Even so, streaming as a career has LONG moved past the whole "Be charismatic/Hot and stream yourself playing vidya on normal." If a streamer isn't sinking in the sea of endless repeated faces, they're doing a SHITLOAD of behind the scenes work to ensure they've even moved past the 1K subs on Youtube. And a lot of it is just sheer guesswork on what games are gonna get hits this month. Unless the guy/gal is just really nice to look at, there's very little runaway unjustified success like Phil has always had. While the "personality streamers" still exist, they've mostly been around for a while, and even then, there's usually something else going on. I seriously doubt at this point someone could replicate Aris or Max Dood's level of success without some level of black magic. And obviously, Aris is just an unstoppable force of charisma. People can listen to him talk for hours. AND he was once world-class talent at the games he played. Max first made his name by cramming his skull full of MvC knowledge and making a, for the time, rather high production value series of videos. Phil has never once been even top 10 at any of the games he played, except for Champeens, and Champeens literally just comes down to being the most open wallet. He also never made anything other than prestream podcasts and his edited videos were always shit.
The qualities a streamer who can make it have are very rare. Some can be worked on but some can't, and the thing is, not only does Phil not check ANY of the boxes, he NEVER ONCE HAS.
The bullshit that goes into streaming seriously nowadays:
- Game research, acquiring knowledge and grinding skill. You need to play the games you pick well enough. This will often come down to you hating the fuck out of whatever it is you're playing. Marvel Rivals with the lads and a couple beers? Great time. Marvel Rivals and you aren't stopping until you hit Celestial, solo, onetricking a character so you can make an exposé on how shit the matchmaking is? Pure unbridled misery. Streamers who do well "Just" streaming multiplayer games are often world-class. You don't always have to be world class, but you have to be entertaining and you generally are NOT getting butts on seats unless you can make SOMETHING that a certain group of people want. And figuring out what that even is in the first place is a huge part of managing to grow. Once the butts are in seats growing gets somewhat easier, but getting your foot in the door is absolutely a bitch and a half. Fair to say Phil could absolutely not write a guide, which is akin to writing a game manual of yore.
- If you have nothing of value to offer to a specific community, research into cheats and how to pass them off. The "Easy" way, that still has a shitload of cramming. An obvious cheater will get caught pretty fast, and you'll always have to be on and ready to deny all charges, no matter how obvious it is that you ARE in fact cheating. Due to Twitch's and specially Youtube's and Kick's very loose policies on cheating, chicks like Nadia get to cheat for literal years and become infamous in the community. No such thing as bad publicity and often the cheaters are just as widely known as the top pro players. Sometimes better known. Very few Tekken players will not know who Fariborz is, but some lesser names like Jigoku may not ring a bell. The CoDsphere in general and, surprisingly, the speedrunning community are also absolutely chock full of cheaters, to the point where one of the very first tips you'll get as an aspiring streamer is "Get a Cronus Zen/Scripts/Learn to subtly edit speeds." All of the juice of being world-class, none of the effort, but you have to be able to take the heat and get sponsorship deals. Again, Phil would mostly be out of his depth here and every time he's cheated a game he's done so in a very open handed, shit-eating-grin manner.
- Physical training to at least keep yourself in reasonably good shape. Your mental reflexes can be incredibly sharp, but if your hands are lagging 10 seconds behind, it's not worth that much. This is one of Phil's biggest problems. He was already slow in the mind to begin with, but as he deteriorates and pickles his brain in pre-mixed margaritas, his reflexes are simply not fast enough to keep up with most modern videogames. This is a big part of why he plays Soulslikes. They are designed in a way that twitch reactions aren't all that important. I suppose Phil's Gout Walks count for SOMETHING there. His getting up and stretching is just stalling, realistically.
- Working on your sexy. No fucking joke, this is legitimate streaming advice by LTG: You want to appear attractive. You don't HAVE to slut it up, but it usually helps. Twitch has literally more streamers than viewers, and at least 75% of that people aren't looking particularly good. Being attractive immediately helps you stand out. Simultaneously, I've seen chicks who do incredible cosplays, literally cinema-worthy props get absolutely fucked sideways in the algorithm in favor of "Haha, I'm Bowsette" silicone girls in a bad wig and a swimsuit two sizes too small. Once the looks have gotten a click, you seal the deal with the voice. This is why working on your sexy isn't necessarily a sex thing, it's about being pleasant enough to be around.
Guys like Disguised Toast say that this doesn't matter at all and it's all about the first point in this list... While naturally looking and sounding like a Kpop singer. Guy would have made a killing talking about candy wrappers. Looks are literally all these Tiktok zoomies got to go on judging who's stream they're gonna camp for the afternoon, after that, the first contact they have with you is how you sound. And that is in fact why so many big streamers make these really weird fashion choices, like the fantasy colored hair. Or the shoe polish dye to appear younger in Phil's case, I suppose. Anything to stand out can potentially set you ahead. That is also why most streams directed at young people (A very fucking desirable demographic) are "High energy" meaning the dude/dudette uses a silly voice, makes really dumb comments and never, ever shuts the fuck up. Check the DBD community if you want a taste. More adult-oriented streams typically aim to give themselves a good "Radio voice", which again can be a surprising amount of work, and will often format their videos like a podcast so their audience has new content to listen to while commuting. If you can't do a good radio voice, you should at least work on a steady monotone, with too many success examples to really count.
So in short you need to be not unpleasant to the eye, not unpleasant to the ear, or at least unique. Even if you're going to scream, you need to do it in a smart way. Mic peaking and eardrums being pierced is a recipe for failure, even if you're just trying to be a screamer streamer. While some people get it naturally, others REALLY have to work on it. Phil's nasally voice, poor articulation and goblinesque features once again would make you think this dude's absolutely one of a hundred thousand going-nowhere streams... Yet he was unironically one of Twitch's top earners for a good while.
Meanwhile what you see to click on his stream is an oddly shaped head manchild making a vaguely pouty, definitely bored expression at the screen, decked in TJ Maxx's finest discount wares, obviously dyed hair, playing on normal with serious risk of a wagequit, and the first thing that greets you when you click, statistically, is either a nice wet snort in your ear canal if you're wearing headphones, or a middle manager rallying the troops so the sales goals can be met and Laura (That bitch!) can finally ring the bell so we have that Pizza Party where Phil eats it all that we all want so much. I think few things really illustrate the pains of being a new 20s wageslave quite like the dreaded pizza party, yet all of his rewards are essentially a pizza party. Where you don't even get to eat the pizza. Middle manager Phil will eat it and let you know if it's Tangy with a zit, Tasty, Good, Yummy, simply Flavor, or more leaning to the Urban-Garlic-Infused Robust Style side of the taste scale. While ignoring the fact that most takeout is spiced and salted to kingdom come so the taste stays with you.
