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YouTube Star Turns Warhammer Hobby into Global Business from Umeå

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Key Points
  • Emil Nyström runs the world's largest YouTube channel in its niche focused on painting Warhammer figures, with nearly 800,000 subscribers and about ten employees.
  • His company is expanding into new products like board games and role-playing games, benefiting from a pandemic-driven surge in figure gaming interest.
  • Umeå is described as having an extremely large culture for this hobby, possibly the largest in Sweden or the world, reflecting its prominence in the community.

Emil Nyström works with his childhood hobby of painting small Warhammer figures and making YouTube videos of it, according to official sources. According to SVT Nyheter, Emil Nyström described his channel as the largest in the world in its niche, though the exact comparison to global competitors remains unclear. His company has about ten employees, almost 800,000 subscribers, and even more viewers, official sources report, but its financial performance and specific audience demographics beyond subscriber count are not publicly disclosed.

The company is currently developing its own board games, role-playing games, many figures, and physical products, according to official sources. According to SVT Nyheter, Emil Nyström described this expansion as aiming to have as much fun as possible, though the specific games and products under development are unknown. Interest in figure games saw a major upswing during the coronavirus pandemic, official sources indicate, contributing to the hobby's growth.

We are the largest in the world in our niche, it's really fun. In Umeå, not many people recognize you, and your kids don't give a damn about how many followers you have on the internet.

Emil Nyström, YouTube creator and entrepreneur

Andreas Bäckström opened his game store in the 1990s, according to official sources, providing historical context for the hobby's evolution. According to SVT Nyheter, Andreas Bäckström described the stereotypically nerdy hobby as more accepted today, especially among people in their 30s who were into it when younger, highlighting changing social attitudes. Umeå has an extremely large culture for this hobby, possibly the largest in Sweden or even the world, according to Emil Nyström.

According to SVT Nyheter, Emil Nyström described Umeå's prominence, though the exact number of active participants in the city is not confirmed, reinforcing its role in the figure gaming community.

Just now we are developing our own board games, role-playing games, lots of figures, and physical products. Then the goal is to have as much fun as possible.

Emil Nyström, YouTube creator and entrepreneur

This stereotypically nerdy hobby is more accepted today. I had a guy in who was almost middle-aged and wanted to start painting figures, that would never have happened 15 years ago.

Andreas Bäckström, Game store owner

We have an extremely large culture in Umeå, there is nowhere in Sweden that is as big, maybe even in the world.

Emil Nyström, YouTube creator and entrepreneur
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