Liza Koshy Opens Up About Quitting YouTube & Prioritizing Mental Health: What Gaming Creators Can Learn
When Liza Koshy, one of YouTube’s biggest stars, took a break from the platform in 2020, it reverberated across the creator community. Her candid discussion this year of battling mental health issues spotlighted problems familiar to creators in all verticals—including gaming.
Koshy skyrocketed to fame as a bubbly teen comedian. Though she showed only her bright side online for years, away from the camera she was crumbling from burnout and feeling creatively stifled. Finally, she hit breaking point and left entirely.
For passionate gaming creators grinding hard in hopes of YouTube superstardom, Koshy’s story offers vital lessons. Her extreme experience uncannily mirrors the intense pressures gaming YouTubers face in niche corners of creator culture.
This article unpacks key takeaways from Koshy’s journey that gaming creators should heed about mental health, burnout and staying grounded amid youtube’s hurricane.
Koshy’s Story Resonates With Gaming Creator Struggles
While Liza Koshy made her name in comedy, not gaming, the parallels between industries abound.
In both spheres, hitting view count targets becomes life-consuming. Content creation grows toxic amid constant comparison with online peers. Quantifying “success metrics” on platforms like YouTube come to dominate inner fulfillment.
And walking away once your entire identity and income depends on gaming or being an influencer becomes seemingly impossible.
Top gaming creators grind hard to dominate the YouTube algorithm and its 4.6 billion hours of gaming content watched monthly. The most popular niche within Youtube’s ecosystem, competition is cutthroat.
Ratings pressure has intensified further since YouTube abolished unskippable 30 second ads. Now monetizing long videos depends entirely on keeping audiences glued to screens. Income plummets if viewers click away.
Prestigious titles like “Most Subscribed Gaming Creator” confer immense clout—but are double-edged. The social proof feels incredible briefly but keeping such titles requires unending effort.
Just as Koshy struggled with the persona her comedy fame forced her into, gaming creators wed themselves to specific, high-intensity on-screen identities night and day.
Always-on livestreams demand nonstop energy and enthusiasm. Edited highlight reels portray an aspirational image at odds with creators’ behind-the-scenes reality.
While fame and fortune seem glamorous externally, internally creators pay the price. They sacrifice their mental and even physical health in the endless upload grind.
Why Liza Koshy Stepped Back from YouTube’s Arms Race
In her raw 2022 interview, Koshy pinpointed exactly why she quit YouTube, despite having tens of millions of adoring fans.
The pressures were endless. Expectations from followers and sponsors allowed no creative freedom. The grind of manufacturing hits around the clock was physically and mentally crushing.
Koshy described life at the top as:
“Climbing Mount Everest…towards that peak it gets pretty lonely and pretty cold.”
She also admitted:
"My spark was gone. The process of making [videos] didn’t bring me joy anymore.”
Moreover, away from filming, the business complexities overwhelmed her:
“I had no idea how to run a [media company]. How do you legally set this up? How do you hire someone? No one told me how to do this.”
Finally, Koshy shared the despair of feeling trapped by her “character”:
"I was still contractually obligated to…be Liza Koshy – this colorful, vibrant, positive young lady.”
Yet she was privately battling intense depression, anxiety and loss of sense of self.
Ultimately, despite 17 million loyal followers, Koshy lacked creative freedom and felt constantly inadequate:
“I still felt so empty and purposeless.”
So, Koshy walked away to rediscover who she was and why she started creating in the first place.
YouTube Fame’s Dark Side: Gaming Creator Parallels
While Koshy spoke of the general YouTube community, every issue she described directly parallels gaming creators’ experiences.
Nonstop Grind Culture Leads To Burnout
Extreme gaming YouTubers live perpetually “on”, filming 7 days a week to meet upload quotas. Top Twitch streamers broadcast live 8-12 hours straight to keep subscribers hooked.
In both industries, taking breaks means slipping down rankings. So creators grind endlessly, risking physical and mental burnout.
Popular gaming YouTuber Athena stated in a 2021 interview:
“It‘s an insane amount of effort to consistently pump out videos week after week, building viewership, [and] talking to internet strangers day in and out."
She confessed:
"I was crumbling under the pressure to perform all the time."
Toxic Comparison Culture Fuels Anxiety
Secondly, gaming creators constantly scrutinize each other’s ratings just like mainstream YouTubers. When peer creators pull ahead in subs or video views, self-doubt corrodes even top creators.
In 2022, streaming megastar Imane ‘Pokimane‘ Anys shared her turmoil battling burnout. Part was feeling inadequate benchmarking herself to gaming friends:
"It negatively impacted my self-image and self-worth because I kept comparing myself to them.”
Despite having millions of fans herself, Pokimane remained anxious.
Loss Of Identity When Quitting Cold Turkey
Equally, just like Koshy, huge gaming personalities struggle walking away once YouTube consumption becomes their entire life.
