We’re so back. A newish year and the triumphant return of Inside Baseball Week can only mean one thing: a refreshed list of subscriber goals. Let’s get to it.
If you’re visiting Aftermath for the first time, welcome! Aftermath is a worker-owned, reader-supported site about games, the internet, and everything that comes after. We hope you stick around. If you’ve been around for a minute, you’re probably well aware that we’re an entirely reader-funded operation. Still, we must continually bang that drum because subscriptions really and truly do keep us alive. The upside of all this is that we’re not beholden to any execs, investors, or other companies. As a result, we can publish whatever we see fit.
In the past year alone, our loyal reader base has allowed us to write about game devs being forced to leave the industry as a result of rampant layoffs; the quiet, often undignified labor of freelance games journalists; how they don’t make anime like they used to; the many different ways generative AI is being unsuccessfully shoehorned into everything; Twitch CEO Dan Clancy’s effort to get everybody to like him (and how it ultimately failed); the conspiracy theory that gave rise to gaming’s modern far-right grifter-verse; the plight of leftist influencers following Trump’s election victory; how the myth of the star reporter is reshaping journalism; Xbox’s rot economy; why everybody should make their own website to stop the internet from sucking; why it’s futile to fight racism with logic; Elon Musk’s embarrassing gaming setup; Taiwanese arcade cabinet renovation projects; hacked espresso machines; cleaning products; popcorn toppings; and Sanrio’s truly bonkers quest to become the next Disney. We’ve also counted Gokus and interviewed a dog (twice).
Last year, we kicked off our first subscriber drive, pairing longer-term goals with subscriber totals we estimated would allow us to realize our wildest (and more realistic) dreams. We want readers to understand where their money is going, and so far, it’s proven to be a winning formula. As of when this post was originally written, we were at 4,350 paying subscribers, up from 2,850 this time last year (UPDATE: Now we have even more! Thank you!). The additional funds have allowed us to run freelance pieces, sell merch, launch a new podcast, bring on a regular contributor, plan an in-person party (still to come; we’re aiming for when the weather improves), and give ourselves raises that don’t quite equate to a full-time salary, but we’re getting there.
Now it’s time for another, even more ambitious list of goals. As we said last year, these are ballpark figures; a year of being in business has shown us that some things are harder to map to straight subscriber numbers than others. We’ve also moved or removed a couple un-reached goals from last year’s list, which we realized with the benefit of time would prove either more costly or intensive than initially expected.
4,450 - Where we're at now
4,475 - We extend Inside Baseball Week.
4,500 - More frequent pieces from even cooler freelancers.
4,800 - We can pay somebody to write a regular column for the site.
5,000 - We can all do this full-time and not be poor!
5,200 - We can bring on people to help us with more specialized tasks (a dedicated businessperson, someone to focus on our social media accounts and promotion, etc).
5,500 - More merch drops!
5,800 - We can bring on another regular contributor to keep Isaiah company.
6,000 - A second party, and we can cover Luke’s travel costs (unless he decides he never wants to set foot in America again, which would be totally understandable).
6,300 - We can travel to and cover events more regularly.
6,500 - We can hire another full-time staff member!
99,999 - Inside Baseball Year.
100,000 - We will purchase what little remains of G/O Media and fire somebody whose name rhymes with Spim Janfeller (out of a cannon).
150,000 - We will purchase what little remains of G/O Media and fire somebody whose name rhymes with Spim Janfeller (out of a gold-embossed cannon).
As with last year, we plan to regularly update this page – and let everybody know when we do so – to ensure that readers can follow along at home. If you’d like to kick off that process by subscribing or going up a subscription tier (which will grant you access to our comment section and Discord), you can do so here. Or if you’d like to supercharge this whole operation, we also have a tips jar where you can donate whatever you want (RICH PEOPLE PLEASE NOTICE THIS).
Thank you! With your help, we can reduce 2025 to a smoking crater in the ground and, once again, save the world with the power of blogs.
