xQc: ‘There’s a stigma around streaming as a job—it’s f***ing harder than a job’

Top Twitch star xQc has come out swinging against claims streaming as a full-time job should be considered easy after one of his many fans said he was incredibly lucky to only work “part-time” for a living.

In particular, xQc takes offense to suggestions streamers don’t work real jobs and lashed out at one such comment after it popped up during his Feb. 22 stream.

“There’s a big stigma around streaming,” he said. “People say, ‘Oh, streaming is easy, it’s not really a job’. Imma tell you how it is. Not only is it a job, it’s fucking harder than a job, man. Shit is real fucking work, man. Shit is hardcore dude. It’s office nine to five. Who the fuck are you, man, [to tell me otherwise]?”

xQc has already spent 510 hours live across 43 days in 2022. His grueling hours have netted him an average stream length of nine hours a day, and he often spends over 24 hours live at a time playing GTA roleplaying. On top of streams, the Twitch star says he spends hours “theoraticaling [sic], creativeling [sic]” and developing plans.

Whatever he’s doing seems to be working. In 2021, the French-Canadian topped Twitch in hours watched and hit 10 million followers on the Amazon-owned streaming platform. Right now the 26-year-old boasts 83,964 active subscribers, the third-highest haul on the site behind VTuber Ironmouse and Casimito.

Related: xQc turned down $1.2m NFT sponsor: ‘It was just fun to tell them no’

Many of his Twitch streams may not look as polished as some of his peers and rivals, but xQc insists he puts just as much effort into his lengthy streaming shows behind the scenes. “I have to have all my cards lined up,” he added. “When I go on-stream, boom! It’s hard work.”

Twitch’s biggest content creator wasn’t done either, taking direct aim at the viewer who raised the topic: “Bitch, on my off weeks I stream one and a half times that you would work at a full-time job. Fuck you. Who is you? Streaming is a job.”

While many Twitch stars may be on xQc’s side regarding their careers, another popular streamer has firmly planted himself in the other camp⁠—Shroud, who sits directly behind xQc in regards to followers on the Amazon site, claims streaming is “a goddamn joke” and shouldn’t be considered work.

“Streaming is work? Working sucks. No, it’s not fucking work,” the FPS star said back in Dec. 2021. “Look, I’m sitting here doing nothing. I’m literally doing nothing.”