Dropout, rebranded from CollegeHumor in September, nearly doubled its subscribers to mid-six figures. It also doubled its number of shows to seven new shows set to be released in 2024, Variety reported.
The mid-six figure number is minuscule when you compare it to the subscriber numbers of streaming giants such as Netflix, Disney and Prime Video. However, for Dropout, that growth isn't at all modest and definitely enviable at their scale.
From CollegeHumor to Dropout
The company's CEO, Sam Reich said, “There's still only seven shows on Dropout — nine if you're generous about what constitutes a show. And we're somewhere between seven and 10 times the size that we were when IAC dropped us, from an audience perspective.”
In, 2020 Barry Diller's IAC dropped then CollegeHumor, leaving it with only seven employees and selling it to then-CCO Reich before the COVID-19 pandemic started the lockdowns. Three years later, Dropout is profitable. Profitable enough to be able to go through its first profit sharing round with its now 17 full-time staffers. Reich said that the company will add more in early 2024.
“This era of hyper-premium content, $100 million dollar budgets on streaming shows, this era of AI, what it’s going to create is a counter market and the counter market is going to be for grass fed organic content, where you know the names of the cows producing your milk. That’s what we create and people respond to,” he stated.
Reich said the profit sharing really wasn't for PR.
He told Variety,”We took a portion of our profits for the year — which, we were profitable for the year, it was a privilege to be able to do this — and we redistributed it among anyone who had ever made $1 with us over the course of the year. So that includes cast and includes crew, includes folks who merely auditioned for us, because we pay folks to audition for us. But we had this sort of like minor moral crisis where we were like, we really don’t want to promote the fact that we did this too loudly. Because the point is to do good by these people.”
As for Dropout's biggest goal for 2024, Reich said that for near future “and probably forever”, is the next big show.
“I would say that development has been slow for us partially because we’re still in the process of developing that discipline. So over the past year, we did a huge amount to try to lock in, what is our development philosophy and process? And we will be premiering six shows in the next six to eight months,” he said.
Dimension 20 and Dungeons & Dragons
The streamer's most popular show is Dimension 20, which launched in 2018. It's a table-top role-playing game show often hosted by Brennan Lee Mulligan as the Dungeon Master. Most the games played in Dimension 20 is the Dungeons & Dragons 5th edition.
One of the show's most watched episodes was Dungeons & Drag Queens. It featured Bob the Drag Queen, Monét X Change, Alaska, and Jujubee. Most of the queens had never played D&D before. Clips of the episodes went viral on social media which proved that Dungeons & Dragons isn't inaccessible, even for those who've never played before.
Dimension 20 is currently hosting two live shows in the U.K. The first live show sold 12,000 seats in less than 24 hours. Reich said that the ticket sales — and how fast they were sold — clued them into a need for a live Dimension 20 that they hadn't known existed.
“I think commercially, again, we are so scared of taking our eye off the ball, that programming is always going to be like where 90% of our focus goes. I wouldn’t be surprised if we start flirting a little bit more with live events over the course the next few years,” he said.
Dropout Con
“I think the ultimate ambition is probably something akin to like a Dropout Con. That could be like five years away at this point. My personal ambition is to take shows to the Edinburgh Fringe, which is my favorite thing on the planet,” Reich added.
With how well Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves did this year, currently at a worldwide gross of $208.2 million against a $37.2 million budget, there is definitely a hunger for anything D&D.
Follow Us
Subscribe