A revolution is happening in the streaming world, with several big names speaking out and asking for regulations on what fans can donate. With continued concerns about a rise in violence against streamers, a major conversation is happening.
There was a recent tragedy when Korean streamer Yoon Ji-ah was murdered by an 'obsessed' fan who was accused of donating $70,000 to her in hopes of profiting from her success. Elsewhere, the public murder of Charlie Kirk led to the US House Oversight Committee summoning the CEO's of Discord, Steam, Twitch, and Reddit to a congressional hearing to "prevent future radicalization and violence."
The likes of YouTube are known for paying creators small fortunes, while Jimmy "MrBeast" Donaldson has finally confirmed the rumors that he's a billionaire. It's baffling to some that everyone from Kai Cenat to Kaitlyn "Amourtanth" Siragusa have made lucrative careers from streaming, but when it comes to Charles "MoistCr1TiKaL" White Jr, he's taking a stand.
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MoistCr1TiKaL announced he was disabling monetization on all his YouTube channels, imploring his fans to donate to charity instead of him.
He also raised the minimum Bit donation on Twitch to a ludicrous sum in hopes of discouraging people from donating to it.
It's not that easy, and at the time, White Jr explained: "Once you opt into the Partner program or whatever, you can’t turn off bits or subs.
“For subs, I can’t get rid of that. If I could, I would. I would say toodle-oo, give it a strong slap on the ass, tell it good game and goodbye. But from what I can tell, there are a lot of hoops to jump through in order to accomplish that."
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MoistCr1TiKaL has been praised for his seemingly noble actions, and for those who think he might be bluffing about how there's a potential pandemic of streamers earning millions while giving little back, he's revealed what he earned before disabling his YouTube monetization.
As noted by Dexerto, White Jr claims he made nearly $40 million through YouTube. Although he first started his YouTube channel way back in 2007, he admits he properly started streaming on Twitch around 2017.
Looking just at Twitch, he said he made $55,500 from 2017 to 2019, with around 14,000 subscriptions: "It was just a bit of goofing around, having some fun."
When his streaming became more of a full-time affair, his earnings soared. MoistCr1TiKaL increased his streaming between 2019 to 2021, and despite not having a Twitch contract, he earned $1,285,782.
After acquiring a lucrative contract, he nabbed an impressive $4,158,749 from the start of 2021 to the end of 2024. We're also reminded that this doesn't include sponsors or brand deals.
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Championing his defiance, MoistCr1TiKaL continued: "Compare that to a normal person actually working their ass off every single day in a 9-5, grinding in hopes of chasing the American dream, and they come home, maybe turn on my stream and donate a couple dollars to me.
"It doesn’t sit right with me, taking that kind of money, given what I’ve made from all of this. I really should have stopped this a long time ago, especially considering this is just the Twitch side of things."
White Jr went on to flash his monumental YouTube ad earnings, totalling $34.7 million. He also earned $560k from memberships, $508k from Super chats, and $2,500 from Shorts. Realizing his privileged situation, the streamer concluded: "I never imagined that amount of money was possible to earn without being born rich. I have said since say one, I got incredibly lucky. I’m not special. I got lucky."
With combined earnings of $41.3 million from YouTube and Twitch, we don't think MoistCr1TiKaL will be going hungry anytime soon.