• Kathleen Besten is an Australian gaming creator who streams and makes videos under the name Loserfruit.
• Besten rose to fame making content from games like Fortnite and Overwatch and is now one of the world’s most popular streamer personalities.
• As part of Business Insider Australia’s ‘Under The Influence’ series, Besten spoke about the moment she decided to become a professional creator, where she earns money and why she has a presence on multiple social media platforms.
  
• Visit Business Insider Australia’s homepage for more stories.

She had just graduated after studying journalism at university and didn’t have a job lined up. She had been streaming for fun and had begun to build a fan base — but hadn’t yet decided to go pro.

She noticed a lack of streamers that were like her. Besten saw it as an opportunity and went for it.

Today, Besten — using the alias Loserfruit — is one of the world’s most popular streamers with nearly ten million followers across Twitch, YouTube, TikTok, Twitter and Instagram.

Besten spoke to Business Insider Australia for the ‘Under The Influence’ series, which interviews Australia’s top online content makers about their content, career, how they make money, and what sets them apart from other creators.

How would you describe your work in a sentence?

[Laughs] In one sentence? A lot of games, and a lot of comments and chaos.

Tell us about your audience: how big is it, who and where are they?

The audience is pretty big. Every online creator has 50% of their audience in America and the rest is all over the world. I don’t know where everyone is. I might have subscribers in really obscures location. They’re on Twitch, YouTube, TikTok, and Twitter. All the platforms.

Before you started creating content professionally, what did you do?

I had just finished uni. I did journalism, I graduated. I didn’t get a job immediately, I was streaming, and I saw a bunch of people getting paid. I thought to myself that I might as well get paid.

Back then you’d be earning a lot less than you can earn now. I was about in the fifties for viewer numbers and I thought I could get to the low hundreds. At the time, there weren’t many Australians and weren’t many females. Now there’s heaps, and that’s great. But I saw a space, I saw a gap and I thought I might as well fill that gap and dive all in.

What’s your average day like?

I wake up pretty late compared to the normal person, like 11AM mostly – it depends. Some days I can just make videos and streams for 12 hours, and some days, not so much, honestly. It’s pretty much like, what video do I want to film today? Who do I need to organise it? What game is good? Honestly, sponsorships sometimes I have to deal with, and yeah that’s the typical day.

I get to choose my hours. Most of my audience is on at 6AM so I would wake up or stay up, but it’s not too bad. There’s more people streaming then. But I tend to stream late into the night, and go as long as I want.

You don’t have to say exactly but ballpark: how much do you earn and where does that money come from?

Twitch revenue, sponsors, YouTube revenue, it’s even across the platforms, pretty even. I’m very happy that I do multiple things. Quite a few people do just one but if anything goes wrong… I’m happy to being doing a lot.

Have you ever had a bad experience working with a brand or partner?

I don’t think so, I’ve had so many good sponsors. The only things that happen is that because it’s a newer space, they don’t get that the viewership [is different] compared with something [more] standard. It’s something that brands should be more comfortable with. It’s the same thing, people are still watching.

Sometimes higher-ups and brands aren’t used to gaming, so they are not sure where to spend their budget in this new industry that has come about. We’re still unfamiliar.

There are a million creators out there, but you’re one of the best. What separates you from other creators?

If I’m honest with myself, I was early to the game. A lot of people consider me an OG so that carries me a lot. I think another thing that carries me is that there wasn’t too many females at the time [in this space], but I’d say that has changed.

With Fortnite, I was the only female doing it and doing it well. But other than that, I’m not sure personally. I don’t watch me… Actually, I do watch videos. My editor makes me incredibly funny.

What other Aussie creators are doing work that you like?

The VR boys, they’re doing good work, they’re doing their own thing. They used to work for other people. I think they used to watch me? And then Josh was like I’m going to do my own thing, and they’ve way surpassed me now. Another one is Twitch streamer Whippy. He does GTA role play. He’s finally getting the viewers that he deserves. He’s on like 10,000 now. And of course my Fortnite boys, Lazarbeam and Crayator.

What do you think you’ll be doing in 5 years?

Same thing, but better. Every year, I keep saying, this is the year that’s going to get worse, and it keeps getting better.

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