A hack of Amazon-owned Twitch revealed what some of the top-earning gamers make through the platform and Amazon’s potential plans in the gaming industry.

The leak, posted on infamous forum 4Chan, claims to include Twitch’s source code and an in-progress Amazon Games product, codenamed “Vapor,” that appears to be a gaming marketplace along the lines of Steam.

On Tuesday, Amazon CEO Andy Jassy said that gaming could become the largest entertainment sector. Valve-owned Steam had 120 million monthly active users in 2020.

The hack, comprising 125 gigabytes of data, offers insight into how much popular streamers have made since 2019.

• Twitch’s top account, a Dungeons & Dragons streamer named “CriticalRole,” has earned $9.6 million since 2019.
• 80 accounts have grossed more than $1 million since August 2019.

Twitch itself made $2.3 billion last year, primarily through in-stream advertisements. 

The hackers said that they would release more data but didn’t preview what that would include, claiming the hack was designed to “foster more disruption and competition” in online streaming and calling Twitch’s community a “disgusting, toxic cesspool.”

The platform has recently been faced with a spate of attacks from bots posting hateful messages on its chat boards.

On July 1, the NCAA began allowing college athletes to benefit from their name, image, and likeness — and the payday could help them collectively earn as much as $1.5 billion this year, per endorsement platform Opendorse.

The NIL era got off to a hot start, with Opendorse alone facilitating at least 1,000 deals in the first 24 hours.

• Some of the top athletes could earn an estimated $6.5 million annually when the NIL market matures, according to sports marketing experts.
• The U.S. Department of Education says America’s college sports industry is valued at $14.4 billion, including broadcast rights, merchandise, and ticket sales.

Apparel is a particularly popular source of revenue in the the NIL era’s infancy. Some players have the ability to make five or six figures selling apparel The Players Trunk co-founder Hunter Pomerantz told Front Office Sports in July.

Not all college athletes will garner lucrative deals, however. Around 81% of NIL contracts signed since July are valued at less than $100.

The NCAA hopes to introduce federal regulation of NIL to bridge the gap between existing state laws and athletes, believing that a marketplace without a national statute could be harmful by not providing fair competition.

​​Electronic Arts has filed a patent for technology that will make online friend recommendations to gamers based on their gaming interests.

According to the filing, EA understands how playing online with strangers may not be as enjoyable as playing with friends, and games with strangers often only last for one session.

The publisher of the “FIFA” and “Madden” franchises wants to fix that by approaching games like social media. The friend recommendation tech will find the best potential matches for each gamer using an algorithm that adheres to certain criteria:

• When players regularly get online
• Genre of games played
• Skill level for each game
• Device played on (PC, console, mobile, etc.)

EA has been growing steadily, acquiring Codemasters in February for $1.2 billion, Glu Mobile in April for $2.4 billion, and Playdemic in September for $1.4 billion. As of June, it reportedly had $2.8 billion set aside for future acquisitions.

The gaming giant recorded $1.55 billion in first-quarter revenue, surpassing the same quarter last year’s $1.46 billion, and raised its outlook for the fiscal year to $6.85 billion in revenue with $7.4 billion in net bookings.

Formula E bounced back from the pandemic to record its most successful season yet.

Total viewership reached 316 million across 15 races for Formula E’s seventh season, representing 32% year-over-year growth.

The electric car racing series saw 25% year-over-year audience growth in the U.S., with its New York E-Prix and other races broadcast on CBS.

• In February, Formula E renewed its broadcast and streaming deal with Discovery, which has televised every season of the racing series in Europe through its Eurosport property.
• The company inked a multiyear deal with CBS for exclusive U.S. broadcast rights in Nov. 2020.
• Free-to-air options brought major year-over-year viewership growth in Germany (336%), Brazil (286%), the U.K. (156%), Italy (128%), and France (123%).

The upcoming season of Formula E will see the series travel to China, South Korea, and South Africa, after sticking to Europe, North America, and the Middle East in the 2020-2021 season due to the pandemic.

Formula E lost $12.2 million in Season 5 on $186.6 million in revenue, but came within shouting distance of profitability in the pandemic-affected Season 6 with a $44,488 loss and $165.2 million in revenue.