Montanablack is not afraid of transparency. The gaming streamer and youtuber lets his viewers in on his youtube earnings – again!
In may 2019 i published and article This is how much money one gamer makes on youtube and twitch. It included an extrapolation of how much money a gaming content creator could make within one month. I did this by evaluating german youtuber Montanablack88. As of this month he gave another tour into his youtube earnings and creator dashboard.
One year after the first earnings / revenue stream Montanablack gives his subscribers another look into his Youtube Analytics Dashboard. It took the opportunity to make a quick comparison between the 2019 and 2018 figures. The full video is included at the end of the article.
This how much money Montanablack earned in december 2019 via youtube advertising
We see that Montanablack made 42.877,43 $ via his youtube Channel Spontanablack in Decemer 2019. Keep in mind that 3 days of revenues are missing since the date range only shows 1st to 28th of December.
Now, for the conversion and normalization:
By Jan-2020-euro-dollar-conversion-rate this would make 38.641,92 €. Additionally Monte made 470,76€ in Youtube premium revenues (a compensation for users how do not see ads in his videos). This makes 39.122,68 € in total which I would like make an even 39k €.
As per usual these earnings are subject to tax. By assuming a 50% tax rate, we would end up at 19.556,34 € in pure revenues. By his explaination this does not directly end up on his cashing account. He mentiones a percentage being paid to his “network” that we would have to account for. This is not explained in detail, but I would guess this share is deducted before tax. This would result in the following split in liquidity:
- Network (10%): 3.911 €
- Tax: 17.600 €
- Monte: 17.600 €
All this information is hidden within the new Youtube Creator Studio interface. Judging by his comments Montanablack is not a big fan of the relaunch. Unfortunately the date range switches two days when he goes back into the old interface (29.11. – 26.12).
Btw: Until this point in time youtube has made 70.000 € via advertising on the Montanablack Channel!
Year over Year Comparison: Is this more or less than last season?
I know you guys are too lazy to read my previous article and do the math. So let me do it for you: In December 2018 the channel Spontablack made 72.919,76€. This is 33.807 € more than this year. This means this years’ revenue decreased by 46%. This is a lot. But not enough to launch the next article speculating about the streamer’s bankruptcy.
When looking at the views that were monetized to earn this kind of money you will see that the channel had 20 Mio. views in December 2018 and only 8,5 Mio. views in December 2019. Therefore one could argue that the current month is more efficient since decreased by 57,5%, but revenue was only down 46%!
| Dec. 18 | Dec. 19 | |
|---|---|---|
| Video Views | 20 Mio. | 8,5 Mio. |
| Youtube Ad Earnings | 131.261 € | 70.380 € |
| Montanblack Gross Revenue | 72.919 € | 39.112 € |
| Montanablack Net Revenue | 33.000 € | 19.556 € |
Other insights from Montanablack’s Youtube Analytics
Besides ad revenues there are some other details within the Youtube Analytics interface that might allow for some additional insights into Montablack’s Youtube performance.
Annual 2018 earnings
By accident we can see that the channel made 131.617 € in all of 2018. This can only be seen because Montanablack is struggling to navigate the interface (as he mentions). This mistakes does not cost him to much, but we learn that the channel made over 50% of its revenues in December (at least in 2018). When looking at the 2019 figures he is more coutious and uses multiple screens before sharing the views with the stream audience.
Unreal CPMs on this Youtube Channel
The CPMs (Cost per Mille) are unreal on his channel. As you can see he monetizes between 7,09€ and 10,62€. These figures would make for a great blog article by themselves. I am not aware of any other video content segments that make this kind of money. From my experience as an advertiser I might also add that there are a lot of cheaper ways / channels to generate reach.
To top things of Montanablack shows some video specific CPM values. This is insane: Some of them made between 17€ and 23€ CPM! Like he mentiones: This is probably due to the fact that some advertisers specifically target his channel for their advertisments.
Three main reasons for gaming CPMs being this high were mentioned in the previous article, but just to recap:
- Christmas – Suddenly every online shop starts spending on advertising just to sell you stuff for christmas. On most online advertising platforms they will start bidding against each other pumping up CPMs.
- The stereotypical gaming online profile – It is common in advertising to spend more money on more specific audience segments / profiles. When seeing a gaming segment a lot of advertisers see a jung, digital and innovative audience and are willing to pay top dollar to show them ads. This applies to a lot different sectors and industries.
- Transactional Audiences – By showing people already watching gaming content more video games to buy advertiser see a high probability of transaction. This might be a reason they are willing to pay more money per impression. This kind of content allows for more confidence in transactions than – let’s say – real talk vids.
Delayed and passive income via youtube
Every once in a while we fall victim to the assumption that content creators only make money as long as they keep uploading new content. Looking at Montanablack’s analytics data we can see that this is dead wrong. I saw a video that made 600€ in December 2019 eventhough it was over a year old. Sure this only makes 300€ of net revenue for the creator but still: How would you like 300€ for doing nothing each month?
So we see that the assumption of revenue being dependent on new content is wrong since youtube is also a search engine. 10 awesome videos can make for an amazing passive income mechanic in the background. This might especially proof interesting for topics where viewers are being created rather than content. I am thinking driver’s licence, birth, care etc.
Youtube Premium Revenue Share for Youtube Creators
One question bugging me after the previous article – being a Youtube Premium member myself:
Do Gamers get stiffed when Youtube Premium members watch their videos (without ads)?
My intial research showed that my subscription fees (10,99€ per month) are distributed across all channels that I watched during a given period in time. Sounds fair. But does this mean that a premium member with very little monthly views is basically a golden egg for the youtube channel he / she watches?
On a much more interesting note: The split between ad revenues and premium sub revenues on Montanablack’s channel is worth a look. In 2018, December 2018 and December 2019 premium revenues appeared to be roughly 1-2% of ad revenues on his channel. This ratio might be on its way up.
But: Does this also mean that around 1% of youtube users are premium users?
Video: Montanablack shows December 2019 ad revenues (german)
