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Education First Person Shooters (Games) Games Idle

14-Year-Old Earned $200,000 Playing Fortnite on YouTube (dailyherald.com) 171

Posted by EditorDavid from the nice-work-if-you-can-get-it dept.
An anonymous reader quotes the Washington Post: Griffin Spikoski spends as much as 18 hours a day glued to his computer screen playing the wildly popular, multiplayer video game "Fortnite." His YouTube channel -- where he regularly uploads videos of himself playing the online game -- has nearly 1.2 million subscribers and more than 71 million views; figures that have netted him advertisers, sponsorships and a steady stream of income. Last year, that income totaled nearly $200,000... "It's kind of like my job," Griffin told ABC affiliate WABC-TV, noting he plays about eight hours a day in his Long Island home...

His big break came last year when Spikoski beat a well-known Fortnite player and uploaded a video of the battle to YouTube, quickly resulting in 7.5 million views, according to WABC-TV. It didn't take long, the station reported, for the teenager to make his first $100 from Twitch. Not long after, his father, Chris said, everything changed. "Two months went by and we were like, 'Alright, we're going to need to get an accountant and get a financial adviser,'" he said.

Spikoski's parents told filmmakers that they decided to remove their son from high school as his dedication to gaming deepened... Spikoski's parents said their son had been pushing them to allow him to pursue online schooling. With his success growing, they eventually relented. "It's been his dream to be a gamer, to be in e-sports, just to be in this field since he was a kid," Spikoski said, noting that his son began playing video games at age three. "We don't really see that you need a 9-to-5 job to get by in life and you can actually have fun with a career and enjoy your love and do what you love and make a living out of it," he added.
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14-Year-Old Earned $200,000 Playing Fortnite on YouTube More

14-Year-Old Earned $200,000 Playing Fortnite on YouTube

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  • That's awesome the kid is making some good money this year.
    It sounds like his parents may be foolishly thinking it's going to last forever.

    My bachelor's and master's degrees, in a field I really enjoy, will cost me a total of about $19,000 and form the foundation of a very solid income for life. This kid can easily afford to set himself up in a solid career that he'll enjoy. If his parents aren't stupid and think a video game is going to be his permanent job forever.

    • Re:That'll pay for a master's degree or whatever (Score:4, Insightful)

      by jjshoe ( 410772 ) on Saturday April 06, 2019 @11:01PM (#58396916) Homepage

      If he can get $500,000 in earnings invested conservatively and not touch it for ten years, he would then have roughly $40,000 per year in income without drawing down.

      His parents made the right move, if they don't spend a ton of his income just trying to manage it.

      • > If he can get $500,000 in earnings invested conservatively and not touch it for ten years

        After taxes. That's a very big if. He's hot this year. Great. We'll see about next year. Also you need to account for inflation - you need about a million bucks to be financially independent, living comfortably off the earnings. A LOT of people slowly save up a million - it's simple and most anyone in tech can do it, it's not at all easy.

        Investing is a VERY good idea. Very, very good. And one of the very best in

      • Re: (Score:1)

        by Anonymous Coward

        People who get sudden windfalls of money tend to not be good at managing it. Most end up in massive debt. This kid will have no cares in his world until that one social mistake happens and suddenly everyone stops watching him. Then with zero income, suddenly these types of people can no longer pay all the loans they took out to buy fancy stuff and they're screwed. It's up to the parents on how their long term finances turn out. If they're strict, there's a chance he'll turn out ok. Since they hired so

    • My bachelor's and master's degrees, in a field I really enjoy, will cost me a total of about $19,000

      Yes but how much would that cost now?

      Anywhere a bachelor and masters degree of any value is going to cost way over 200k.

      Meanwhile this kid can easily keep making 200k a year (or more) as his skill grows. Maybe that doesn't last forever, maybe that only lasts five years... about how long a bachelors + masters might take.

      Only that theoretical guy spending five years on school comes out $200-300k in the whole,

      • Re: Wake up man (Score:5, Insightful)

        by LordKronos ( 470910 ) on Saturday April 06, 2019 @11:13PM (#58396936)

        There's no way he's ending up with a million. His financial advisors are going to milk the crap out of that. The kid has a 9th grade education. He's not going to know better. There would be hope that the parents would be able to keep tabs on that, but come on...they're letting him drop out in 9th grade. There no chance anyone in this family is going to be able to protect his interests against the sharks

      • As his skill grows??? His reflexes will succumb eventually. There isn't a lot of special skill involved. When he's 24 he will have the skills and the knowledge to press pants in a laundry.

        • Success in that field doesn't require superhuman gaming ability. It requires pretty good gaming ability, combined with the career management skills to profit from it. Even if he has to shift eventually to a less twitchy game, he'll still have the contacts and brand recognition to make money off it.

        • As others mentioned, it's possible to have great reflexes even as you age - especially so if you exercise them.

