Tyler ‘Tyler1’ Steinkamp is one of the most infamous names in live stream gaming and eSports. It’s said that he is the reason the term ‘toxic’ saw a resurchange in daily use, and his journey as a gamer and entertainer is a storied one.
Tyler1’s career has been a rollercoaster of ups and downs, including being banned from League of Legends for almost two years, but it looks like things are on the up from here on out, though, as the “reformed” Tyler1 is giving people exactly what they want.
Tyler1 began his career as an internet personality back in 2014, while still a computer science student and football player at Central Methodist University in Missouri. From the beginning, League of Legends has always been his main game, and his true claim to fame.
By the time 2016 rolled around, Tyler1 has dropped out of college in his senior year to pursue streaming full time, and although his channel wasn’t huge, he was already starting to develop a reputation for behavior that others described as “toxic”. At the time, Tyler1 would personally attack others on his team, encourage players to harm or kill themselves, and would intentionally lose games because teammates displeased him, and all of this was streamed live on Twitch as well as clips of his outbursts being uploaded to his YouTube channel. Many had initially thought that Tyler1 was playing a character, similar to the way Dr Disrespect does, but soon realised that Tyler1 was just being Tyler1.
Tyler1 is known for playing one specific character almost exclusively: Draven. Draven is a Marskman hero who is macho, over the top, mocks his fallen enemies, and gets more powerful as he gains adoration from his fans. If any of this sounds familiar it’s because Draven and Tyler1 seem to be the same person.
In April 2016 he announced he was “reformed” and his channel began to skyrocket in popularity, with his follower count going from around 5,700 to over 92,000 by the end of that month alone. His “reform” didn’t last, though, and soon enough he was back to his old ways. The newfound popularity of his channel, however, meant that more people were now witness to this behavior and he was held more accountable. High profile eAthletes, commentators, and streamers were quick to denounce his behavior and regularly called on Riot Games (the developers behind League of Legends) to take action.
April 30th 2016 saw Tyler1 banned from League of Legends. At this point, it’s estimated that he had had over 25 accounts banned already, and he just kept making new ones and climbing the ranking ladder over again each time. This ban was different, though. It wasn’t Tyler1 who was banned, it was Tyler Steinkamp, in a practice known as ‘ID Banning’. Riot Games announced that they would be banning any accounts known to belong Tyler Steinkamp as soon as they were made aware of them in an effort to protect their player base and game community from the man who had been described as “the human representation of toxic masculinity.”
Many online assumed that this would be the end of Tyler1. His popularity was linked exclusively to League of Legends and he could no longer stream the game without Riot banning his accounts. Where others might have accepted defeat, Tyler1 took the opportunity to change and to grow.
Over the next 613 days fans watched Tyler1 push himself to try new games like PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds, Counter Strike: Global Offensive, and Overwatch, though nothing ever truly replaced the love he had for League of Legends. He found a new home on the IRL section of Twitch and pushed himself to create new types of content. He spent most of his time on Twitch streaming things like cooking tutorials, short sketches, and developing his skills as a personality-based entertainer.
Tyler1 even organized his own League of Legends Tournament and some of the biggest names in League of Legends competed, like Imaqtpie. While Tyler, obviously, couldn’t compete himself as both a banned player and the organiser of the tournament, he live streamed his commentary. The Tyler1 Championship Series peaked at over 200,000 viewers, eclipsing some streams hosted by legitimate League of Legends tournaments like the LCS.
He was discovering a different side to himself that included a lot less screaming and a lot less toxicity. After a long campaign from his fans, Riot games reviewed his case and lifted his League of Legends ban.
Steinkamp returned to League of Legends in January 2018 to a resounding 382,000 viewers, completely obliterating all viewership records on Twitch at the time, and even causing the site momentarily crash. Since then, he’s managed to remain on top, and mostly stay out of trouble.
Tyler1’s Twitch channel currently has almost 2.5 million followers, almost 7,500 subscribers, and streams to an average of 20,000 followers. His YouTube channel is currently at 1.75 million subscribers, exhibiting stable growth that mirrors that of his Twitch channel.
Tyler1 has never formed part of a pro-team, and we doubt that his particular personality would really lend itself to the social dynamics of being a permanent team member.
He did, however, participate in two competitive events in 2018, albeit in show matches: The WWE vs. NXT Showmatch and the NA LCS 2018 Summer Playoffs Showmatch. He and his team for the day managed to snatch the victory from WWE in the WWE vs. NXT Showmatch, but wasn’t able to lead team Throw Machine Gaming to victory against the Meme Stream Dream Team in the LCS Summer Playoffs Showmatch.
Tyler1’s net worth is speculated to be at somewhere around $4 million at the time of writing, with his income being split across a few different revenue streams.
As we said above, Tyler1’s twitch channel has around 7,500 paid subscribers, with the minimum amount of money that streamers earn per subscriber being $2.50 per month. This would mean that he earns at least $18,750 a month (or $225,000 a year), with that number possibly going all the way up to $22,455 a month (or $269,500 a year) depending on his deal with Twitch.
In addition to that, it’s estimated that he earns a similar amount in advertising revenue from Twitch. Twitch streamers also earn money from Cheers and donations from their fans. While there’s no way to get an exact figure on this bar the streamer themselves disclosing that information, we estimate that Tyler1 likely earns around $20,000 a month (or $120,000 a year) from Cheers and donations based on his average viewer count of 20,000.
In addition to his Twitch channel, Tyler1 also has a successful YouTube channel which is well on its way to hitting the 2 million subscriber mark soon. His channel averages around 115,000 video views a day, which would mean an approximate earnings of $201 per day, or just under $75,000 a year in YouTube ad revenue.
Hugely popular influencers like Tyler1 typically also earn money from things such as brand deals, product placements, and being paid to show up at events. It’s still unknown how much Tyler1 earns from these sources, but an influencer with his popularity is likely to be able to charge quite a bit.
Tyler1 is almost synonymous with League of Legends, the smash-hit MOBA (multiplayer online battle arena) title that dominates the global eSports scene. There are dozens of major-league and pro events every year, and League of Legends has an exceptionally robust and thriving eSports betting community. Click here to head to our League of Legends overview and betting guide to find out how you can get in on the action yourself.
During his League of Legends ban Tyler1 tried out some other popular eSports titles too. The game he put the most time into (and got his account voice-banned for 10 years) is Overwatch, the hero-shooter which launched in 2016 and launched a massive eSports scene almost immediately after. Head here to read our Overwatch game overview and betting guide to get some tips on how to start placing bets on Overwatch tournaments and pro-events.
Another game that Tyler1 excelled at outside of League of Legends was the hit battle royale title PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds. The game organises players into groups of 100 and puts them on an island with one goal: only one man can be left standing. Our PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds game overview and betting guide goes into plenty of detail about the gameplay and offers some unique tips to help with placing successful bets, click here to read more.