Hey! I hope you're doing alright?
I watch a few streamers, but I wouldn't say that I follow anyone. One streamer I do watch, is a youtuber called Brandon F. (ThePedantLord on Twitch). He's an 'independent historian' from the U.S, who works as a tour guide in Boston. He plays a few different games, Assassin's Creed, Hearts of Iron, Civilisation, Total War etc.
Other than that, I watch a few friends who stream, which only have a few followers at the moment. One of them is a streamer called AlexMcGubbins, who I've joined on stream from time to time. He plays Civilisation, The Jackbox Party Pack, and recently completed Alan Wake on stream.
Personally, I wouldn't say that any but a few streamers are able to earn enough just by streaming, at least to make it a viable career option. You can look at streamers such as Ninja and believe that he is an accurate representation of the average streamer, while the great majority of streamers are limited to only a relatively small following. At the same time, many streamers seem like the amount that they contribute to the stream may be limited to simply commenting on the game process.
Part of me would argue that simply by streaming, the streamer brings their own unique personality to a game. Though I would agree that this does not necessarily mean that the stream is worth watching, there are some streamers who have large followings, yet contribute barely anything to what they are streaming. (again, not to appear as though I'm just advertising for a content creator, but Brandon F made a critique on the reaction streamers 'Ashtyn and Jon', when it appears as though they didn't even bring their own commentary to the stream.)
So I'd say that the size of a streamer, does not always indicate quality. On the other hand however, larger streamers usually have the advantage of experience and better equipment, which allows for them to be typically much more confident in their streams.
But yeah, I only really follow streamers that I know from other sources tbh, i.e. youtubers I like and the people I know,
