There's currently a conversation going on within the Twitch streaming community about the practice of "subathons." Subathons are streaming marathons where new subscriptions tack on extra time, typically requiring streamers to record themselves eating, sleeping, and living their lives away from the computer. Several high-profile Twitch streamers have commented on subathons recently, with Pokimane being the latest. Pokimane's opinion on subathons characterizes the events as "unhealthy" for Twitch streamers to do.
"There's no way subathons are healthy for a human being to do," said Pokimane, referring to the way streamers are forced to spend so much of their lives performing on-stream for the duration of their subathon. Quoting one of her Twitch chats, Pokimane said, "That's the point -- suffer for my pleasure," to which she acknowledged that "a bit of that is okay" but that there needs to be a line drawn at some point and that Twitch streamers are currently going past that line.
She clarifies her perspective on the matter, stating that viewers -- herself included, as a fan of her fellow Twitch streamers -- are incentivizing this unhealthy behavior. She says that subathons run on top Twitch channels are a matter of "hundreds of thousands of dollars, major clout, followers, attention," and success in general. She characterizes the audience's reaction as, "Oh my God, this person has been streaming for three weeks. Poggers!" as extreme, saying these streamers need to go to a doctor if only to ensure they're still healthy.
It's hard to argue Pokimane's point. On 2021, then-Twitch streamer Ludwig did a 31-day subathon from March 14 through April 14, during which he kept his stream up 24 hours a day. When it ended, Ludwig cried not just out of gratitude, but out of pure exhaustion. He'd later say that he's never doing another subathon ever again. As an example of how extreme subathons can go, Twitch streamer Emilycc is currently on day 136 of her subathon. She's currently broadcasting herself sleeping. Her stream label says "nap time (I'm sick af)."
Health concerns aren't the only reason that Pokimane doesn't approve of subathons, however. Pokimane also says that many Twitch streamers and content creators use subathons in a manipulative and "unethical" way. She says many subathon streamers just put on a camera while they go about their lives without engaging with their viewers, which she says is just "pretending" to do a subathon.
The one thing that Pokimane is certain to be right about is that subathons likely aren't going to go anywhere. They're incredibly lucrative, so content creators will keep doing them. Twitch and YouTube could potentially make a new rule banning subathons for health reasons, but subathons are incredibly lucrative for the platforms, too. It may take a tragedy before change happens on Twitch or elsewhere.