forward to see more have a wonderful day missy

[@ashnichrist]

I MISS YOU CANDI BB

[@CandiWare]

@@ashnichrist miss you too ash love ya soo much bb 💗 💓 💖

[@davidvkimball]

Thank you for sharing! It's great to hear from you again.

[@ashnichrist]

great to be back :)

[@quietassasin3596]

this was definitely helpful becuase i was afraid of streaming again but, I didn't want to be stagnant with low numbers. trying to figure out what more I can do as a content creator.

[@ashnichrist]

same over here tbh!!

[@quietassasin3596]

@@ashnichrist i might just keep my setup as it is and work around that instead of just buying upgrades every time. right now, I'm going to be looking for a way to get better.

[@NutterTTV]

I have never seen you live. But i have seen your KZbin content, and i agree with you totally. Its so hard for genuine nice people to flick the switch to do the really messed up stuff to pop off these days as attention is everything and to keep relavevent these days you need to push what works in the live streaming space and that is drama, news, insane content, wild content. Things that people just cannot shy away from clicking on. And, of course, voicing their option on the subject. Engagement and attention rules. I stopped streaming so much purely with the idea of a business that pays more money the more and harder i work. I think streaming isn't a very good use of a persons time. It's fun. It's full of memories, but when you're 40 and you haven't earned a house, you haven't invested in health and adventure and are missing out on a lot of family experiences and missing out. 0.05 streamers will every have their cake and eat it. That's very crappy odds.

[@ashnichrist]

EXACTLY this. man.. that gives me a really good idea for a video

[@davburrows]

Love this! Shared with my livestream class. Giving them the real truth from a pro. Thx ASHNI!

[@Popsori]

Thanks for being so transparent! Like yourself, I know several Twitch streamers doing the grind and most are quite depressed. The glamor that people see about streaming doesn't tell the truth about how little it pays for the amount of time put in. You're right that streaming and by extension, KZbin ads (AdSense) don't make much money. The real money is consulting, contracting for other companies, and creating your own digital products, like your ebook. Glad to see you're doing much better these days!

[@ashnichrist]

i appreciate you so much, thank you. and completely agree with these points

[@Metaldad87]

This was all very interesting and eye opening to hear. I had an experience with my own stream, under the same username as here, that I got really into it. I mean REALLY into it. I was inspired by the community of a pro wrestler who is an amazing person and also a few different people who were guitarists like myself. What ended up happening though is I got so invested because it was basically my way of socializing and interacting with people, both the streamer themselves and the chat. I have a wife and 3 sons but I dont go out too much, I like to stay home except for certain things that I need to leave for like work, groceries, etc. Anyway what happened was I got so invested in growing my own stream that all my time was spent either streaming, making offline content from the streams, or being in other peoples chats hoping that some of the views would translate to my own channel because I was in chat all the time having fun and interacting with people, making them laugh, etc. Well the problem is that made my wife feel justifiably neglected as did my boys (she had felt this way before because when I get into something with my ADHD I get really into it and fixate on it) and I actually went through a separation with her for about 3 months where I stayed with my grandparents in their basement because she had enough. Now fast forward to towards the end of that separation. We talked things out and I did my best and still am to improve myself and my relationships with all 4 of these people that are everything to me. She agreed to try again and have me move back in to our house as long as I promised to keep doing better and being this better version of myself. Now I am on a much better footing with my family and I feel better too. I got asked to join a band that my late guitar teacher was in (thats a long story for another time), played my first show ever (this is the first band ive ever played in), and overall things are better. I do stream on weekends now, just friday and saturday playing games, but just for fun. I dont really mess with making shorts and all that stuff. I used to stream 5 days a week, 3 days playing guitar and 2 days gaming. EDIT: Forgot to mention I still watch streams while im practicing guitar, just ones I was enjoying the most and enjoyed the community the most, so its a select group.

[@ashnichrist]

wow had you such a journey!!

[@ellenhendricks4606]

Love that you've articulated these points. In a sense, youtube is a digital product that you create once and generates passive income... so youve actually nailed it 😅💜

[@Extinguisher10]

So many of these are reasons why I this will never be my job, and why I do what I want regardless of if it's beneficial to my numbers. Sure it's stunted the channel growth, but after all these years it's still fun.

[@ashnichrist]

thats great!!

[@IAmMightyMike]

Really needed to hear this.

[@ashnichrist]

im so glad to hear that

[@12hu5u6]

i've been struggling with this... thanks for this insight and video

[@ashnichrist]

im so glad to be helpful

[@RobertRodriguezMusic]

This is such a great video- even for other creatives outside of streaming! Thank you 😊

[@cpt.redhood]

Post and ghost seems to be the way to go.

[@ashnichrist]

lol tbh

[@Gonzalo_Almendra]

He missed your videos on his KZbin channel a lot, is everything okay? I have a great friend who also streamed on Twitch but he had to stop because his mental health was not good and also because of the short time due to work!

[@ashnichrist]

hey!! yeah im doing much better :)

[@CreateNowSleepLater]

I think the best use case for streaming is brand exposure. The various platforms all offering streaming have just dilluted the pool. I'm not saying it's impossible but the odds of becoming a full time streamer and supporting yourself are extremely rare. Its also doesn't help that Twitch and Kick have embraced the egirl content which they just use as a platform to get people on their OF. All it takes is one half naked girl to tank the art category that day. I think streaming is still good but likely better when you have an audience because of some other reason (product, services, established entertainment). Views dont equal subs and its REALLY hard to convert lurkers to active chatters, then convert them to subs. I see streamers begging to hit sub goals. Its not going to work, people have too many options now.

