Subathons have become commonplace on Twitch over the last 12 months as more streamers have adopted the long-broadcast style of content which incentivizes subscriptions. Popular Twitch streamer Sykkuno, who held his own version of a subathon in Sep. 2021, has shared his “spicy take” on how some content creators have been handling the popular streams.
Sykkuno said on March 20 that he’d noticed some streamers don’t commit to the idea, instead simply streaming as usual while remaining live and “sleeping” in their downtime.
“I am just done with those subathons where you just do a regular stream and then leave your stream on and say you’re sleeping for the next 12 hours, and then you just do a regular stream again the next day,” Sykkuno said.
“I’m not gonna say any specific names or anything, but I’ve seen so many subathons where they just do a regular stream and then they just sleep for 12 or 15 hours a day, and then they’re just farming subs the whole time.”
Sykkuno continued, explaining there isn’t really anything wrong with it because viewers will only sub if they choose to, but it’s not something he would do himself. “I can’t just do regular streams and then call it a subathon and say I’m sleeping and then go and play on my second computer for the rest of the day. It just feels weird to me.”
Subathons have been an extremely popular way for streamers to engage with their audiences and build up a fan base. The format typically sees streamers stay live until a timer reaches zero, but with each new sub more time is added to the clock.
While the format has been around for some time, it boomed to popularity in 2021 when Ludwig held a huge stream that catapulted his channel to the top of Twitch for the time. During the downtime in his streams, Ludwig had a team of crew members who held a podcast while he slept on-camera.
Like any Twitch trend, the format has pivoted slightly with many streamers avoiding sleeping on-stream and often disappearing mid-subathon for hours at a time.
