As Twitch becomes more mainstream, it is expanding out from core gamer culture by drawing in a number of celebrities who also happen to game. For example, rapper Logic signed a deal with Twitch to exclusively stream on the platform, where he plays Warzone, Fortnite, and Among Us for thousands of viewers. With gaming fully entrenched in mainstream culture, it is not really surprising that celebrities try their hand at streaming. Twitch offers a more direct connection to fans, so a number of big names are trying it out. The latest to enter the fray is soccer star Neymar.
It has become much more common to have a celebrity drop into a game, or team up with a couple of well-known streamers to go for a win. Phoenix Suns' guard Devin Booker plays Call of Duty: Warzone in his downtime, and even found out that the NBA was suspending its season back in March while running Warzone with Call of Duty regulars Nadeshot and Cloakzy.
It should come as no surprise that athletes are competent gamers since the competitive aspect of gaming scratches the same itch. Neymar is just the latest to get in on the action, by starting up a Twitch channel and jumping into Counter-Strike: Global Offensive. Within hours, the Paris St. Germain striker had over 400,000 followers, with nearly 2 million views of his first stream. His team seems willing to let its star do what he wants with the Twitch channel, unlike some rather strict policies the WWE has placed on their talent regarding streaming.
Neymar played around in CS:GO for most of his first stream before dipping into Among Us. Originally released in 2018, Among Us has exploded in popularity over the summer with millions of players trying to unearth the imposter among them.
The Brazilian soccer star streamed in his native Portuguese, and his choice to play CS:GO did not come as a surprise to his many fans in Latin America, who traded stories on comment threads about playing Counter-Strike religiously growing up.
Twitch has been welcoming a number of their previous streamers back into the fold following the demise of Mixer, with Ninja (and others) signing new deals with the Amazon-owned streaming company. But, these aren't the only folks out there on Twitch, as the platform continues to reach a larger audience. From rappers to NBA stars, to soccer greats like Neymar, Twitch is becoming a place for all kinds of celebrities to hang out.
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