Artists and professionals alike generally tend to forget this when they think about 'the numbers'. If you get just a few hundred views (which most people can do within a decent amount of time spent doing a thing) on a YouTube video, an article, or any piece of content, you're doing well. Imagine thousands of views (also doable given enough time).

As you said, if the one hundred or one thousand people engaged with your content were all in a room together, you'd need a decent sized venue to house them all. And you'd actually be considered pretty popular or at least remarkable (worthy of people making remarks about you to others - Seth Godin)

It's all about perspective. Given this, I think some might be inclined to devalue online views as compared to in-person patronage; the idea being that getting people to come see you in person requires more drawing power.

So someone could reasonably say that online views aren't as meaningful as in-person patronage. In any case, online presence helps facilitate the live element of whatever you do. The more people who know and support you online, the more likely you are to have a bigger draw if you ever decide you want to bring what you do to a live audience.

Great insight.