[@ashnichrist]

yeah I definitely think content creation is too saturated now

[@CG-nr3nd]

Every other streamer Ive met were prideful of their views and numbers if you do not exceed their "numbers" you are treated like shit by other streamers. Usually there is no trust, only dog eat dog as another content creator. Unfortunately. It's sad how prideful and entitled you can get and you see your worth by "numbers" it is toxic and it got to the point where I had to drink just to stream. I dont even like drinking. I get more money working IRL. Also when you do start losing views it's a chain reaction and it's like people love seeing that shit.

[@ashnichrist]

all of this! sorry you had that experience :(

[@gen-amb]

People who generally in their own lives have habits of behaving badly, have decided that behaving badly is good; provided they feel like they’ve succeeded in making themselves feel anonymous with that killer edgy handle, and justifying it with something like “it’s not like I killed anybody.” If you want to find these weird little “troll” abusers, even flocks of them, who will type in their crude vile little cryptic epithets, obscenities, insults and curses because you asked them politely in advance not to, but they just love the challenge of being an online bully SO MUCH, then live streaming will bring those self-selecting people right to you in unlimited numbers.

[@ashnichrist]

i feel like this is very true

[@Dubie3165]

Great video. Never watched your twitch streams when i found you whjch sucks but love everything you done. Ashni to YT Gaming maybe one day😊

[@ashnichrist]

ooooh thats a fun idea

[@Erribell]

You said you are making 10 times the amount of money that you made as a streamer but you had a video where you said you made 10k per month as a streamer, are you making 10x10k so 100 thousand dollars a month?

[@OzMills]

I can't find the link to the other two channels - Where should I be looking?

[@ashnichrist]

adding them now :)

[@OzMills]

I don't see them. Is KZbin stripping them out? @@ashnichrist

[@giisaipty]

sreaming is worse than a FULL-TIME JOB NO CAP F THAT NOISE 0.05C IT TOOK 4 YRS TO MAKE 5c fuck all that noise streaming is for ppl that want a worse fulltime job than their shitty ft job

[@SingledRS]

Watched the first one minute and can tell you have good morals! Not being fake for popularity.

[@ashnichrist]

man this means so much to me

[@SingledRS]

@@ashnichrist I really wanted to become big in the twitch community once I hit affiliate but I really noticed that the community with the twitch community on the game i streamed were very clicky, it was all about big streamers sticking with other big streamers, no appreciation for the smaller ones and it really made me feel insignificant. It was toxic for sure. After watching your video everything you mention adds up to me now and makes sense why the big streamers were the way they are, for personal gain. I've gone a month without streaming which is the longest for me but it's mentally exhausting with how people can make you feel. Was nice to relate to a video such as this so thanks for posting it!

[@redesignedlife777]

Why would u want to run 3 channels? You’re diluting your time and energy on 3 spot’s versus building up 1 big channel. Makes no sense

[@ashnichrist]

good q! growth is a secondary priority for me. i love making videos, but the vids I want to make don't all fit on this channel. having 3 channels also prevents me from getting too attached to the outcomes of 1 channel.

[@145286488222236389]

You are so cool

[@ashnichrist]

love u

[@StuffedBurritoEnt]

You are missed, I won't lie. However, I know you have so much knowledge, will and many opportunities, that, in all honesty, Twitch seems too small for you at this point. I would love to see you come back for special occasions, but it'll be even sweeter knowing you most likely achieved something great prior to hitting to GO LIVE button. Make those moves, Ash. Good luck and much love to ya.

[@ashnichrist]

honestly this was something I should have put in the video, very perceptive of you!! i do really feel like twitch is too small for me. i'm ver ambitious and have a lot of skill, felt like a shame to not use it to progress humanity vs just playing video games all day. theres nothing wrong with people who do that ofc, i just want more you know?

[@Judionine]

Preach sis, I started off on Twitch and noticed that streaming just isn't really fun imo. Like I don't mind streaming rarely, but interacting with Twitter and making more engaging KZbin videos just feels better and less life consuming.

[@ashnichrist]

exactly how I feel!

[@suthaa6983]

My name is Ashni is yours too or is that ur channel name??

[@SkipCutscene]

This comment might not related but I wanna say this lipstick it suits you very well. 😘👍

[@ashnichrist]

omg I love you for this hahaha

[@ImakeTanks]

My mom thinks the same thing so she switched to onlyfans

[@Arkanes_Ark]

Many Gamers are elitist. Trust me, I once was very toxic and held a high horse. In the end I learned that the community helped shape me into someone that I was not. I really suggest ppl make KZbin videos over just going live all the time. Go live but also make videos on the side with that live footage.

[@zg3342]

Changing you behavior to be more likable is something you’d have to do in any office job or non manual labor job too. Your skills don’t get you promotions in an office your social status there does. You don’t seem to like competitive jobs in general? You also weren’t doing anything new? You were selling a 500 dollar program while you had 250 viewers max? You sound like a grifter.

[@giisaipty]

Im an twitch Affiliate I fucking h8 straming bae Sure u can stream all day, but duck that ducking BS but i can also get a job and leave after 8hrs

[@her_ardillo]

ba3

[@r3mpuh]

[@ashnichrist]

lovee you