Chapter 64

CHAPTER 64

Pusshhh.

Seojun came out of the capsule.

After glancing at the clock hands pointing to 10 o’clock, he left the room to wash up.

“Finished?”

“Yeah. You?”

“Today’s my day off from streaming. Oh right. You probably can’t take a break from streaming for a while, huh?”

“Why?”

“If you want to make it into the top 16 of the Battlefield rankings, you have to play every day.”

“I can still take a day off from streaming though.”

“No, wait. You mean you’d play the game without streaming it? I mean, technically you could, but... you’re not seriously planning to spend the last day of Battlefield secretly playing alone off-stream, right? People would seriously call you insane. Even your viewers who’ve been holding back would riot.”

“That’s actually a pretty good idea. I’ll make sure to tell the viewers it was based on your suggestion.”

“What? Hey, if you do that my stream’s dead. If your viewers come rampaging into mine, my viewers will definitely join in for fun too.”

Taewoo, who had been sprawled across the living room sofa like a sloth, instantly flipped himself over.

“Hey, stuff like that is taboo among streamers. Totally taboo.”

“Maybe among streamers. But we’re friends, aren’t we?”

“Since when was I your friend?”

He had just lost his only friend.

Damn.

It wasn’t particularly sad.

“Then order something to eat.”

After saying that to Taewoo, who had now been demoted from friend to housekeeper, Seojun headed into the bathroom.

米米米

10:30.

The time for Seodongbu’s meeting that usually passed uneventfully was approaching.

Before that, Seojun checked his stream metrics as part of his routine.

Today’s peak live viewers:

[5,461 viewers]

Regular viewers:

[8,791 viewers]

Ever since the reveal of the Level 10 AI shattered the record before, the cursed wall of 10,000 had never been broken again.

Ten thousand was truly a difficult number to reach.

Regular viewers referred to viewers who met a certain standard set by Travel among those who watched Seojun’s broadcasts.

And usually, the number of live viewers tended to converge toward the number of regular viewers.

In other words, the higher the live viewer count rose above the regular viewer count, the more active the influx and exposure were.

Conversely, if the live viewer count dropped far below the regular viewer count, it meant that a meaningful number of regular viewers were leaving.

Apparently, that was considered a major crisis for streamers.

“And iTube…”

The iTube channel run by the two editors was something Seojun mostly just checked occasionally.

“Definitely.”

The collab video with Alpaca and the video linked by Movie Soft had recorded the highest view counts among Seojun’s uploads.

Combined, the two videos had reached 800,000 views.

Considering the channel wasn’t even a month old yet, it was an incredible achievement.

Watching from behind while pretending to act as an advisor, Taewoo commented,

“The power of riding someone else’s popularity is insane.”

“Yeah, it really is.”

Still, viewers who came in solely through algorithm recommendations were steadily increasing overall.

There were also many foreign viewers staying as regulars.

As a result, the subscriber count had reached:

[50,000]

“Wow, that’s fast. Really fast.”

The growth rate was steep.

“Seojun, you know this?”

“What?”

“Capsule game YouTubers are basically gods.”

“What kind of nonsense is that?”

“Hah. Once you see the payout amount, you’ll understand. It’s ridiculous.”

As long as it earned enough to pay the editors’ salaries, it was already a profit.

“Is 50,000 subscribers really that amazing?”

Currently, every category in the iTube channel analytics was plastered with zeros, so the estimated revenue couldn’t be checked.

Han Jimin had said that sometimes happened with channels that had never received a payout before.

Apparently she’d experienced it herself too.

That was why people hired experienced workers.

“Yeah. You don’t seriously think channels with the same ads and the same view counts all make the same amount of money, right?”

“Hm?”

He had never even considered it before, but after hearing Taewoo’s words, Seojun realized there must be more to it.

“So the ad rates are different.”

“Exactly. Why do you look like you just figured that out?”

He knew him too well.

“Then explain it.”

“Sure. I probably don’t know every detail either, but I can explain the most important factor affecting iTube ad rates. That factor is, first: audience demographics. Second: audience demographics. Third: audience demographics.”

“I see.”

“For example, take a golf channel mostly watched by middle-aged men. Middle-aged men generally have strong purchasing power, right?”

“Yeah.”

“Then the ad rates will be high. Even with only 200,000 views, they can make about the same revenue as someone else getting a million views.”

“Really?”

“Yep. There are even estimated rankings for the highest-earning categories.”

“There’s something like that?”

“It’s only estimates, but sixth place is health. Fifth is beauty. Fourth is real estate. Third is interior design. Second is finance and investment.”

“Oh.”

“And finally, first place is virtual reality gaming.”

“Why’s it so high?”

“What do you think the reason is?”

“Hmm…”

Those categories were probably ranked based on the purchasing power of their audiences.

Because what mattered in advertising was how much viewers actually bought.

And to know how much they bought, you had to know what was being sold.

The product being sold to viewers watching virtual reality games was games themselves.

And—

“Virtual reality games aren’t actually that expensive, right?”

“Exactly.”

“Even elementary school kids can save up allowance money to buy them. And if you go to capsule cafés, some games are free anyway.”

The capsules themselves were extremely expensive for students.

But as for the games, they could just enjoy them at capsule cafés.

“Precisely.”

“Then most of the viewers are basically all potential customers.”

“And on top of that, the viewer pool is huge. The biggest there is!”

