Although it’s not as popular as it once used to be, Twitch’s hot tub meta used to be one of the biggest trends in the streaming world. One streamer, Taylor Jevaux, has now mastered the art of the hot tub streams – and it involves rarely ever being on camera.
With over 1.8 million followers, Taylor Jevaux is among the top 20 most-followed female streamers on all of Twitch – although over 1 million of this following spiked in May 2021, so it is potentially the result of a follow bot or error on Twitch’s end.
Although viewership dropped over the following 12 months, as the hot tub meta subsided, Taylor’s channel boomed again in 2022, with her average viewership rising to as much as 8,500 in June.
Her numbers are once again rising as she continues to entertain thousands of viewers, with an average of almost 5000 viewers in July 2023 compared to 2800 viewers a few months prior in March.
But, there is something very peculiar about Taylor’s stream, which sets it apart from almost any other; she is rarely ever actually on it.
Hot tub streamer stays off camera
Although each stream lasts roughly four hours, Taylor is typically not visible for over 90% of this time.
Instead, she stands to the side, just off camera, talking to viewers who simply stare at an inflatable hot tub for hours on end.
Throughout the streams, Taylor will continually reiterate that she’s “just about to get on”, and do regular countdowns – which often reach zero, and then nothing happens. Sometimes the countdown will just start again.
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As chat spams messages like “scam” and “boring” – the view count continues to rise. Is this a new Twitch meta? Simply building up constant anticipation for the streamer eventually appearing in a big reveal?
Eventually, Taylor will in fact appear, usually to perform body-weight squats in the hot tub for 5 minutes or so, before promptly moving off camera again.
Most bizarre, however, is that the viewership numbers are often highest before Taylor appears, and will drop once she actually gets on to do the squats or whatever task is on for that day.
Presumably, this is because people are tuning in to see how long it will actually take for the streamer to make an appearance; is the build-up more intriguing than the content itself?
Despite pulling in over of 3,000 viewers on most streams, and as high as 19,000 on some occasions, Taylor’s on-screen sub count is also suspiciously low, showing only 28 subs on July 3, 2023. According to Twitch stats website StreamsCharts however, Taylor’s sub count is actually as high as 581.
The chat on these streams is, perhaps unsurprisingly, rather toxic. Many viewers bemoan the long wait times for Taylor to appear on camera, and are then hyper-critical when she eventually does make a short appearance.
However, Taylor doesn’t seem to care one bit. She may have fully mastered the art of baiting thousands of Twitch viewers all at once – and it’s certainly working.