          But even with that aside you are utterly ignoring the strategic knowledge that comes from a long time playing a game. You are ignoring the innate understanding of strength and stats of weapons, of tactics for building that are effective (and mandatory) in a high level fort nite battle.

          I personally suck at Fortnite but I can see that with a lot of time put into it a person could become amazingly go

      • Anywhere a bachelor and masters degree of any value is going to cost way over 200k.

        Just because the US education system is broken (specifically the financial side of it), don't assume that's the case elsewhere in the world.

      • $19K. A top 5 engineering school (Score:5, Insightful)

        by raymorris ( 2726007 ) on Saturday April 06, 2019 @11:45PM (#58397022) Journal

        > Yes but how much would that cost now?

        US News and World Report does probably the best-known ratings of universities. Here are the ratings for engineering programs at Georgia Tech:

        #2 in Aerospace /Aeronautical / Astronautical

        #3 in Biomedical

        #2 in Chemical

        #2 in Civil

        #5 in Computer

        #4 in Electrical / Electronic / Communications

        #4 in Environmental / Environmental Health

        For out-of-state students, the tuition for a Georgia Tech master's degree which he can do online (he'd probably like that) is $5,100. Here's the master's in computer science, as one example:
        https://www.omscs.gatech.edu/p... [gatech.edu]

        You CAN pay $12 for a cup of coffee, or $1. You can pay $21 for a Sekai-ichi apple, or take your pick of many delicious apples for 25 cents at your nearest grocery store. College is the same - if you totally ignore costs, spend like money is meaningless, you can radically overpay. You can spend $70K on an advanced degree in women's studies or Inuit history. Or you can spend your money like - it's your money. Shop for a good value.

        In my case, I (recently) did a bachelor's degree program in which many of the courses were tied to industry certifications. For example, for a networking course the final exam was the Cisco CCNA. Because of that, half way through school I had already achieved multiple respected certifications, which doubled my income even before I finished my degree. I graduated with more money in the bank than I had when I started - the exact opposite of piling up student loan debt.

        There are car dealers who will gladly charge you $30K for the same car you can buy elsewhere for $8K. Universities are no different.

      • Anywhere a bachelor and masters degree of any value is going to cost way over 200k.

        That's complete nonsense. There are very few places where there is not a decent state-run university that will cost far less than your 200k figure.

      • That's not really true. Plenty of people find legit ways to get a masters for free. The Ivys hand those out for free all the time.

        Now, if you're telling me marginal students can pay gobs of money to obtain a masters, I'd concur. But if you're saying intelligent qualified students have to pay more than $20k for an education, you might not be playing in the big leagues, education-wise.

      • Yes but how much would that cost now?

        About tree fiddy.

    • Re:That'll pay for a master's degree or whatever (Score:5, Funny)

      by h33t l4x0r ( 4107715 ) on Sunday April 07, 2019 @03:19AM (#58397456)
      No he should pay off the mortgage on his parents' house and then whenever they give him a hard time he can go:
      Not while you're living under my roof...
      That is truly living the 14 yr old dream.

  • Hire a financial advisor. Let your kid to what they want. Life teaches you the hard lessons regardless, so regardless of your morals, you're going to learn that most people want friends and partners that are honest. Teach your kid how to use the tools around them to maximize profits right?

    --
    Freedom is the open window through which pours the sunlight of the human spirit and human dignity. - Herbert Hoover

  • Dream jobs (Score:5, Insightful)

    by LordKronos ( 470910 ) on Saturday April 06, 2019 @11:09PM (#58396932)

    Yep, being a professional gamer is certainly a dream job. And do you know what else is a dream job? Being a financial advisor to someone with a crapload of money and a 9th grade education (yeah yeah, he's going to continue by taking online courses ..I'm sure that will work well in the priority list along side his 18 hours per day of fortnite)

    • yeah yeah, he's going to continue by taking online courses ..I'm sure that will work well in the priority list along side his 18 hours per day of fortnite

      How then would he be any less well off than everyone else that went to college and took a lot of courses that never stuck and they cannot remember, or were essentially trivia related to what they do for a living?

      It's not hard to imagine he could take online economics courses and take away the same basic highlights everyone actually remembers from college c

    • Perhaps when he tires of gaming he can become a rock star. It will be too late to become a fireman or a doctor or a pilot. Those require a foundation education.

    • Being a financial advisor to someone with a crapload of money and a 9th grade education

      Err you just described about half of the accounting industry. Sorry there's no "dream job" to be had being a financial advisor. Contrary to belief it's not your money.

      • Contrary to belief it's not your money.

        Not at the beginning. The object of the exercise is to make it so by the end.

    • And do you know what else is a dream job? Being a financial advisor to someone with a crapload of money and a 9th grade education

      *blink*

      um

      I don't think "financial adviser" is ANYONE's dream job. Well it might be but then you have the dullest dreams in the world. You could couple your dream job with a dream house of a moderately sized place in suburbia with upper-end Ikea furniture (not the cheap stuff).

