HARK! THE BREAD RISETH!
After a night of data-hounding, toddler juggling, and far too little sleep, I’m happy to announce that my first ever annual report on BreadTube’s financial performance is up.
You can read it over on Squinter Media’s homepage or via the direct link below.
Writing The Darn Thing
The research was the hardest part; I spent about six hours researching this piece and dodging a very active toddler. I drew the initial list of creators from the BreadTube Creator Master List. Some channels had went inactive, others retired, and some don’t collect money at all, leaving just 52 creators.
I attached a copy of the spreadsheet to the post on Squinter, if you want to drill down into the nitty-gritty details.
Of the top 7 BreadTubers, six have their donor details set to private. Donor counts are always public. I estimated a donor factor based off the channels nearest to them in terms of style and audience; these estimates are probably a little optimistic for the top 3. But even with a lower D-Factor, the top are still on-top. A relatively conservative estimate puts the estimated take-home amount at about 148K.
Because of the multiple fee structures patreon and paypal have (and, I guess, Payoneer), it is not possible to be precise. However! By pegging the patreon fees to the higher amounts and setting the paypal fee to include conversion, it’s possible to reasonably estimate the take-home of a figure with known patron donation amounts. This is probably a really good starting point, but shouldn’t be used as THE DEFINITIVE answer at trivia night.
What I Learned
My quest began, like all good quests do, by stumbling into a twitter thread and immediately taking a side, then digging for data. It’s a process that’s amazing for writing, but a terrible approach for a detective. I’m thankful to my interlocutors for their patience and for giving me the opportunity to learn, and hopefully I won’t be as hasty to make declarations next time.
While there is money in BreadTube, the money is not distributed anywhere near equally. BreadTube, for the vast majority of creators, is a really bad career choice. There’s more money to be had in silk screening bespoke boutique blankets, or urban farming.
Making infographics is hard.
Making bad MSPaint images is much easier, and really relatable.
