The streamer Hasan “HasanAbi” Piker was the big winner on Twitch during the US election 2020, which started on November 3rd. The talk streamer is known for his views on politics. At its peak, he had up to 226,000 viewers who wanted to know how it would turn out from HasanAbi, not from CNN or Fox News.
This is Hasan Abi: Hasan Piker (29) is an American with Turkish roots. Although he is on Twitch as HasanAbi, he is not a big gaming streamer. The 29-year-old is mostly found in “Just Chatting”. There, he is known for his leftist political views and his willingness to debate.
He is firmly rooted in Twitch culture and also engages in some silly antics. For instance, he extensively discussed with an insider about the Twitch ban of Dr Disrespect and is constantly suspected of being the mysterious “boyfriend” of streamer Pokimane, who is being intensely searched for.
He was also present during the “Among Us” streams when left-wing congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez dipped her toes into the gaming and streaming world: That was a huge event before the US election.
But generally, he dedicates himself to serious topics. HasanAbi often invites guests to discuss political issues with him.
For the year, HasanAbi is situated in the upper mid-range of Twitch, somewhere in the top 500. In the politically charged year in the USA, he was already climbing. However, during the US election, HasanAbi’s channel skyrocketed to unknown heights.
What the channel showed during the US election: Twitch viewers apparently wanted to know from him how things were going with the election, which was dragging on. Hasan Abi broadcast Trump’s speech when he announced he would challenge the election in court, and had an immediate live reaction: He couldn’t believe it.
Oft nutzt HasanAbi dann fremde Quellen, Tweets, Zeitungs-Artikel oder Videos, um auf dieser Basis Informationen zu vermitteln und Diskussionen anzustoßen. Ähnlich wie xQc ist das ein Kanal, der von “Reactions” getrieben wird. Der Streamer reagiert auf Dinge, die er gerade sieht, in Echtzeit, und spricht mit seinen Fans und anderen darüber. Der Chat spielt eine wichtige Rolle.
Sein Kanal hat dabei einige Highlights zu bieten und wechselt rasch im Ton. Während man in einem Moment noch Statistiken betrachtet und analysiert, wird im nächsten Moment gelacht und geflachst.
The streams have sometimes gone over 10 hours in the last few days.
People follow the election on Twitch and root for it
This is how successful Hasan Abi is now:
In the days since the election, HasanAbi’s channel has practically exploded. In the last 7 days, HasanAbi (via sullygnome):
- reached nearly 90,000 viewers on average – 320% more than the previous week. Especially the streams on November 3rd and 4th averaged 157,300 and 133,700 viewers, respectively, lasting over 10 hours. These are colossal numbers.
- gained 140,000 followers – that’s an increase of 770%
- peak viewership on November 3rd, entertaining 226,974 viewers simultaneously
Thus, HasanAbi surpassed people like the constant CS:GO player Gaules, xQc, or the German Knossi, who set a viewer highlight with the Horror Camp.
Twitch is opening up to topics beyond gaming
This is the interesting part: Twitch started as a pure gaming platform, but is increasingly becoming a universal source of information and entertainment for a younger generation that goes beyond just gaming, similar to YouTube.
Twitch is becoming a kind of “customized live television on demand.”
Streamers watch series together with their fans, react to YouTube clips, or chat for hours with their chat. A WoW streamer fought his depression live on Twitch while cleaning his cluttered apartment.
People show on Twitch how to build a boat, how to cook or paint. Bob Ross reruns have become a cult. There are regularly issues when body painters undress and paint in front of the camera.
Someone like Hasan Abi proves that you can be successful on Twitch even with a format focused on politics when an election heats up the country and the world as it has in recent days.
Especially before the election, Twitch became more politicized. It seems that the left party in the USA, the Democrats, understand Twitch better. US politician Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez reached over 600,000 viewers in a major Twitch event with some top streamers before the election. Some of them may have gone to vote specifically because of these events.
Ocasio-Cortez called for voting for “progressive” candidates:
Politician understands Twitch – 600,000 see how she slaughters, marvels, and deceives
