![]() ![]() I usually describe it as ‘gamer bro politics,’” Bonnell says. And it feels like the chatrooms and most of the large streaming content, even in video games, break a bit to the right as well. “It feels unfair to paint the entire site with a broad brush in terms of political belief, but I would say in general, the chat probably breaks a bit further to the right. These gamers have provided recruits for the right wing Bonnell’s work lays out a different path. That makes Bonnell an exception on the platform and, more broadly, in gaming, where, if anything, people tend to skew toward libertarianism. If a streamer is playing a game while filming themselves, they’ll either split the screen or superimpose their image over the action. Things only get messier when streamers invite colleagues to join in.īonnell’s particular Twitch niche is debating conservative internet personalities and staking out mostly progressive positions. Twitch streamers often sell viewers the ability to interrupt their broadcast with pop-up text or spoken messages Bonnell charges a $5 minimum for the privilege. A running chat scrolls across the stream, while stray, ambient noises accompany spontaneous graphics announcing things like new premium subscriptions. Twitch broadcasters have also been streaming more: from February to March, the number of hours users streamed on the platform jumped from 37 million to 49 million.įor the uninitiated, Twitch is sensory chaos. While most streamers’ individual viewership numbers have followed an upward trajectory predating the virus, across the platform April’s viewership represented a roughly 71 percent increase from February, according to TwitchTracker. With people shuttered in their homes with nowhere to go and little to do during coronavirus lockdowns, many streamers have seen increases in their viewership and fanbases, according to SullyGnome, a Twitch analytics site. Every month, more than 2 million people use it to stream, while 15 million watch daily, making it one of the largest online spaces that most people over 30 have probably never heard of. Amazon, which ranks the almost nine-year-old site as one of the world’s 50 most visited websites, acquired it in 2014 for $970 million. ![]() His video is shared on Twitch, the most popular gaming livestream platform, where many have built lucrative careers. He sometimes doesn’t finish until early the next morning, with little to no break, often not consuming more than a single meal in the process. When I visited him in his Glendale, California, apartment, the wiry 31-year-old with an Edward Snowden beard-and-glasses combination had woken up just in time to grab a hot chocolate from a nearby Starbucks before beginning to stream around noon. You can also listen to Ali Breland's story read aloud:īonnell warns that “gamer bro politics” are influencing internet conversations. “I don’t know if I’ve ever debated a smart conservative,” he says to me, turning away from his computer in frustration as she kept up a monologue.īonnell is a professional video game streamer who makes his living broadcasting nearly constant footage of himself, usually talking politics, playing video games, debating people, or some combination of the three. The woman, a lower-profile conservative internet figure, had been slated to talk with him about police brutality, but the plan was thrown after she got mad that he called her an “anti-vaxxer.”Īs she lobbed insults, Bonnell hardly raised his voice. “You are retarded,” it continued.īonnell, who livestreams his life under the pseudonym Destiny, was in the middle of a debate that had gone way off the rails. “You a bitch-made motherfucker,” says a woman’s voice coming from his computer. Fight disinformation: Sign up for the free Mother Jones Daily newsletter and follow the news that matters. ![]()
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