Originally, the gaming market had mainly been enjoyed by men, but smartphones were what brought women and elderly people into it as well.

Thanks to smartphones, the gaming industry became a market with 3 billion customers worldwide—an industry three times larger than the movie industry.

But when capsules were introduced, even if their distribution rate ended up lower than smartphones, the industry’s total revenue became incomparably, overwhelmingly larger.

Because the experience was on an entirely different level from mobile games.

Except for unusual cases like Seojun, who had never really played before, it was fair to say that anyone who had experienced virtual reality even once through another device had completely migrated over to this side.

“Man. That’s why they call them gods. Of course, there are a ton of competitors too, but you already hit 50,000 subscribers.”

“Guess 50,000 was a way bigger number than I thought.”

“Yeah. Getting your first big break is always the hardest part.”

Maybe this was only the beginning.

“And your views are doing really well compared to your subscriber count right now, so I’m guessing you’ll probably make at least a thousand.”

After sending Taewoo away, Seojun started the Seodongbu meeting.

Most of the meetings were conducted through text messages.

There usually wasn’t anything important discussed either. It was mostly just for atmosphere and casual communication.

But today was different.

米老米

[Han Jimin: Two emails came in today that the boss needs to check.]

[Lee Geonyeong: As expected of the boss!]

Han Jimin had ended up becoming the manager.

Though even as a manager, most of what she did was negotiate advertisement-related matters.

After all, she had already been handling the iTube channel from the start, and Seojun didn’t really need help with live broadcasts.

As for miscellaneous tasks, Seojun usually handled those himself.

And if things really got annoying, he could just make Taewoo do them.

“No reason to refuse.”

She claimed to have experience, and in the end, the final decisions would still be Seojun’s anyway.

He wasn’t expecting too much, but if she really did turn out to have exceptional negotiation skills, he was even considering increasing her compensation accordingly.

[Jin Seojun: One moment. I’ll go check.]

[Han Jimin: Okaaay.]

Seojun opened the site, entered the ID and password for the official account he had created to share access with Han Jimin, and checked the inbox.

“Two of them?”

Considering there had never been any meaningful emails until now, it was unexpected.

“This must be it.”

Han Jimin had already sorted them into the important mailbox for easier checking.

He opened the first email, which began with “Hello, Seojun.”

[Hello, Seojun. This is Streamer Ark.]

==

This is Streamer Ark.

Back when you were raiding the Magic Tower Master, I donated once, and ever since then I’ve been a viewer who continuously watches your broadcasts.

The reason I’m sending this email is because I’d like to ask permission to feature your story in my main content series, “For the Battlefield.”

“For the Battlefield” is a content series summarizing events that happen during the Battlefield event as well as the current developments between factions, and some videos reach several million views.

The video would roughly proceed like this, so if you take a look and like it, please contact me.

I’m Streamer Ark, currently running an iTube channel with 800,000 subscribers.

(Community link)

Also, I’ve already made a community post about it and it reached the Top 10, but if you’d like me to take it down, please let me know.

二二

It reminded him of how viewers had tried to fabricate stories while throwing around “Ark confirmed this” as proof.

“If they’re offering to feature me in million-view content, there’s no reason to reject it, right?”

Still, just in case, Seojun decided to ask the opinions of the people actually managing the iTube channel.

“Oh, so that guy back then was this person.”

Streamer Ark.

He had heard the name recently while watching For the Battlefield, but only now remembered.

The person who had uploaded the Magic Tower Master strategy video.

[Han Jimin: The number of viewers we gain from that video will definitely be far greater than the viewers we lose to their side.]

[Lee Geonyeong: The third straw! Nice!]

It didn’t seem like anyone opposed it.

Then the second email became the issue.

“Do people normally ask like this?”

Seojun stared at the email with a puzzled look.

[To Streamer Seojun.]

==

MONSTER will soon be releasing an action-adventure game.

The first chapter used for advertising has a horror concept.

So we’re currently looking for streamers to advertise it on release day, and we wanted to ask whether Streamer Seojun is good at horror games.

二二

Hello.

We are the small indie game development company MONSTER.

Even if there was still plenty of time before the release date, didn’t companies normally just make their own judgment and place advertisements accordingly? Asking something like this directly felt unusual.

Seojun first asked the experienced professional about it.

And the explanation made sense.

That probably was more convenient.

[Han Jimin: The streaming market has gotten bigger, and distribution platforms are providing more advertising support these days, so there are a lot more indie game developers now.]

[Han Jimin: But most indie developers are mainly just developers, you know? They don’t really have dedicated PR or marketing teams. So they tend to ask directly about the things they need.]

That made sense.

It definitely sounded easier.

[Lee Geonyeong: So, boss, are you good at horror games?]

[Jin Seojun: I’ve almost never felt fear before.]

Back then…

Maybe when the real Heavenly Demon had looked at him and called him a friend, he’d briefly felt fear once.

And when else had he felt it?

[Jin Seojun: Yes.]

[Lee Geonyeong: LOLLLLL somehow that sounds about right.]

[Lee Geonyeong: It’s hard to imagine you getting scared and panicking.]

[Han Jimin: Honestly, boss, you have the kind of image where it feels like you’d beat up ghosts too.]

[Jin Seojun: ]

[Han Jimin: Anyway then.]

[Han Jimin: I’ll reply saying you’re good at them!]

Seojun felt like there was something he had overlooked, but he brushed it off without thinking much about it.