Which Rumble streamer could be nominated for an award?

I want to start by saying this article is full of speculation and opinion. My concern isn’t necessarily about any individual creator, but rather about the system as a whole.

If you still receive the Rumble Newsletter ([email protected]), you may have noticed they recently promoted gaming—great, right? Well, if you scroll all the way to the bottom of the email, you’d see the "Top 5 Trending Creators | Gaming." I didn’t catch it in my inbox; I saw it via an X post. While it’s awesome that Rumble is promoting gaming, the list of creators has me scratching my head.

Rumble’s Top 5 List: Favoritism at Play?

When I saw LumpyPotatoX2 on the list, I immediately expected to see other familiar names like SilverFox, Missesmaam, and the usual suspects. Many people have issues with these creators, mainly because it feels like they’ve been shown a lot of favor by Rumble over the last year. As someone who has received a fair amount of promotion from both Rumble and Locals, I understand why this happens. These creators have solid presentations, engaging brands, and actively interact with their viewers. They’re great content creators for the platform. Personally, I don’t find Lumpy particularly genuine, and while SilverFox is more authentic, his content is too vulgar for my taste.

Now, let’s break down the top 5 list:

• #5: StutteringCraig was listed, but it should’ve linked to his Side Scrollers Podcast channel, which has 8.51K followers and pulls 3-4k views per video without being featured.

• #4: RoanokeGaming, who pulls 1-2k views per video without homepage features.

• #3: Manyodgaming, which should’ve linked to ManyoD Gaming’s channel with 11.4K followers and averages 800-1200 views per video.

• #2: GeeksandGamers, which should’ve been linked to their main Geeks + Gamers channel with 84.1K followers and averages 6-10k views per video.

• #1: LumpyPotatoX2, with 2.48K followers and an average of 400-1000 views per video.

This list is baffling. Lumpy being placed at #1 clearly indicates that someone at Rumble is pushing his content harder than others. While he’s a decent entertainer with a good brand, his continual promotion on the homepage and now this top spot in the email doesn’t quite add up.

My Experience with Rumble’s Promotion Strategy

In my last article, I talked about my deal with Locals and Rumble. We know about the failed big-name creators like Sneako and SteveWillDoIt who were brought on with deals to expand Rumble’s user base and promote the platform through other media. For the larger creators, the benefit to Rumble is obvious—more eyes on the platform. In my case, it was an hourly contract, but I also worked to help grow the platform by reaching out to creators and keeping a community active, which did not count towards my hourly rate. I also provided honest feedback about the platform’s flaws and what creators needed.

Recently, SilverFox posted a video on X discussing the direction of gaming on Rumble. Aside from the language, I agreed with his points. It seemed like Rumble had lost focus on gaming in favor of the usual political content. Chris Pavlovski, Rumble’s CEO, responded to SilverFox, acknowledging the issue and saying they wanted to do better for the gaming community. The very next morning, Rumble launched the @gamingonrumble account on X.

Where Rumble Needs to Improve

Since then, Rumble has featured a variety of gaming creators on the homepage, which is a positive step. Being featured on the homepage can increase your views by 30K-100K, depending on the time of day. As someone who’s been featured multiple times, I can tell you that it also gives a small bump in follower count. Unfortunately, it doesn’t lead to long-term success, but it’s definitely a morale booster. However, even with a homepage boost, you still have to create engaging content to keep people coming back.

The point of this article is to highlight Rumble’s favoritism toward certain creators, while also acknowledging that they are making an effort to do better for the gaming community. At the end of the day, it’s not Rumble’s job to boost your ego by promoting your content. Their job is to build a platform that gets your content in front of users who will enjoy it. They should focus on improving the app and homepage algorithms, rather than handpicking creators to promote. If they do choose to boost certain creators, they need to rotate in fresh faces or move on from those who haven’t shown significant growth over the last year.

One concrete step Rumble can take is creating a transparent and merit-based system for featuring creators. A more dynamic rotation of gaming creators on the homepage would also ensure newer or smaller channels get a fair shot at exposure. Additionally, Rumble could improve its recommendation algorithm to prioritize content quality and engagement, rather than simply favoring familiar faces. This would ultimately help the platform grow organically and reduce the appearance of bias.

Rumble’s focus should be on developing a thriving gaming community, and that starts with a fairer promotion system that benefits more creators—not just a select few.

When talking about Rumble gaming, it's important to note that it barely existed before 2022. A few names come to mind—PeculiarPineTreePlays, SuperSight, R3KONT3K, BlackBox, and others—but they were outliers in a space that was just starting to form. Back then, Rumble required streamers to pay $25 a month to even stream. That was eventually lowered to $10, but it meant that people who streamed on Rumble were essentially paying to be there. They truly believed in the platform and its goal of being a real alternative to YouTube.

I say YouTube and not Twitch because, up until recently, Rumble’s main objective was to compete with YouTube. The shift to focus on platforms like Twitch and Kick only came within the last year or so. For a long time, Rumble’s development was centered on video on demand, not livestreaming. But in 2022, things started to change—and that’s when I believe the golden era of gaming on Rumble really began.

In March 2022, I created the WhatUpIan channel on Rumble. It all started because a friend at work had begun streaming on Twitch. I saw Rumble as an opportunity and figured that, with so few gamers on the platform, I had a better shot at growing faster than I would on Twitch’s crowded stage. At the time, I wasn’t sure what direction my content would take, so I was just streaming with some good friends. Back then, my streams didn’t have the family-friendly tone I prefer now, but eventually, I adopted that style for my channel.

