Turner ‘Tfue’ Tenney is one of the biggest names on Twitch, and while he rakes in the cash on the platform, the Fortnite Battle Royale star has revealed that his biggest source of income doesn’t rely on the streaming service whatsoever.
Tfue’s status in the streaming community has made him one of the richest players in the world. While there’s no publicly-available statistics, given the furor around him turning down a $140k sponsored Madden stream deal and his massive subscriber count, seven figures a year isn’t out of the realm of possibility.
However, Tfue has given a little tidbit about where most of his money comes from. In an interview with Washington Post’s Launcher, the streamer briefly broke down his income from gaming, and Twitch isn’t ranking on top.
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Tfue mentioned that he earns most of his money from the Epic Support-A-Creator code program. This might come as a surprise to some given his large fan base on Twitch, holding one of the largest subscriber counts on the platform.
According to stats site TwitchTracker, Tfue has 16,151 active subscribers on Twitch as of January 14. He is one of the platform’s biggest stars, and although it’s well off his peak of 65,633 this time last year, 16,000 is no small number.
Twitch takes a hefty cut of subscriptions, up to 50%, but for larger content creators like Tfue it’s usually a 70-30 split. However, even after accounting for that, Tfue is still making a minimum of $40,000 off the platform alone.
That’s excluding donations, larger tier-two and tier-three subscribers, and sponsored streams, which will prop up his Twitch income substantially.
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So, for Tfue to be making more through the Support-A-Creator code program, it shows how much pull he has in the Fortnite community. Epic’s revenue-sharing model splits $5 for every 10,000 V-Bucks “spent by players who elect to support them in-game.”
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That means to be getting up to $40,000 each month through the code, a whopping 80 million V-Bucks would have to be passing through the service with Tfue’s name attached to it. Given $80 gets you around 10,000 V-Bucks, Tfue’s code alone is worth over $640,000 to Epic each month, by this estimate.
This is also excluding any deal Tfue has behind the scenes with Fortnite’s creators that could give him a larger chunk of the pie, so it’s likely the figure is much larger.
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Tfue has also earned money from other sources, like YouTube ad revenue, and over $600,000 in prize money in Fortnite. He’s not under an exclusivity contract like other streamers though, and regularly turns down brand deals for his stream.
Tfue’s income has been the source of controversy in 2019, with the Twitch star parting ways with old organization FaZe Clan over money. His contract allegedly contained a clause where FaZe could take up to 80% of his income, with the two parties still embroiled in a lawsuit over it.
In the same interview, Tfue addressed claims the team only made $60,000 off him. He disputed the number, saying “I know for sure they made a lot more money off me,” which can be either by taking larger cuts, or by promotion for the brand.
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Although he has a cool $80,000 minimum going into the bank every month between Twitch, Epic, and other services, Tfue spends it wisely.
He’s bought a warehouse near his family home in Florida to run a streaming bootcamp studio with brother Jack, and he also owns his own home. While the success lasts, he’s making smart decisions to ensure his future, and putting that massive income to good use.
