‘Neekolul’ has risen from a run-of-the-mill Twitch streamer to an internet sensation in just a matter of days, with her explosive growth across social media in the last few weeks almost unrivaled.
TikTok has given rise to a number of internet celebrities in 2020. From Addison Rae to the D’Amelio sisters, the short video platform has seen stars rise from nowhere and become household names across the world.
However, for some people who have been on the grind for years, the new platform has proven to be the perfect storm to take their careers to the next level. YouTubers, Twitter users, and even streamers have tried to jump onto the craze.
Enter Neekolul. She is a 22-year-old Twitch streamer from Mexico, now based in Texas, who made the transition to full-time streaming in the last few years. Putting her business degree on hold, she worked on expanding an audience on the platform through playing a variety of games.
It’s been a long grind for the once small-time streamer, however, one 15-second TikTok has ensured that Neeko gets more than 15 minutes of fame.
The clip, which showed the streamer lip-syncing Senzawa’s “oki doki boomer” while wearing a Bernie 2020 crop top, went viral on March 3. While it has 5,000 likes on TikTok, it reached 150k Twitter likes and almost 20k retweets as of March 16.
https://twitter.com/neekolul/status/1234601269127458817
It also propelled her from just over 20,000 followers to almost 250,000 in the space of two weeks on Twitter. Her Instagram follower count also shot up from 12,500 before March 3 to over 100,000 by March 15.
Her popularity on other platforms has seen a change in her fortune on Twitch. Her average viewership on the platform. has shot up from around 50 to over 1,500, and she’s close to breaking through the 100k follower mark.
While her subscriber count is hanging around 600 for now, she’s seen an explosion in donations and activity with the streamer raking in more than ever.
While Neeko used to stream a bit of variety, including Dead By Daylight, Chess, and League of Legends — where there is a champion with the same name — she’s stuck to streaming Just Chatting more recently since exploding in popularity.
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That change in direction has led to even more snippets of her going gangbusters. One clip, where she claimed there was “nothing wrong” with ‘simping’ or “worshipping a girl”, popped off on Twitter, getting almost 100k likes since March 9.
https://twitter.com/Hotline_Ching/status/1237226823118753792
People have also piggybacked off her rise, creating bunches of parody content — anything from trying to recreate her iconic TikTok, to even freestyle rapping about her looks.
To capitalise on her bit of viral fame, she’s found herself creating more short videos to try and keep the audience, and it’s working. More and more people are finding her content by the day, and her popularity is continuing to skyrocket.
https://twitter.com/NoContextJoshh/status/1239061130548518913
On July 10, gaming organization 100 Thieves revealed they’d signed Neeko as a content creator for their brand.
“She’s incredibly multi-talented and has seen tremendous success with her viral content,” they tweeted. “We love her upbeat and positive personality & are so excited to have her part of 100 Thieves!”
Welcome @neekolul!
Neeko is an English/Spanish streamer who started on Twitch 3 years ago. She’s incredibly multi-talented and has seen tremendous success with her viral content. We love her upbeat and positive personality & are so excited to have her part of 100 Thieves! #100T pic.twitter.com/IoceFQFrg2
— 100 Thieves (@100Thieves) July 10, 2020
Neeko’s rise on TikTok, Twitter, Twitch, and now 100 Thieves is testament to how just one small moment can catapult someone into stardom.
While her grind has been long, the fruits of her labor are starting to bear, and the future looks bright for the streamer.