- Pokimane has addressed Mizkif’s recent claims that female streamers can start their careers more easily
- She confirmed that women get 100-300 viewers but added they struggle to rise above 1,000
- Parasocial viewers are to blame as they tend to leave en masse when a channel gets popular
Pokimane agrees with Mizkif that female Twitch streamers have an easier startup than their male counterparts.
Women Have an Easier Start but Fewer Growth Opportunities
Imane “Pokimane” Anys, the most popular female streamer on Twitch, has shared that she agrees with Matthew “Mizkif” Rinaudo’s claims that girl streamers have an easier time reaching smaller viewership milestones.
In a stream on March 5, Mizkif claimed that women can get between 100 and 300 viewers really easily – much easier than men. However, he added that men who get past this number have an easier time going beyond 600-1,000 viewers. Thus, women have an easier startup but their journey gets steeper with time.
Pokimane responded to these claims, saying that she agrees with what Mizkif observed. She noted that Twitch is overcharged with male streamers and this plays a factor in this statistic as it makes women more noticeable. Pokimane added that her colleague was also right when he said that female streamers have a harder time surpassing the 1,000 viewers milestone. She noted that playing a popular game might help out but still doesn’t guarantee anything.
Pokimane concluded that this disparity between the viewership of male and female streamers is caused by the fact that there are more male viewers.
“At the end of the day, Twitch has been and continues to be a male-dominated field, and when it comes to content, it tends to be easier to watch people you relate to. Until there’s more of an even demographic on Twitch, you’re still going to have these issues.”
Despite agreeing with Mizkif’s thoughts, Pokimane critiqued him for saying that this means women have it “way easier” than men, accusing him of polarizing things.
Parasocial Viewers Can Hurt a Channel and Slow Its Growth
Pokimane also reviewed Félix “xQc” Lengyel’s opinion on the matter. The latter has made his own response video to Mizkif where he pointed out that many female streamers benefit from lonely parasocial viewers who need attention. He also reminded that such an audience bars a channel from growing as this kind of viewers tend to leave when they start getting less attention.
While Pokimane couldn’t deny that, she said that this isn’t really the streamers’ fault and the majority of them don’t actively seek such an audience. She blamed parasocial viewers for having such high expectations, noting that while a channel with 10 viewers might be able to provide individual attention to everyone, this isn’t the case with more popular streamers. Pokimane noted:
“If you only have 10 viewers, you’re giving a lot of attention to those 10 people, right? However, when guys are watching a girl and she gets more popular, some of them will get bitter that they aren’t getting that same level of attention.”
