Second Wind - Q4 2025 Financial Report + Upcoming Plans

Hey folks!

It's that time again for another quarterly report as we look back on 2025 and our plans for the year ahead!

/ REPORT BREAKDOWN

After a really busy Q3 for us, Q4 was a bit quieter, but still very productive. We've remained profitable now for three quarters in a row and I'm confident we will remain profitable in the months ahead. Thanks to your support, we were also able to transition Jess Hoops from a part-time role to a proper full-time role.

We're not hiring anyone new nor are we taking on any additional freelancers until we reverse the pay cuts that we took at the start of 2025. We're getting close to that point now with our internal goal being to have $150,000 left over in our warchest AFTER payroll before we reverse those cuts.

For 2026, our goal is to get our Patreon back to $50,000 / month which would give us some breathing room. That, plus our monthly YouTube revenue, would essentially cover our monthly costs and all the additional work we do via Sponsors, Work for Hire, Merchandise, etc would be able to go right into our Warchest to keep securing ourselves, allow us to do more fun projects, and increase people's pay overtime.

In Q4 we were very focused on getting our merch plans into high gear with the release of the long-awaited Adventure is Nigh S1 and S2 blu-ray sets that we had promised back when we got the rights back to the show.

Turns out, you really wanted them as we completely sold through every single signed copy we had prepped (400 of them)! We are prepping a restock of unsigned copies through DFTBA in the next little bit, and we are working on S3, S4 and the Side Quests for blu-rays. We will have signed copies for S3 available when they go up for pre-order.

We're also working on additional items, including the Fully Ramblomatic Vol 2. blu-ray and more. Expect to hear updates about all of those things before the end of Q1.

In general, Second Wind is in a good spot right now. Our core video series are all performing very well, we're having fun doing a lot of little experimental videos, and we're seeing more opportunities popping up on the work for hire side as we continue to build out that part of the business to bring in bigger contracts.

I'm extremely proud of the team for the work we did in becoming a more organized business in 2025. Second Wind was launched in a moment's notice, and we had some growing pains in 2024 as we really didn't have a moment to breathe.

In 2025 we improved our internal communications, we now have every other month check-ins with every member of the team for wellness checks, and everyone is putting out work to be proud of every single week.

It's a testament to the entire team and how well we work together, that with an independent media organization of this size and with many different creative personalities, that we're entering Year Three of this business and doing it profitably. We don't take for granted the job we have and the support we've been given.

Thank you.

/ UPCOMING PLANS

2025 was all about getting Second Wind to sustainability, getting our team more organized, and really locking down our core shows. 2026 will be about continuing to build on that sustainability, giving our livestreams and podcast a refresh, and continuing to do more experimental and fun projects that are just for us and the community.

You can expect to hear updates about Adventure is Nigh - Season 5 "soon". We're also prepping our very first games showcase event for April, and we'll be doing a charity stream early this spring. You can also expect to see more regular video essays from Marty going forward. I'm also working on another batch of Beyond the Pixels Podcast episodes as I write this.

An ethos that we're going to follow better in 2026 is not just making things that we think will get a lot of views but making things that we love doing even if the viewership isn't huge for it.

We just launched a new experimental video from Jack, A Mostly Improvised Dungeon, that received great feedback during its live premiere. This coming Monday, we'll also have a brand-new episode of Battle Masters to share with you that will feature all-new formatting!

Jack and Jesse Schwab have been working hard on this new iteration of Battle Masters that we think the community is going to love. It won't be a regular series for us, but when we have ideas for one, we'll make it going forward.

Things like the Lore Reads, Clueless Commentator, etc are all things we enjoy making and provide an added benefit to our Patreon backers to get exclusive videos like that. Our core series will always remain free, but Patreon will be the first (normally) to get new ideas when we have them.

We also plan to spend a bit more time on our Livestreams and Podcasts this year. Doing more "event" type episodes for retrospectives, big game launches, spoilercasts, rankings, etc. We want to make sure we have episodes scheduled in advance that you can look forward to rather than just coming up with random topics or just doing the weekly news grind.

The same on the livestream front. More launch day streams for anticipated games, the return of more semi-regular multiplayer Game Night streams, and more "events" in general.

If you have any ideas you'd like us to tackle on either of the fronts, do let us know in the comments below! We won't be making any drastic changes in 2026, but continuing to improve on what we already offer and making more one-off videos and events to keep things fresh.

I do plan to revisit some of our Patreon tiers here in the near future though to change up some benefits that aren't being used and to optimize what we do offer. Keep an eye out for a feedback form on that soon.

Thanks for all your support and we're looking forward to our third year of Second Wind!

Nick Calandra
Editor in Chief