After a decade grinding to 1 million subscribers, popular streamer Jared Knabenbauer publicly quit in 2020.
In his goodbye video, sounding much like Koshy, Knabenbauer shared:
“This personality…is dominant and ever-present in my life. I don’t know who I am without it.”
Gaming YouTubers Can’t Simply Switch Games Either
Additionally, gaming creators can’t reinvent themselves like mainstream YouTubers swapping video genres.
Their incomes depend on playing specific game titles viewers demand. Expanding content triggers subscriber churn despite mental health benefits.
In 2022, streamer Tyler ‘Ninja’ Blevins tweeted about the double bind:
“The constant pressure to always play the hottest new game and stay relevant combined with the fear of losing followers and subscribers if you switch games is a lot to deal with on a daily basis.”
Impossible Choices Between Health and Income
Finally, gaming creators face the same harsh tradeoffs as mainstream YouTubers like Koshy. They slug it out battling mental illness in secret to preserve their personal brands – and livelihoods.
Popular gaming creator Gavin Aung Than divulged in 2021:
“It‘s hard to step away to focus on mental health when your income and career depends on staying relevant online 24/7.”
Lessons For Gaming Creators From Koshy’s Journey
Liza Koshy’s harrowing experience contains vital takeaways for gaming creators seeking sustainable YouTube success too:
- Don’t Treat YouTube Like A Grinding Video Game
Firstly, creators must shift perspective to treat content creation as art over playing a video game.
Grind culture makes crushing your metrics feel like winning battles or leveling up in RPG titles. But systems that reduce art to numbers reward toxicity.
Instead, define success by the creativity and positivity you spark through sharing your passion. Stay present and grateful, not chasing some imaginary finish line.
- Prioritize Real Body/Brain Breaks Over Switching Games
Secondly, don’t call short-lived game changes real breaks. It may feel refreshing initially switching from say, Fortnite to Minecraft streams after burnout.
But jumping from one intensive game to another still strains you mentally and physically. Carve out offline time for whole self-care. Tend relationships, pursuits and aspects beyond gaming for balance.
- Set Boundaries Around Streaming/Upload Hours
Equally, apply time limits religiously instead of grinding without boundaries.
Studies show that working beyond 40-50 hours per week sharply elevates mental health risks like anxiety and depression. Yet top gaming creators often double that streaming time.
Create reasonable weekly work caps and honor them consistently.
- Benchmark Only Past Versions Of Yourself
Similarly, avoid toxic peer benchmarking. Comparing your channel’s growth or subscribers to peers breeds jealousy.
Instead, focus solely on improving your skills and content quality month over month. Compete internally against old levels of your playing abilities or editing skills.
Redirect comparisons outward to uplift others. Promote smaller gaming channels and share advice.
- Stay True To Your Authentic Self
Critically, stay grounded as your online fame grows. The camera pulls personalities to extremes over time.
Build other pursuits and social circles beyond gaming and streaming, honoring all your facets. Let genuine passions guide your channel’s direction, not just sponsors.
By remembering why you started a gaming channel and who you were before fame, you avoid losing yourself amid illusory YouTube success.
Key Statistics On Gaming YouTuber Burnout:
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77% of gamers say gaming culture is more toxic than most online communities (ADL)
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23% rate creator burnout as the gaming industry’s biggest issue (StreamHatchet)
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500+ hours of gaming footage is uploaded to YouTube every minute. (TubeFilter)
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Gaming creator ad revenues range from $3-5 per thousand views. Top creators make $5 million+ yearly. (Influencer Marketing Hub)
What Gaming Journalists Say About Burnout Pressures
“For famous streamers and YouTubers, dropping a single place in the rankings can feel like the end of the world” – Kotaku
“There’s constant pressure to stick to trends and stand out…” – The Verge
“Creator burnout in gaming is very real. Mental health support needs to be prioritized” – Mashable
The Future: Koshy And Gaming Creators Should Collaborate
Stepping back from YouTube gave Liza Koshy space for self-reflection and resetting her priorities holistically. Now with outlets like acting and producing, she wants to keep creating on her own terms.
Interestingly, there are crossover possibilities for Koshy into gaming content too. Given her irrepressible personality and performance talents, Koshy could shine as a streamer.
Equally, her production skills could help gaming creators manage pressures behind the scenes without losing themselves on camera.
After all, Koshy and passionate gaming YouTubers share the same core goal: wanting to inspire joy and connection through creativity.
It’s time mainstream and gaming creators supported each other more collaboratively amid industry obstacles. With compassion on all sides, YouTube’s burgeoning entertainment empire need not cannibalize its devoted builders.
There are always alternatives to lonely, toxic climbs towards peak fame on gaming’s metaphorical Everest slopes. As Koshy’s journey shows, walking back down bravely to re-ground yourself could prove most rewarding of all.