Making a career out of Warzone: Top female streamer Natarsha’s leap of faith
Twitter: NatarshaAUMoving to a new country changed everything for one of Call of Duty’s biggest female streamers, Natarsha, as she made it her mission to earn a living through full-time Warzone content creation and competition at the highest level.
Making a living playing video games may sound like a dream on paper, but rest assured, there’s a great deal of work that goes into it. After a full shift of streaming, that’s often merely where the real job starts.
Editing videos for multiple platforms, creating thumbnails, scheduling social posts, organizing emails, maintaining sponsor relationships, pursuing collaborations, there’s all manner of work to be done when the bright Elgato light stops shining.
Depending on where you are in the world, however, your odds of making the full-time endeavor a reality can change drastically. For Australian Warzone star Natarsha, hitting the ceiling on Oceanic (OCE) servers left just one choice: An inevitable move overseas.
Now established in the game’s most vibrant region, North America (NA), a full-time career based around Warzone is not only viable, but far more rewarding than it ever was back home.
Moving to NA for Warzone competition has been “career-changing”
Over the past year, Natarsha has cemented herself as one of Warzone’s biggest names. The second most-watched female streamer in the category on Twitch, only behind Nadia, she raked in over a million live hours watched in the past 365 days. Closing in on half a million followers to boot, there’s no denying the leap of faith to NA has been “career-changing.”
“Moving here has given me the chance to dip my toes into the more competitive side, while also concentrating on my content as well,” Natarsha explained. A balance she “struggled” with back home with “fewer opportunities” to stand out.
Whether it be through invites to high-profile events like Call of Duty: Next, or simply being in the right region for the biggest tournaments, the near “endless” stream of opportunities has Natarsha urging anyone in a similar position to follow suit.
“Honestly, I feel as though the opportunities for competitions here are absolutely endless and it truly is career-changing for anyone with the talent to compete at a high level, to make the move here.”
While it is certainly possible to make a living anywhere in the world through content creation, including in the Warzone scene, as Natarsha put it, it often boils down to “that question of longevity.” Just how long will a Warzone streamer in a minor, less supported region be able to put food on the table and pay their bills?
“Living in NA gives you the opportunities to go even further and it isn’t just the people at the top of the skill ceiling making money to comfortably live. I think the tournaments here give people room to also dive even deeper into content which also feeds into making money to live.”
How NA Warzone stacks up to OCE Warzone
When it comes to the daily grind of juggling content creation and competition in the Warzone scene, Natarsha claimed the difference between regions is night and day. Sure to ignite the age-old debate once more, she finds NA servers “much easier” than those back home down under. But for good reason, before you get your pitchforks out.
“With such a small population on Australian servers, you tend to run into the same players very often, meaning every game you load into it is almost a custom lobby. In NA I’ve found that dropping higher kills is easier due to the higher population so I tend not to run into the same sweaty players every game.”
Making content far more appealing and streams more engaging, it also boosts overall enjoyment from the personality in front of the camera too. Perhaps the biggest shift on that end is simply making a better use of the time spent on screen.
“It’s much easier to get into games,” Natarsha added. “In Australia, at times we would wait anywhere from 20 – 30 minutes just to load in which made it difficult to keep momentum going.
“The timezone has definitely been a massive change too! In Australia I would sleep at crazy times like 12PM – 8PM and start my stream at 9PM, so moving here has given me the chance to finally have a good sleeping pattern. I have kept the same schedule but here I go live at 7AM and end in the afternoon.”
The future of Warzone from a streamer’s point of view
Throughout Warzone’s first two years on the market, you could barely go a day without seeing multiple six-figure tournaments announced on social media. Everyone was pushing the game into the spotlight and with that, many were in a position to gain financially.
Nowadays, things have certainly balanced out after the early influx of support. But with more than enough opportunities to go around, Natarsha is still confident the competitive scene will thrive moving forward.
“I definitely think the amount of six-figure tournaments has slowed down since Warzone 1 but I think it’s unrealistic to expect large tournaments consistently being hosted because during Verdansk the hype around Warzone was significantly higher.
I think that ultimately comes down to sponsors and hosts on what games they feel have the most eyes at any current time. I do have a lot of hope for Warzone though, my fingers are crossed with the return of Verdansk and recent return of Rebirth, more opportunities come out for everyone to get involved in!”
With a career that largely hinges on the popularity of a game, streamers are often the first to be vocal on social media when anything isn’t to their liking. Over the past year, we’ve seen that plenty with Warzone, though of late, with the revival of Rebirth, is the iconic CoD BR heading in the right direction again? Natarsha certainly thinks so.
“I think Warzone is in a pretty good spot, I do think bringing Rebirth back was a massive change that was definitely needed and for me personally, has reignited my passion. I think that there are still a lot of changes that need to be made, from recent updates it does seem as though the developers are putting a lot of work into Resurgence modes, pubs, and ranked and somewhat neglecting Urzikstan.
It would be amazing to see big map ranked come out in the near future as I think a lot of people feel it is the most competitive mode. Although I think Warzone is definitely thriving and I have been enjoying all of the new changes, I don’t know if it will ever hit its peak again, perhaps when Verdansk is re-introduced which everyone is very excited about.”
