Talented gamer who earns thousands without leaving her Wigan bedroom moves a step closer to her American dream

In August, Wigan Today featured the amazing story of 20-year-old Natalie Barnes, who rakes in £7,000 a month from a worldwide audience of people watching her gaming exploits without even leaving her bedroom.

The article gained tremendous publicity nationally and Natalie is now hopeful she can be sponsored by an American gaming company to visit Austin, Texas - the epicentre of the gaming industry - and build up her profile even further as a gamer and content creator.

She said: "The number of viewers I have is growing on all platforms. Before I was ready to give up, but now I'm a lot more optimistic about moving to America.

"If I do get a sponsorship deal, I'll get a monthly fee to do promotional content for them. But nothing's been finalised yet so I can't say any more about it until it's announced in January."

Natalie, who attended Hawkley Hall High School, previously described how she was bullied while trying to make a name for herself in the male-dominated world of gaming.

However, such was her determination that she deferred the offer of a place at the University of Liverpool to read law in order to pursue her first love and make a career out of it.

Her passion for gaming began at the age of 11 in the bedroom of her Wigan family home, where she first started showcasing her talents.

As she grew up and honed her skills, she went from just a handful of viewers to hundreds of subscribers that were willing to splash their cash to watch her incredible abilities.

But it didn't come easy - Natalie had to “grind out” a career by spending more than six hours a night behind her console while juggling school and work.

She said: “I was exhausted every single day but I tried my best to grind because I knew I wanted to make it. People [now] watch me from all over the world, including America, Australia, Japan and China, and I do all this from the comfort of my bedroom on my PC setup. I've been invited to multiple tournaments and have won $1,000-plus in tournaments and streaming has been my full-time job for a couple of years."

Natalie is now the most-watched female in Europe on the first-person shooter game Apex Legends and also features among its top-10 players.

She also receives extra money through sponsorship deals with corporate clients who want to advertise with her user base. And while she's now become a celebrity within the world of gaming, she still lives with her parents, where she spends nearly all her time streaming her games.

She said: “Since taking it up full-time, I've started to make a name for myself. From starting with an average of five viewers and basically no money, I now peak on viewer counts of 600 concurrent people watching and I'm very well known as a streamer. At events, I'm asked for autographs and pictures and sometimes it doesn't feel real that all this is happening to a young woman from Wigan.”

Natalie met her boyfriend, a US-based professional player who goes under the online name of Gild, but whose real name is Zach Dennis, while visiting tournaments.

She added: “As much as I love my town, I could go on forever with why I want to venture to the United States – friendships, my relationship, the weather, business opportunities, tournaments, mental health. There is a lot. My parents support me all the way."