CallMeCarson Case Study
CallmeCarson, real name Carson King, is a 22 year old Twitch streamer and YouTube content creator who plays a variety of games on his channels. As opposed to YouTube, where content creators record themselves and post videos to their channel, Twitch streamers record and stream themselves live to audiences, sometimes for hours at a time. On YouTube, creators generate revenue through ad time, getting a check that scales with how many of their viewers watched an ad before, during, or after their video. On Twitch, revenue comes from direct donations from audiences, as well as optional paid subscriptions/channel memberships for privileges in viewers’ chat, as well as sometimes streams only accessible by members. Carson uses a common combination of both, seen in many streamers, in which he streams on Twitch, then cuts streams into compilations of funny clips and uploads it to YouTube, in order to generate income from both sources. He also has a Patreon account, a third party company that lets him have more memberships, similar to how memberships on Twitch work.
Carson began creating YouTube videos in 2012, when he was twelve years old. Later in 2012, he switched to primarily Minecraft gaming content under the name CallMeCarson after his initial content was unsuccessful. He began streaming in November 2014 on Twitch. In 2018, he began doing Twitch and YouTube full time, and his popularity exploded. He has around five and a half thousand subscribers on twitch, which would make his income from that alone to be 18 thousand dollars a month from memberships alone. This does not include income from merchandise sales, direct donations or tips during streams, sponsorships, or advertisements. His main YouTube channel has 2.89 million subscribers as of March 2022. At the height of his popularity (before his 2021 scandal) his videos usually had several millions of views each. A million views on a YouTube video can create tens of thousands of dollars in ad revenue each. Going off of the average of 18 cents per view, a video with 5 million views (not an uncommon number for Carson) can pull in around 90 thousand dollars (feel free to correct my math on that). Again, these numbers do not include merchandising or sponsorships. His current videos not pull only around 300–550 thousand views each, which is still substantial, but a fraction of his past popularity.
Carson’s content, like stated before, is the common model of streaming on Twitch and then posting a cut up version of the stream to YouTube. The games he plays varies, following a “game of the month” format, in which he plays whatever game is popular online at the time. Streamers are usually forced to do this, as interest in a single game will die out over the weeks, and therefore views and revenue will too. Carson’s most popular and successful content to date has been his Minecraft content, however, as Minecraft seems to have a popularity resurgence every few years. Carson also hosted a podcast with his friends called the Lunch Club, which enjoyed success until its end in 2021.
What Carson is probably most famous for now however, is not his content, but a scandal that took place in early 2021, in which it came out that he admitted to sending nudes to a minor. Fellow Lunch Club podcast members Hugbox and Traves revealed that he “admitted to them he had exchanged nude photos with underage fans.” Screenshots of the conversations over Discord were posted by Twitter user Miniborb, who outlined the details of what had happened. Miniborb has since deactivated their account. Other streamers that collaborated with Carson such as Slimecicle, CScoop, jschlatt, and Ted Nivison subsequently denounced Carson’s actions and cut ties with him.
Online discussions about the scandal have been divisive, with some arguing that a 2 to 3 year age gap between Carson and Miniborb meant that Carson should not be canceled for his actions. Others argue that he used his power and influence as a popular YouTuber to abuse a power dynamic to exploit the minors that he messaged.
Almost immediately after the controversy began, Carson stopped streaming and posting to his YouTube channel, as well as deactivated his Twitter account. After a 9 month break, he returned to streaming on Twitch on September 1st, 2022, and after a few weeks, began to post on YouTube again as well. He made a promise that all revenue from his streams for the next year would go to charity. His viewer counts are around a tenth of what they once were, so revenue for him is greatly decreased. Public opinion of him now seems to be tentatively positive, as in streams he currently seems to be genuinely apologetic, and has done everything he can to learn from his actions and try to atone. One user on YouTube commented on his “Where I’ve Been” video: “im still suspicious, but im willing to give carson a shot to prove he’s been better. I sincerely hope he’s doing well.” However, some users still do not support Carson. A Twitter user stated: “Anyway if you chose to support Call Me Carson please feel free to block me. He failed as a person and a content creator and I am not glad to see him back. Donate to the charity Games For Love in your own name, don’t let him pat himself on the back with a publicity stunt.”
There are some lessons that can be learned from the events of the last year. People online tend to villainize people that make mistakes. I believe in second chances, and that people have the capacity for growth. I think Carson did exactly what he should have done: Remove himself from the public space on a break, take some time to work on bettering himself, and really try to understand what he did wrong and how not to repeat it. Carson stated when announcing his promise to donate his earnings to charity was not “an excuse to sweep things under the rug. I’m doing this because I want to turn a negative situation with a lot of eyes on it into something positive that will help a lot of people.”
