American politician serving as the U.S. Representative for New York’s 14th congressional district, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (aka AOC) unexpectedly sparked one of the biggest Twitch moments of 2020 as she streamed Among Us which has attracted over 400,000 viewers at its peak.
Thank you so much for joining, Myth! I’m so excited this is your first time voting!
I had a blast. Thanks @IlhanMN, @pokimanelol, @hasanthehun, @DisguisedToast, @mxmtoon, @Jack_Septic_Eye, @Hbomberguy, @DrLupo, @Valkyrae, @Gusbuckets, @Corpse_Husband, @MoistCr1TiKaL & @israhirsi https://t.co/L02lZwWpjz
— Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@AOC) October 21, 2020
Ocasio-Cortez’s livestream, her first on Twitch and one of the most-watched streams in the service’s history, lasted for over three hours and garnered nearly 4.8 million total views. It was reportedly the lead referrer to IWillVote for at least part of its duration. AOC managed to maintain an average of 325,000 viewers throughout her three-and-a-half-hour stream.
AOC is comfortably in the top 20 streamers on Twitch as far as peak viewership is concerned. Considering that the stream placed AOC amongst the likes of shroud (516K) and Ninja (617K), it was one hell of a debut.
Despite not having a background in streaming before, AOC quickly got her streaming setup in order. After tweeting about her interest on 19 October, she spent the next day preparing her channel and assigning mods. The panels in her Twitch About section pointed to iwillvote.com to remind viewers the importance of registering to vote, as well as providing information on important dates and deadlines. Because of the popularity of the stream, Ocasio-Cortez’s Twitch channel now has more than 584,000 followers. Both President Donald Trump and Sen. Bernie Sanders also have accounts on the platform, but only have 143,000 and 159,000 followers, respectively.
Ocasio-Cortez has often used alternative methods to reach out to potential voters. She has previously made appeals to millennial and Gen Z gamers with a foray into the world of 2020’s hit game Animal Crossing: New Horizons. She has also connected with younger voters by talking politics on Instagram live while doing things like assembling IKEA furniture and cooking dinner.