Video gaming fan rakes in up to £5,000 a month giving tips on Pokemon

A computer whizz has given up his job after earning up to £5,000-a-month giving tips and streaming videos on YouTube - about POKEMON.
By The Newsroom
Published 12th Sep 2017, 13:02 BST
Updated 27th Sep 2017, 11:49 BST
Liam Edwards, of Derby, a Pokemon ace trainer who makes a living making Youtube vlogs. See NTI story NTIPOKE. A Pokemon gamer quit his job to become a full-time YouTuber - with millions of views making him almost £5,000 in one month. Liam Edwards, 28, from Derby, was working as a transport coordinator at a concrete company when he realised he didnt have any hobbies or interests. He had played videogame Pokemon Blue when it first came out in 1999, but after giving up he didnt play it again for 12 years until 2013, when he was hospitalised. He fell in love with Pokemon again and eventually decided to try making YouTube videos about Pokemon, slowly building up an audience of around 500 people. In July 2015, a video he had made that March called Top 5 Saddest Pokemon Goodbyes saw his followers catapult to 25,000. The video is still his most-watched with 2.7 million views, and he now has over 100,000 subscribers to his YouTube channel, Ace Trainer Liam. He now makes enough money to survive off throuLiam Edwards, of Derby, a Pokemon ace trainer who makes a living making Youtube vlogs. See NTI story NTIPOKE. A Pokemon gamer quit his job to become a full-time YouTuber - with millions of views making him almost £5,000 in one month. Liam Edwards, 28, from Derby, was working as a transport coordinator at a concrete company when he realised he didnt have any hobbies or interests. He had played videogame Pokemon Blue when it first came out in 1999, but after giving up he didnt play it again for 12 years until 2013, when he was hospitalised. He fell in love with Pokemon again and eventually decided to try making YouTube videos about Pokemon, slowly building up an audience of around 500 people. In July 2015, a video he had made that March called Top 5 Saddest Pokemon Goodbyes saw his followers catapult to 25,000. The video is still his most-watched with 2.7 million views, and he now has over 100,000 subscribers to his YouTube channel, Ace Trainer Liam. He now makes enough money to survive off throu
Liam Edwards, of Derby, a Pokemon ace trainer who makes a living making Youtube vlogs. See NTI story NTIPOKE. A Pokemon gamer quit his job to become a full-time YouTuber - with millions of views making him almost £5,000 in one month. Liam Edwards, 28, from Derby, was working as a transport coordinator at a concrete company when he realised he didnt have any hobbies or interests. He had played videogame Pokemon Blue when it first came out in 1999, but after giving up he didnt play it again for 12 years until 2013, when he was hospitalised. He fell in love with Pokemon again and eventually decided to try making YouTube videos about Pokemon, slowly building up an audience of around 500 people. In July 2015, a video he had made that March called Top 5 Saddest Pokemon Goodbyes saw his followers catapult to 25,000. The video is still his most-watched with 2.7 million views, and he now has over 100,000 subscribers to his YouTube channel, Ace Trainer Liam. He now makes enough money to survive off throu

Liam Edwards, 28, became hooked on the Japanese videogame after first playing it in 1999 and he decided to start his own YouTube channel as a hobby.

His site became so popular with fans his videos were watched more than 2.7 million times by users across the world.

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In July 2015 he quit his job as a transport coordinator at a concrete company to work full time on his Pokemon channel, called ‘Ace Trainer Liam’ and can earn up to almost £5,000-a-month.

Liam runs his YouTube channel from his two-bedroom home in Derby which he shares with fiancé Lydia, 23.

He said: “I started after doing a nine-to-five job, working at a concrete company at the time, and found I was coming home from work and I had no hobbies or interests - I wasn’t really doing anything.

“I’d come home, sit in front of the TV and never achieve or do anything with my life.

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“I thought I’m just going to be doing the same nine-to-five for the rest of my life.

“Ultimately, I saw a few people making videos online and how passionate they were.

“I thought, ‘maybe I’ll have a go at that and see if it’s something I’m interested in doing.’

“I picked Pokemon because I know it really well, that will prompt me to put more effort into it.

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“The channel stayed very stagnant for a good eight months or so before it started to take off.

“I slowly built up an audience of 500 people but didn’t get a lot of views.

“Suddenly in July 2015 a video I uploaded in March 2015 called ‘Top 5 Saddest Pokemon Goodbyes’ suddenly started gaining views.

“I went from 500 to 25,000 subscribers.

“It’s always been a mystery to me.”

Despite coining in cash from advertisements, Liam’s YouTube career started slowly and he made just £300 last January.

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He said: “I thought, ‘maybe I’ve made a rash decision, but I’ll have to knuckle down.’

“The month I made £4,700, that was great.

“One month I’ll make two thousand dollars, the next six hundred.

“It depends on my view counts and ad rates.

“It’s possible to live off YouTube but it’s an unpredictable career.”

Related topics:YouTubePokemonDerby