Over a dozen Overwatch streamers got a pretty significant Christmas gift over the last 2 days – an influx of cash totally nearly $25,000. The money has been contributed in various ways including Bits (Twitch’s Platform Currency), Gifted Subs and direct cash donations.
Anyone familiar with Twitch as a platform (and other streaming sites) know the importance of support from viewers. For most streamers, the crossover from a part-time hobby, to full-time career comes thanks to their audience. Financial support tends to come in a ‘many hands make light work’ way. Multiple people pay $5/month or send a few dollars a week, and as the audience grows, presumably, so too does the bar of financial support. This is a completely different story – one we’ve not really seen before. All of this money has come from ONE person in less than 48 hours.
DECEMBER 27-30 UPDATE: Kid12246 is back at it with the big support of streamers this week! The numbers have been updated below to reflect this new flooding of money (in italics).
What Overwatch Streamers Received the Support?
The group of streamers that received financial support is fairly diverse. The vast majority are Twitch Partners, most whom play at a very high level (Masters and above). The amount they received is seemingly random, with no clear indication of why some received more than others. Here’s the full rundown:
- Mushu – 351,100 Bits
- ChipSa – 103,500 Bits
- Kephrii – 102,000 Bits
- Gale_Adelade – 50,000 Bits
- Haughtmeal – 50,000 Bits
- KITTU – 48,810 Bits
- SarahJane – 46,045 Bits
- Fareeha – 36,000 Bits
- Dafran – 25,301 Bits
- Holiwhirl – 20,000 Bits
- ml7support – 12,550 Bits
- Karq – 11,630 Bits
- KhaleesiBB – 11,420 Bits
- TimTheTatman – 4560 Bits
- BeefTipsy – 1650 Bits
- Vale – 1500 Bits
Bits are worth 1-cent to a streamer and are purchased for as little as 100 Bits for $1.40, or volume discount 25,000 Bits for $308. In Bits alone, the above would cost $10,793.13. Donations are harder to track directly unless listed publicly, but we’ve noted at least $5035 in direct cash. Lastly, Gifted Subs are purchased for $4.99 each, and from what we can tell about 1503 have been gifted for a total cost of $7499.97.
As of December 30th, he has dropped another $17,000 on streamers, Here are the new donos:
- Mushu – 568,500 Bits + 600 Gifted Subs
- Avocado – 112,795 Bits + 500 Gifted Subs
- ChipSa – 2545 Bits + 110 Gifted Subs
- Aspen – 25,000 Bits + 50 Gifted Subs
- RetroGaijin* – 11,420 + 130 Gifted Subs
- Fareeha – 60,420 Bits
- KhaleesiBB – 50,120 Bits
- SarahJade – 46,045 Bits
- KITTU – 31,374 Bits
- Emongg – 18,710 Bits
- FRAN – 10,100 Bits
- Raeyei* – 10,000 Bits
- Kephrii – 5000 Bits
- KatContii – 1000 Bits + 10 Gifted Subs
- Riley – 1000 Bits
* These streamers are not primarily Overwatch streamers.
Who’s Responsible for the Support?
The person behind the streamer support is someone named Kid12246. What’s most unusual about this massive level of support is that it’s coming from someone completely unknown in the Overwatch community. In fact, the majority of streamers Kid12246 sent money to – he only followed them as he was giving them Bits. In all but TWO cases, Kid12246 followed December 11th or 12th. The two streamers he followed prior to that are Mushu, whom he followed on August 15th, 2019, and Gale_Adelade on June 24, 2019.
Looking into his history on the platform doesn’t reveal much either. He has a couple of username changes, and Twitch Prime subs in 2017 to NL_Kripp, and 2018 to Kephrii. But other than that, he is a complete anomaly.
Do Streamers have a Reason to Worry?
Naturally, when someone unknown does something as massive as this without any kind of history of doing so, it’s going to lead to questions. Is this legit? Without further information, we simply don’t know. But, let’s hope that everything is above board and this is someone giving back to a community that has been helpful to him in some way.
As some added sense of security, Twitch Bits ARE chargeback protected according to Twitch’s Guide on Bits. So all those bits (should) be paid out on the streamers’ next payment period. However, it IS important to know that Gifted Subs are NOT chargeback protected. There are several cases of gift subs being reversed and not paid out.
In any case, Kid12246 has quickly made an impact on the Overwatch category. While it’s doubtful he’ll be the new Mr Beast, could he put himself among donor greats like NumbraTV, Motar2k, or Bolderno? We’ll see!
I cover these types of stories on my stream – come check me out sometime! And, if you got value from post and have a Twitch Prime to spare, I’d gladly take it haha. Thanks so much!
