Byron ‘Reckful’ Bernstein has been very public on Twitch about his struggles with his mental health as well as other life stresses, but on a podcast with Imane ‘Pokimane’ Anys, he opened up on some good news from back in 2019 that changed his life, including a $177 million deal with the government.
Reckful is one of Twitch’s longest-serving personalities, having shared his life on the platform across the last decade. Since his days as a World of Warcraft professional, Reckful has always looked to bring positive vibes to his audience.
While he’s battled depression, he’s also been really open in trying to share his story and change people’s lives by simply streaming to his adoring fans. Now, it’s starting to pay off, with the streamer sharing details about a massive work deal that changed his life, and how he’s looking after himself.
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Speaking to Pokimane on January 26, Reckful opened up about how he managed to turn his fortunes around with a huge deal with his job.
“I got hired by a tech VC conglomerate,” he said. “They work with the government — I have to word this really carefully.”
“I flew to London a little while ago. I told Mizkif that I was getting this offer but I wasn’t supposed to talk about it, it was all confidential sh*t. I got the offer, went to London, and then I told him that I didn’t get it because they told me not to say yet, but now they are okay with me saying.”
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He then got into a few specifics, including the eye-popping number that had Pokimane stunned in her seat.
“I negotiated a deal for them to prove myself, I got a $177 million deal,” he said. “I did it, and I’m f**king shaking just thinking about it, it was pretty intense.”
However, it took him a while to come to terms with how big a deal his negotiation was. “I didn’t feel super proud of myself at the time, but now that I’m on medication and stuff, I feel prouder.”
Pokimane called the move “insane,” looking incredibly proud of Reckful, who has been making moves in and out of Twitch recently. As for what he’s actually doing, he had to stay on the down low, but mentioned that he’s never been in a better financial position.
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“They work with governments on non-consumer-facing technology. For example, we are going to do the [FIFA] World Cup in Qatar, but I can’t talk further about it, but it’s really cool sh*t. If people go to the World Cup in Qatar, they’ll see some of the sh*t I did.
It’s also allowed him to focus on his true passion, developing his game Everland.
“I was really worried because I could barely pay for Everland because I have 28 employees and it was taking way longer than I thought — it took like a year and a half, and I was going to have to sell percents of my game at a bad evaluation, which I didn’t want to do.
“Now I don’t have to sell percents of my game unless someone is going to add value. It was really stressful for a while. I was actually going to go down to $0 on the game release, I was going to have $0 in my bank account.”
While he’s shared snippets of it on his stream, progress has really steamed forward with his improved mental health, as well as more money being on the table.
“They know that Everland is my number one focus because it’s like my passion in life, and this thing is secondary. I can’t talk specifics but I’m doing very well, better than I’ve ever done for sure. It’s way more than my stream made in the whole eight years I was streaming, 20 times more.”
With everything looking up for the popular Just Chatting streamer, fans of Reckful who are looking forward to the release of Everland shouldn’t have to wait long for it to hit PC and Android.
