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The story
On 5ch’s game-commentary board, a thread about how one YouTube streamer earns a living got people talking. He streams live about 10 times a month, pulls in around 500 concurrent viewers, and has roughly 50,000 subscribers — with neither channel memberships nor Super Chats standing out as major income sources. Opinions split over whether this scale represents “a pretty sweet deal” or “a rarefied tier that’s genuinely hard to reach,” and the discussion grew into a broader debate comparing specific monthly income figures against the effort and pay of a typical salaryman job.
What people said
Subscribers: around 50,000.
No memberships, and Super Chats aren't really flying in either.
What's his concurrent viewer count like?
One of those "Null" types?
I heard it firsthand.
When I work a normal job I make about 80,000 yen a day, so streaming seems like the tougher gig to me.
Half of people who try it can't even escape "1 concurrent viewer" (which is just themselves watching on a phone or alt account to check their own comments).
That alone makes you part of the cream of the crop.
Of course he's making money.
That's about the level of the less popular Nijisanji members (a major VTuber agency).
No, that's actually the bottom tier.
Thinking 500 viewers is impressive is just an average person's perspective.
Like I keep saying, on YouTube, average people don't even factor in from the start — they're basically a rounding error, not even worth counting.
Success on YouTube was only ever possible for people above average to begin with.
Seen from inside that above-average group, 500 viewers is the bare minimum line for "success."
It's not the top tier — 500 viewers is the bottom of the group that actually "counts" as successful on YouTube.
Anyone with the natural talent to succeed automatically ends up around 500 viewers.
People streaming to like 30 viewers aren't even really doing YouTube — they never had what it takes and don't even register as a "1" to begin with.
That "VTuber worthiness line" in your head isn't some universal standard, you know.
Nobody else here is using your criteria, so acting like it's just common sense is kind of a problem…
Uh, I've already hit several hundred concurrent viewers myself, though?
And yet you're just going off something you heard from someone else? That's rich.
If you want to back it up, post at least one screenshot proving you're actually earning from streaming.
Yeah, exactly.
Which is why success is basically guaranteed 🤭
In Re: #25 you're talking in terms of general/average standards, but now you're the one saying not to bring up the top few percent.
Anyone who's jealous of OP should realize they're seriously at the bottom of the barrel.
Can you actually make 350,000 yen working just 10 days a month?
I make about 800,000 yen working 20 days a month, so I wouldn't know about that.
Okay, that's enough — you're just making yourself look pathetic at this point.
Wait, are you counting "days a video got uploaded" as the same as "days worked"?
So planning, filming, and editing don't count as work?
For a normal content creator, all of that counts too, you know? It's not like being a salaryman where you just do the job that's handed to you.
I'm a salaryman and I monetize my channel too — I do it all by myself, no problem.
I even throw together the thumbnails on the side, casually.
This is normal these days, and people around me make even more.
Come on, you just want people to say "wow, impressive even though it's just a hobby," right? Don't sweat it.
It'll never even get close to monetization anyway, so I think it's fine lol
Nah, it's a cappella.
Actually, I'm such a good singer that even a cappella, I can nail the exact feel of the original track sung live — so if anything, I was planning to lean into a cappella.
Background and Key Points of Debate
The actual figures for YouTube ad revenue and Super Chats aren’t public information, so any monthly income numbers thrown around in the thread are ultimately just self-reported claims. The debate split largely into two camps. One was over what tier “500 concurrent viewers, 50,000 subscribers” actually represents for a streamer — some argued it’s the bare minimum for success, while others insisted it’s a number only the upper tier ever reaches. The other was over how to value streaming as work itself, with opinions divided on whether streaming 10 times a month counts as “an easy job” or as labor that includes all the planning, filming, and editing involved. What readers should be careful not to misread is that this kind of “500 viewers = X yen in income” conversion varies wildly by genre, CPM, and region — the figures in the thread should be read simply as one person’s personal anecdote.
*This article is excerpted and summarized from the 5ch (Nandemo Jikkyo G) thread “[Sad News] YouTube game commentator makes an insane amount of money“.
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