You only need a few; I have a Patreon for my comics and so far I've gathered about eighty people willing to pay $1-5 per page, times 6-8 pages most months. Which covers most of my rent and expenses; doing private commissions fills in the gaps. They mostly have IT jobs and like the stuff I'm putting out for free enough to support it, fifty bucks a month is a drop in the bucket compared to what they're paying for rent in SF or Seattle or whatever.
And I am absolutely nobody, I have all of like 1700 followers on Twitter, and am pretty much absent from other corporate social platforms.
Not to pile on, but people give small monthly sums to all kinds of individuals and organizations for any number of reasons. It’s a huge factor for small and large publishers and creators alike. In many cases it’s outpacing ad revenue entirely. It’s great because it allows more freedom and incentivize quality.
I currently pay this price for several of the Patreons I support, I'm not sure what makes this any different. I'd certainly rather throw money at a small handful of good content creators; quality over quantity, and my time is limited anyway.
And I am absolutely nobody, I have all of like 1700 followers on Twitter, and am pretty much absent from other corporate social platforms.