Copyright escapistmagazine
The Streamer Awards nominations are officially open and it's made me realize how little I care about streaming. The 5th annual Streamer Awards have been announced for December 6th, 2025. The tickets are now on sale and nominations are open. This means fans can submit any content creator under the sun for a variety of categories, with the most popular votes becoming the final nominations along with streamers selected by the event's panel. There are 35 friggin' categories for every kinda topic anyone could ever think of — even ones that sound like they were pulled out of someone's butt. There is a category for Best Reality Streamer but also Best IRL streamer... Am I out of touch or are these the same fucking thing? Then there's Best Rising Star and Best Breakout Streamer, which also sound obnoxiously similar with a few nuances. https://twitter.com/StreamerAwards/status/1982160833816772834 Streamers are basically long-form influencers now This may sound gatekeep-y, but I remember when Twitch was for video games. Competitive players, esports pros, and casual gamers alike used the streaming platform to livestream themselves grinding games and grew communities of gamers. Related: Emiru assaulted at TwitchCon, nothing much was done Now, there are streamers who just sit there and whine about politics, VTubers who talk in baby voices while reacting to TikToks, streamers who have a wardrobe malfunction every few days if you pay enough money, streamers who broadcast entire television series while offering barely any commentary, streamers addicted to gambling, streamers just filming themselves harassing strangers on the street... Again, I don't mean to gatekeep. If that's how Twitch has transformed over the years, that's fine. It's clearly what the general public wants. My point is that I personally am no longer interested. Twitch has become the new "Instagram influencer" platform, full of people who are not misfits attempting to find a community — they're just trying to make some cash, no matter what they gotta do. Fly to another country and get beat up by locals? Done. Beat up their friend during a subathon until he dies? Sure. Preach incel rhetoric to tweens who may want to buy a "how to hate women" course? More than done. Scream super loud as if they didn't know what would happen in their own skit they created with their leech, desperate-for-clout friends? Yep. How are people not bored? These are just influencers that make content instead of posting a still-frame image. Again, this is apparently what the youth likes. So, whatever works. But I just can't find the appeal anymore. The Streamer Awards are full of F-list celebrities that just want to be clipped on X but some stupid account paid by Stake to pretend they find it all real and funny. But anyway, nominations are open — if you can even think of any streamers you like enough to do so.