  • Does youtube, etc, send you a w2? At what point is this considered a job in which you need to pay payroll tax, etc.

    • Re: (Score:3)

      by oic0 ( 1864384 )
      He will have to pay quarterly taxes.

    • YouTube sends a 1099 (independent contractor, W2 is employees). They hired an accountant.

      And, there is no "at this point". When he made that first $100 on Twitch it was technically a job which required paying payroll tax. (Obviously, the question there is enforcement).

      • When he made that first $100 on Twitch it was technically a job which required paying payroll tax. (Obviously, the question there is enforcement).

        People receiving a 1099 (paid as a contractor) are self-employed. They actually pay more payroll tax than employees. When you're an employee, you're actually only paying half of your Social Security and Medicare payroll taxes - your employer pays the other half. When you're self-employed, you pay both halves by yourself. Currently, both halves are 6.2%. So if

  • Capitalism is a system where (Score:1)

    by Anonymous Coward

    we funnel money from many retards to fewer and fewer other retards for no reason

    • Re: (Score:1)

      by Anonymous Coward

      There is a field of science, yes, a legitimate, hard science, called "Economics", which studies the way in which people seek out and exchange value.

      There are all sorts of reasons that people place value on things, services, and activities, but, with your attitude you'll likely just bumble through life in a dazed state of impoverished confusion. Have fun with that.

    • We don't funnel the money. The "retards" do it by themselves.

      Speaking of which, if you don't trust people to spend their own money wisely, how the hell can you trust them to vote wisely? IMHO if you don't believe in capitalism, you don't believe in democracy. Either you trust the people to usually make the right decision when [spending their money | voting], or you don't.
  • Download all the RRB Answer Key at https://rrbanswerkey.com/ [rrbanswerkey.com]

  • You sure do not need a 9-to-5 job to be successful. But your body and mind have limits, and when you routinely push past those limits, you do damage. Once you've burned out, you don't recover quickly. So go ahead, eat that seed corn! Just make sure you're not spending much, and set the rest aside, because you'll eventually need it.

  • I don't see what the problem is (Score:5, Interesting)

    by jma05 ( 897351 ) on Sunday April 07, 2019 @03:12AM (#58397442)

    He sounds like an intelligent, well-behaved and mature 14-year old. He is viewing this professionally and his parents seem to be quite reasonable.
    If you have a video game version of Justin Beiber on your hands, you don't just throw it away.

    All of us would have loved it to have something like this to happen to us when we were kids.

    • Re:I don't see what the problem is (Score:5, Interesting)

      by OzPeter ( 195038 ) on Sunday April 07, 2019 @06:41AM (#58397860)

      He sounds like an intelligent, well-behaved and mature 14-year old. He is viewing this professionally and his parents seem to be quite reasonable.
      If you have a video game version of Justin Beiber on your hands, you don't just throw it away.

      All of us would have loved it to have something like this to happen to us when we were kids.

      Have you seen Justin Bieber lately? Recently he has joined a cult like church, dropped out of music and diving deep into trying to fix his screwed up life. And he blames it solely on basically permanently being on tour since 14. I'm no fan but he seems to be working through some huge existential crisis and I give him props for that rather than continually letting it consume him.

      Now is that the sort of situation you aspire to?

      • Have you seen Justin Bieber lately? Recently he has joined a cult like church, dropped out of music and diving deep into trying to fix his screwed up life. And he blames it solely on basically permanently being on tour since 14.

        On the other hand, Cher hooked up with a 28-year-old when she was 16 and seems to be no worse for it. Some kids handle fame fine, some don't.

        Statistically, I have to wonder if it's really any different than how non-famous people manage to screw up their lives. From my childhood, one of my friends joined the army and totally fucked up his back. Another got divorced and is pretty much put off dating over it. Real life doesn't have a whole lot of "happily ever afters", so if this kid is making money and ha

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by geek ( 5680 )

        Justins problem is the complete lack of a father figure and a religious nut for a mom couples with too much fame at too young an age and far far too much money at that age to make him too big to fail. Its a tale as old as Hollywood with all the child actors doped up and fucked up. JB's in that boat, maybe he makes it or maybe he ends up on shitty TV shows like Leif Garrett living out his glory days until he's balding and fat. Time will tell.

  • You only had one job!

  • If only I was a terrible parent, my kids may be rich.
  • Comment removed based on user account deletion

  • Sure, you can paint it as his innate skill bringing in big bucks, but his skill only got him noticed. From hereon out, it's HIM as a person that's being sold for the entertainment of others. Personalities, performers, athletes-- they are all entertainers feeding the non-stop intrigue of ever more scrutinizing masses.

    I hope the parents are putting aside significant portions of this kids' earnings for therapy, remedial education, legal protection, and history erasing so that when this all blows over (and it w

  • The only issue I see with this is that he'll be fine so long as he can play and Fortnite doesn't go away. Also playing for 18 hours a day isn't healthy. No sane person works that many hours at any job even if you love it because it will most definitely hurt your health in time.

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