September’s fastest-growing Twitch channel raises suspicion

A Twitch channel that averages less than 20 views per stream has become the most-followed channel for September in highly suspicious fashion, but they appear to have an explanation as to why they’ve exploded in growth. 

Twitch streamers can be rewarded for their hard work and entertainment in a handful of ways – with the most being follows and subscriptions. Following a channel means you’ll get a notification when they go live, while subscribing to a streamer helps them earn a living through their account.

Some of the most popular streamers, like Shroud, Dr Disrespect, and Tfue have millions of followers and thousands of subscribers – helping them regular stay towards the top of Twitch’s metrics. Yet, September’s statistics have been rocked by a brand new channel that amassed over half a million followers in less than a day.

Twitch’s top growing channels for September.

Going under the Twitch name AnimeFan_30, the channel which can regularly be found playing VRChat spiked in followers on September 14. The account went from 572 followers to 534,000 within the blink of an eye. 

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Unlike some other channels, where we’ve seen Eastern European gambling websites try their best at advertising quickly with huge view botting, AnimeFan_30 has a backlog of streams that dates back to July and has claimed that somebody targeting them with the barrage of bots.

AnimeFan_30’s Twitch stats from their September 14 broadcast.

During their September 14 stream, AnimeFan_30 had been playing VRChat when they were hit with another influx of followers.

“Oh my god, it’s happening again,” they called out. After a fellow player asked what was happening, the streamer continued: “They’re doing it. There it goes, they’re doing it again.”

With channel names like wdv5h6mhd3lio7va6 and l2b0precqkz7_0mt0 following the streamer, it appears pretty likely that they are being view botted from somewhere or someone.

Whether or not Twitch will take action against the trolls, or if AnimeFan_30 themselves will face any repercussions for what has been going on, remains to be seen. For now, though, they can lay claim to being the most-followed channel for September.