Twitch moves a mile a minute and the latest trend is to fart into your microphone in an ASMR stream once you surpass a certain number of subscribers. Look, it's 2021; I don't try to predict what's next for planet Earth anymore.
Kaitlyn "Amouranth" Siragusa and Jenelle "Indiefoxx" Dagres - two of the most famous streamers on the platform and proponents of the massively popular hot tub meta - recently shifted to ASMR streams. ASMR was already a considerably large category on Twitch yet it saw a sudden surge in popularity when Siragusa, Dagres and other content creators with significant followings came on the scene.
Between May and June, the number of concurrent viewers rose by almost 30% with more than three million hours watched in the last week, according to Twitch Tracker. It's difficult to deny that Siragusa and Dagres' arrival didn't have an impact on these statistics, but it's what they were doing in their ASMR streams that led to a lot of criticism. Dressed in costumes like maid outfits and D.Va cosplay, the streamers would lick their binaural microphones for a certain period of time for a certain number of subscribers. In Dagres' streams, you could pay extra for eye contact while she licked the microphone, and the streamers would lie on their beds or with their legs above their heads holding the microphone close to their faces.
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This new meta is only one of the wildest things to ever happen on Twitch, and we've got a compilation of the most incredible wins and the most terrible fails right here.
That was before they were banned, of course, and at present, it's unknown when the two will be reinstated on the streaming service. While Twitch created a new Pools, Hot Tubs and Beaches category to "control the content" that had caused so much controversy last month, detractors are arguing that the company doesn't have a lot of wiggle room when it comes to these licking ASMR streams. That room is reduced even further when considering that some are farting into their microphones for subscriber goals. One of these streamers was Dagres, who asked for 600 or 700 subscribers in exchange for a fart into the microphone. I'm not joking. A fart. Into the microphone.
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Sasha Grey has poked fun at the trend by creating fart noises with her mouth and a whoopie cushion for subscribers, and plenty of others are baffled by how the ASMR meta has developed.
"It is possible to respect Amouranth's and Indiefoxx's hustle while also thinking that their content is bad for the business viability of Twitch and other Twitch streamers," said HarrisHeller on Twitter.
There's also been scrutiny over Twitch's community guidelines as content that is "sexually suggestive" and therefore inappropriate comprises "focus on breasts, buttocks, or pelvic region, including poses that deliberately highlight these elements." We don't know why Sigurasa and Dagres have been banned because the company hasn't specifically said. However, it's thought that their poses and the licking of microphones are the issues. We'll update you when we learn more on this bizarre meta.
Featured Image Credit: Indiefoxx via Twitch/Amouranth via Twitch