While many may not have heard of ‘Viva la Dirt League’, their kids probably have. 

Self-described as a ‘bunch of nerds who play games and make comedy sketches about games,’ they’re a YouTube sketch comedy group and independent production company based in New Zealand.  

But what was once a channel that made a couple of hundred dollars a month has grown into a multi-million dollar business, with millions of subscribers, billions of views, and their own streaming platform.  

It was founded by Alan Morrison and Adam King in 2011, with Rowan Bettjeman joining a couple years later.  

Like many, the content they produce has changed throughout the years – beginning with parodies before pivoting into shortform comedy when it became unprofitable.  

“We pivoted pretty hard into comedy sketches quite early,” Morrison told Mike Hosking. 

“Like two or three years in. We literally found there was a tech store called Playtech that allowed us to film there after hours,” he said.  

“And we just filmed in the store and got like, one sketch out every couple of weeks.” 

For some success comes fast and hard, but for others like Viva la Dirt League, it takes a bit longer. 

“It’s been a slow burn across out entire lifespan,” King told Hosking. 

“There were the odd sketch here and there, we’ve had a few, what you’d call ‘viral successes.’” 

But it wasn’t until they committed to a consistent schedule that they really started to take off. 

“When we were committed to doing three videos a week, the algorithm was like, okay, these guys are reliable and started to present us,” Morrison explained. 

But consistency isn’t the only factor in the group’s success.  

“Part of our success and the success of people online is people don't necessarily want you to just make the exact same thing over and over,” King said.  

“They want to see your creativity, and often the videos that do best are the ones that we’ve thrown our heart and soul into that might be a little bit different.”  

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