The New Legitimacy of Twitch Streaming
The line between the celebrity world and that of online creators has been continuously blurring with no sign of coming back into focus. As new online platforms begin gaining worldwide attention and eclipsing their media predecessors, more and more, we have watched these worlds collide like never before. The interactive livestreaming app Twitch is the latest online platform to facilitate this phenomenon and has rapidly developed into one of the most dynamic online entertainment arenas for nonstop consumption and unending profit from various ends.
Today, there is no social media experience devoid of content from Twitch streamers. Even if you’re not one of the 240 million active users on Twitch watching hundreds of thousands of streamers, that content will inevitably find its way to your screen. Daily, bite-sized clips delivering humorous, chaotic, or discourse-provoking moments are posted to other social media platforms in hopes of going viral. These clips, often mirroring vlogs, obscure the fact that hundreds, thousands, or in even some cases, millions of people have watched that moment play out in real time.
To capture a massive live audience of that magnitude in 2025 is no small feat. While live media produced for traditional platforms like television and radio is in slow decline, the dominance of Twitch is an indicator that the desire for the spontaneity and potential chaos of liveness is still alive and well—especially among younger audiences. For some older Gen-Z and Millennials, this desire for online live interactions was pursued through the use of broadcast apps like YouNow and Omegle, both of which have faded over the rise of other social media. That said, it can be noticed that there is a perceived lapse in authenticity in much of traditional media that could potentially be recovered through online channels.
From the breadth of content going beyond gaming, the 48-hour streaming limit, and subscription model that incentivizes fans with immediate rewards, Twitch has become the go-to livestream app for both viewers and streamers. Through these specific features, and the rise of all new kinds of dominating online creators, Twitch streams have, once again, rearticulated our relationship to online creators, redefined the perception of long-form content and media stimulus, and broadened the bounds of what we consider consumable content.
Taking early YouTube’s largely uncensored quality, adding an inviting set up and lower-production value frame, along with the promise of ‘nonstop’ entertainment and live community, together these elements cultivate a special connectivity. One that makes viewers feel less like spectators in the creation of a community, but as active participants through viewing and the chat.
Some of the most popular streamers on the app do not subscribe to one genre of stream, instead opting to do a plethora of activities and challenges, making themselves the biggest draw. There is no other creator more notable for this than Kai Cenat–the largest streamer on Twitch with 20 million followers, and over 300,000 paying subscribers.
As he rose in popularity, his notoriety among celebrities did as well.Today, his streams regularly feature prominent celebrities such as Selena Gomez, Kim Kardashian, Nicki Minaj, Snoop Dogg, and Mariah Carey, along with athletes like LeBron James and Serena Williams, and even childhood icons like Bill Nye the Science Guy and Victoria Justice. Fans never quite know who they are going to be greeted with when they join his stream, and this wide spanning reach gives Cenat limitless possibilities for the future.
As another similarity to YouTube, this phenomena with Cenat is reminiscent of the mid-to-late-2010s where prominent YouTubers began experimenting with mainstream media channels and asserting their influence. One could point to YouTuber Lily Singh, who infamously earned a spot in the late night roster with A Little Late with Lily Singh to no avail from critics and audiences. Additionally, YouTuber and former Viner Liza Koshy received criticism after hosting the 2019 Met Gala interviews for Vogue. Differently from Cenat, what seemingly makes the partnership between Cenat and other celebrities so well received is the growing mutual understanding regarding the dominance of the internet channels for marketing and fanfare which has shifted celebrity and audience attitudes about the intermingling of these personalities.
These collabs–which generally involve them partaking in fun challenges, singing, dancing, or simply hanging out in his house–work differently than a typical influencer marketing strategy and events, as it's the celebrity stepping into the streaming environment. Further, the situation creates a more stripped back environment that is meant to be ‘the real’ version of themselves or a more laid-back and whimsical version of their persona which may be enticing to fans who know little about a celebrity outside of their cultural product. This becomes increasingly valuable when you recognize that these creators have a young audience that may be hard to target in a more natural solo manner. As well as that, for those who do not watch the streamer but know the celebrity, there is a kind of absurd visual juxtaposition of seeing them in the gaming chair.
Overall, it works as a kind of soft marketing that is a sign of the rapidly intertwining media landscape. It will be interesting to see if this intermingling will come in waves as it did with YouTube, and if the conversations around influencers in traditional media will evolve as now the alternative media sites are more mainstream than ever.
