LEP 29.6.

[yvannairie]

Tbh something I think about a lot the more I casually watch streamers (my problem is that I am always either asleep or at work when all the Big Name Yankees/Canadians are online) is that we all know that a lot of Youtubers and streamers functionally owe their career to the pandemic. A lot of streamers started because they lost their jobs or were transitioned into WFH, and there was nowhere to go and be during the quarantine, and a lot of people who previously hadn't cared about streaming started watching more of it for the hangout aspect of it, because the chats and communities of these streamers provided a third space and a social hangout, also because the audience had nowhere to be during quarantine.

But what I'm really curious about is how the streamer boom changed the general media consumption habits of the people who got deep into streamers. I know that after 2022 the streamer/Youtube market had a bit of a bubble burst, and now in 2025 we're seeing the long-term fallout from online video no longer being as lucrative and selling adspace no longer having the big payouts it did before. Like, regardless of the pie getting smaller, streaming is definitely way more popular in 2024-25 than it was in 2018-19. A lot of people who used to watch tv and streaming services casually have simply stopped, the blame being laid in the feet of streaming services for becoming worse products, but I'm curious what percentage of those people get their entertainment from the kind of live performances streamers provide instead.

Comments

[palominocorn]

Have people stopped watching TV/streaming services? I know a lot of people who watch social media videos, but all of them also watch a lot of TV as well. TBH when I tell people I don't watch TV, people were less likely to respond incredulously ten years ago than they are now.

I don't know very many people who watch game streaming, or any kind of streaming with a chat function involved, though. Asynchronous, passive streaming is the dominant form in my circles.

[yvannairie]

Huh! I mean I guess it depends on if streaming TV counts as streaming or TV! Pretty much everyone I know has stopped watching tv on tv except for sports, but will call pulling up something from a streaming service "watching TV" b/c "TV show" connotates an episoding narrative format rather than medium.

Also, yes, I should have mentioned it but watching vods and highlights, in my books, counts as watching streaming. I am in the wrong timezone and the wrong work schedule to watch most streamers I like live but I still watch more of them than I watch anything else.

[palominocorn]

Yeah, aside from a few people who watch sports, I don't think I know anyone who uses cable. If we're talking about cable, that was on the decline for a long time: TV streaming is easier to set up, gives you a lot more flexibility, and, at least around here, cheaper. TV streaming isn't as much of a thing as four years ago, but it's still HUGE around here. (Me: I dont have any streaming services. Friend: Me neither. Well, except Netflix. And Hulu. And Amazon Prime, of course.)

For the most part, my anecdata is that people only watch live streams when there's a big event going on. Which means that they're not engaging with the community aspect of a live stream, and only engaging with it... well, like TV. Most online communications seem to be social media and chat app based around here.

[yvannairie]

Yeah, like, I watch streamers largely for the improvisational performance part of it all. I don't really get anything out of hanging out in someone's chat as a participant. For me, it's almost fully replaced watching/rewatching TV shows and anime, and I tend to watch stuff more actively these days.

[palominocorn]

I think there are a lot of people who do it like you do, except I've noticed that, around here (big liberal urban area in the US) a number of people treat these parasocial relationships as replacements for human interaction. And also for activism, reading the news, and any kind of information gathering. I don't think that's a healthy way of going about it.

[yvannairie]

I think... that's a bit beyond what I was trying to discuss, but I do know what you mean, and the parasociality is one of the reasons I'm not in the chats or the Discords of any of the people I like watching.