Twitch star builds community during 250+ hour livestream

It can be easy to fall for people onscreen, but remember that the relationship between viewers and influencers is transactional. Graphic by Byanca Morales Cabrera. Ludwig Ahgren’s Twitch “subathon” livestream started on Mar. 14 — and it just kept going. Over 280 hours later, he was the second most subscribed person on Twitch of all time. He ate, slept and even showered (with swim trunks on) under the diligent watch of tens of thousands of viewers.  The broadcast began as a classic “subathon,” a type of stream in which creators add a certain amount of time to a count-down clock every time someone donates or subscribes, and they have to keep streaming until the clock reaches 00:00. Ahgren expected to be live for 24 hours, maybe a bit more, figuring that viewership and donations would die down after a little while. Except they did not. Tens of thousands of viewers tuned in to watch Ahgren sleep on that first night, and he woke up to more hours on the clock than when he went to sleep.  But why? Why have so many people spent actual, real world money to add seconds to a clock? Why does a livestream of a…
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