Shroud explains why he ‘doesn’t mind’ losing half his money to taxes

Jacob Hale
shroud laugh

Taxes are the bane of many top celebrities, and the biggest streamers are no exception, giving up potentially millions of dollars each year.

While many would complain, Michael ‘shroud’ Grzesiek has actually explained that he doesn’t care about losing half his money to taxes — and it’s probably a pretty sizable amount of cash considering the crazy year he’s had.

It was rumored that shroud received a $10 million payout following the closure of Mixer, where he signed an exclusive streaming deal in 2019, following in similar footsteps to Tyler ‘Ninja’ Blevins.

On top of that single payout, shroud makes considerably more from his stream with donations, subscriptions, brand deals and more all helping line his bank account.

shroud shadow
Shroud has been making waves in the livestreaming space for years now.

So, with shroud saying that he loses “half of his money” to taxes, it’s likely that he’s paying out a healthy seven-figure sum each year but it doesn’t bother him.

“I don’t really care too much about taxes,” he said in his October 6 Twitch stream. “No matter what, to be in this position, of being somebody who plays video games for a living… I genuinely don’t care.”

That wasn’t all, though. He continued: “Yeah, it sucks, half of my money is gone, but the fact I even have that much money in the first place… I’m literally sitting here on my a*s, doing nothing. I really don’t care.”

Shroud goes on to reiterate how grateful he is to be in his current position, where he can simply sit and play video games for ten hours and make such a solid living off of it.

That said, losing millions each year must be hard to stomach at times even for shroud, but he makes a fair point: if we could make that much money each year playing video games, we probably wouldn’t mind having to pay those taxes.

About The Author

Jacob is Dexerto’s UK Editor and Call of Duty esports specialist. With a BA (Hons) in English Literature and Creative Writing, he previously worked as an Editor at Ginx TV. Jacob was nominated for Journalist of the Year at the 2023 Esports Awards. Contact: jacob.hale@dexerto.com.