{"id":12880,"date":"2024-12-28T17:48:16","date_gmt":"2024-12-29T00:48:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mattfife.com\/?p=12880"},"modified":"2024-12-22T19:21:16","modified_gmt":"2024-12-23T02:21:16","slug":"hens333-goes-down-the-twitch-streamer-rabbit-hole","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mattfife.com\/?p=12880","title":{"rendered":"Hens333 goes down the Twitch streamer rabbit hole"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The Dead by Daylight Twitch streamer Hens333<\/a> was curious about a streamer’s meteoric rise, and couldn’t figure it out. The streamer didn’t appear to have any decent content, didn’t seem very big in the community – but was getting massive viewer counts. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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So, he dug into it and then went on a massive data deep-dive and believes he found what the internet dreads – that it could likely be a whole empire of fake views and purchased popularity – all to get lucrative sponsorships.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Check out his epic analysis here: https:\/\/www.twitch.tv\/videos\/2333312919?t=00h46m30s<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

If Hens333<\/a> is right, then the streamer is simply buying views via streaming viewer bots<\/a> (here too<\/a> and countless other similar bot services) that give his videos very suspiciously consistent and high viewer counts, buying twitter retweets, possibly even paying to have articles written about him<\/a>, and then has little gambling minigames which are likely only won by the bot accounts. The goal: get yourself rank in the top 30 most watched Dead by Daylight streamers<\/a> on SullyGnome<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Doing a little napkin math, he is likely spending $1000-2000 per month for bot accounts based on his viewer counts. Why would you do this? Ego?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A quick look at his Twitch page clears it all up. Sponsorships. His Twitch page is littered with dozens and dozens of sponsors. <\/p>\n\n\n

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If all this is true, then it means he might be making $10,000’s per month on sponsors with only a $1000-$2000 per month outlay. Some note he isn’t even playing the games many times – just showing replays of previous sessions. One more highly suspicious data point is that just about ALL his youtube videos have less than 50 views<\/a>:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The streamer in question is realzbluewater<\/a>, and if he is doing this, he is likely committing criminal fraud by misrepresenting his actual viewer count to advertisers. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

This could come with serious legal repercussions as well as criminal charges. He wouldn’t be the first. Charlie Javice<\/a> is now up on charges that she deceived JP Morgan<\/a> about the number of actual users of her college financial planning company called Frank. They alleged that Javice even paid a data-science professor $18,000 for a list of more than four million fake student names. She claims JP Morgan simply didn’t do their due diligence. Right now, she’s up on Federal charges for securities fraud, wire fraud, bank fraud, and conspiracy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I personally believe there is a lot of the kind of fraud Javice is accused of. It’s been pretty much rampant by people on Forbes 30 under 30 list (more comically being called Forbes 30 doing 30 list<\/a>). It’s also ridiculously easy. Purchasing views and reposts for any social media account is just a google click away. You can buy thousands of re-Tweets, Twitch views, Youtube views, fake comments, Instagram followers, Facebook upvotes – and just about anything else for just a little bit of money. Just google it and you’ll find tons of services that do all these things for under $50.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I sure hope realzbluewater is legit. If he’s not, he’s likely committing criminal fraud and could be sued by his sponsors and face jail time. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Twitch is likely not cracking down for 3 reasons. Firstly, they get ad revenue if the views or real or not. Secondly, even if they detect this, they can’t ban streamers when they detect bots swarming a channel or others could use those kinds of attacks to get streamers taken down or banned. Finally, the increase of numbers helps Twitch too. Twitch has been struggling financially<\/a> and definitely could use all the viewers they can get – even if the majority of them are bots.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Just one more likely datapoint for the Dead Internet Theory<\/a>. If this kind of fraud is becoming more rampant (and I believe it is), there is going to be a reckoning. Advertisers are going to start asking questions about fake numbers and realize they’re getting ripped off. When the reckoning starts, people better have long, clean records when the investigations begins – because the hosting sites will blame the streamers, and the streamers will likely be thrown under the bus.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Note to self: great business idea. Start a company that does user\/data verification and fraud analysis services. When the day comes, everyone will want you.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Links:<\/p>\n\n\n\n