Why Jynxzi Almost Gave Up Streaming

Some Twitch streamers have lost their entire audience in months, but others have become top dogs on the platform in the same amount of time. In what feels like a matter of moments, a streamer called Jynxzi has gone from a relative unknown to being monumentally popular. He's got nearly six million followers and over 100,000 subscribers, making him not just the most popular streamer of the day, but also one of the most popular content creators to ever work on the platform, overtaking heavy hitters like Kai Cenat in 2023. That almost didn't come to pass, though.

Anyone who's been paying attention to Twitch for years knows how this story normally goes: A creator starts streaming, gets a tiny bit of traction, and then manages to leverage a partnership or collaboration into gaining a wider audience. Jynxzi took a different path. Instead of chasing trends or pursuing partnerships, he grinded away at his favorite game, "Rainbow Six Siege," and did his best to be entertaining and welcoming for anyone who showed up to watch him. Even though Jynxzi's rise to fame seemingly happened in an instant, it was preceded by years of streaming to virtually no one.

Jynxzi recently told Forbes that he constantly considered calling it quits during multiple years in which he had single-digit viewers watching his channel. Thankfully for his fans, he didn't throw in the towel. "It was exhausting but I never gave up hope and had this feeling like it was just about to pay off," he explained. That hope managed to sustain Jynxzi for years until, against all odds, he suddenly blew up and took Twitch by storm.

Jynxzi started streaming back in 2019, and his first year could easily have been his latest. For 365 consecutive streams, Jynxzi had a maximum of one viewer, but that low engagement wasn't due to a lack of effort. Jynxzi streamed for more than 150 hours in some months, but the sad truth of streaming is that most people never actually find an audience. Jynxzi's channel picked up a little more traffic in 2020, but it was still nothing worth writing home about.

Jynxzi's luck didn't change in 2021, and it just barely began turning around in 2022. In 2023, however, he saw a wave of new viewers coming in. He wasn't the fastest growing streamer of the year, but thanks to some of his clips picking up traction on TikTok, Jynxzi finally began building a sizable audience. Toward the back half of the year, that wave of new viewers became a tsunami. 

After surpassing 100,000 viewers, a grateful Jynxzi told his viewers never to give up on their dreams. After all, he spent years streaming to almost nobody, doing his best to ignore the people who told him he'd never make a career out of it. "Do not let anyone tell you s***, bro," he exclaimed. "The world is yours, bro." Not long after, he won Best Breakthrough Streamer and Gamer of the Year at the 2024 Streamer Awards, which only brought him more attention.

Jynxzi's story is the true Twitch dream. He worked the grind for years and powered through self-doubt before breaking into the mainstream, seemingly at random. He's still adjusting to the fame, and still playing "Rainbow Six Siege," but now that he's living the Twitch star dream, the future could take him anywhere.