After a few weeks, I realized that someone needed to talk about the features Rumble was missing. That’s when I launched “The State of Rumble,” a monthly stream that addressed the platform’s lack of features and the slow rollout of new ones. Around this time, I connected with Behizy and launched my WhatUpIan.Locals.com community. That’s where my channel really started to grow beyond just gaming. Locals was a great place to share the code I had created for displaying chat on screen—a video that still draws in views. To this day, people are looking for an easy solution for on-screen chat, though my code is outdated now.

Things really took off in July 2022. That’s when Locals had Schuyler Winters as their head of gaming, and he was actively seeking creators who shared the vision of growing the gaming community on Rumble and Locals.

Here’s what most people don’t know: Schuyler actually set up a call with me to discuss launching the gaming.locals.com community. He asked if I could help moderate and how they could get me to stream more. At the time, I was working full-time with a wife and a 5-year-old son. Streaming more than one night a week meant sacrificing family time, so it was a tough ask.

In August 2022, Locals contracted me to help grow the gaming community by streaming at least 50 hours a month and providing support on gaming.locals.com. Some people might criticize Rumble or me for being “paid to game,” but it was about much more than that. I was helping to build support for a platform I believed in. While some might call me a sellout, I was never told to censor my opinions—good or bad—and I frequently voiced both. I know other streamers were also paid, though I don’t know how much or who exactly. My contract paid enough for me to stream 3-4 times a week, but not enough to quit my job.

That first contract lasted three months, from September to November, and then we renewed it through February. August 2022 was the true birth of Rumble Gaming. Over 250 members joined the Locals Gaming community that month, and Schuyler was giving free streaming access to any gamers who asked for it. I was even featured on the homepage while playing Rumbleverse (RIP). It was an exciting time, and it felt like the beginning of something big for Rumble.

The State of Rumble show continued to grow as Rumble and Locals introduced more changes. I was featured on the homepage multiple times, and Rumble’s CEO, Chris Pavloski, even stopped by one of my streams to drop a $100 Rumble Rant.

By the start of 2023, Schuyler had left Locals, and in February, I was offered a new contract with Rumble and Locals. This time, it was more demanding but also offered better compensation, though still not enough to quit my full-time job. We had over 600 members in the gaming community on Locals by then, and the Rumble gaming scene was growing fast. But Rumble was also making moves that some found controversial, like signing creators such as SteveWillDoit and Jidion, who had been banned from other platforms. They brought attention to Rumble but also stirred up drama.

By May 2023, I was exhausted, balancing my full-time job and the demands of my Rumble contract. I wanted to pitch going full-time as a content creator but needed Rumble or Locals to back me financially. Ultimately, the leadership at Locals didn’t go for it, and I wasn’t offered another contract. That was a hard hit, both financially and mentally. I had worked hard to grow the community, and it felt like rejection.

Looking back, I sometimes wonder if I pushed too hard for a full-time deal. Could I have kept going on a smaller contract? Maybe. But in the end, it forced me to take a step back and focus on my family and a new job. We moved to a place we’d always wanted to live, and while the new job isn’t perfect, I trust that God has a plan for us.

As for Rumble, I set content creation aside while transitioning to my new job, but I’ve kept up with the gaming community and the platform’s development. There have been great improvements, but Rumble still has a long way to go. Many people see it as a “game changer,” but it’s not there yet. Rumble is still viewed as a politically leaning site, despite their claims, and the gaming community will have to rebuild from the ground up with creators who are truly committed to helping the platform and community grow.

I might write another article on the "then to now" timeline becuase a lot has happened since May of 2023, such as the Rumble Raids and the partnership program. So until next time, thank you to all of you that have supported me in the past and still care about The State of Rumble.

Wow, it's been a while since I had a moment to sit down and write again. I stopped by UBLegends stream last night and figured I would post an update. It will not be a huge update, but I wanted to let you all see proof of life (unlike some people... haha). Much has changed in the last year for our family, our country, and for Rumble/Locals. These last few months have felt like a tornado at work. I see the blue sky above now, but hopefully, that’s not just the eye of the storm...

In June of last year, I accepted a job in North Georgia as a video editor, web designer, and social media manager. I took the job not because it was a huge pay increase(it wasn’t) but because it seemed like it would be enjoyable, and moving to a part of Georgia that we have wanted to live in for years. We finally made the move in November, but it was not without its ups and downs.

Our house sold three separate times, but due to the buyers' financing, it fell through at the last minute twice. The house we were purchasing was delayed by a few months, so it ended up working out as God intended. Over the summer, as our house was going through multiple sales, Becca (@WhatUpWife) started experiencing various health issues that, over a year later, we are starting to get answers for. Unfortunately, surgery is looking like the only solution. Please pray for her health.

Our son has had his ups and downs with the move as well. He and Becca are doing great with homeschool, and we were blessed with great neighbors with a boy younger than him. His connection to his old friends is probably the most difficult part, but we will be going to a new Church soon and that should help him connect to a new friend group. He and I have been playing Minecraft together and that has been a lot of fun seeing him learn more than me about the game.

As for my job that was supposed to be enjoyable, it turns out everywhere I go, my bosses always realize that I am capable of much more than I was hired for. I am a problem solver who can find a way to streamline solutions. If I am shown an issue, whether it is mine to solve or not, I will make my idea known. Most of you have seen this through early Rumble, where I had to come up with solutions like showing chat on screen. But back to my current job: I am now managing the production schedule, customer service, shipping, and more. It is always good to make yourself valuable at a company, but dang, it is stressful. I see the light at the end of the tunnel for the changes happening at work, but I hope the light is not another train coming at me.

I am going to write another article about the craziness we are seeing in our country right now. I always stayed somewhat politically silent when I was creating content because I didn’t feel I needed to add anything to the conversation at the time. We cannot be silent anymore. As dark as it may seem we can always lean on the power of Christ to get us through.

Thank you and God Bless.

- Ian