TikTok viewers send little emojis, filters, and animations that couples can react to and act on. These donations are purchased with his TikTok coins. One TikTok coin is worth about 1.5 cents. The couple receives requests totaling about $200 per hour for her and uses the money to fund the education and extracurricular activities of her 3-year-old son and her 1-year-old daughter.
Previously, viewers could donate to creators but had no control over what happened on the live stream. This included watching creators play video games, hearing stories, and chatting with other creators. NPC streaming now puts viewers in the driver's seat, allowing them to influence what kind of content is created. TikTok said in an email that the trend has exploded over the past month, but did not provide specific statistics.
Jamie Banks, an associate professor at Syracuse University's School of Information Studies who specializes in human-machine interaction, avatars, and NPCs, says viewers find this type of content so appealing because they're actively involved in what they're watching. He said this is because he is involved in. “There's a granular acknowledgment of each of your inputs into this stream,” Banks said, noting that viewers feel connected to creators as they see them react to their requests. did.
TikTok spokesperson Zachary Kaiser said in a statement: “TikTok LIVE allows creators to enjoy the magic of real-time engagement with their viewers, helping them build and connect their communities while opening up new monetization opportunities. ” he said.
TikTok is becoming a leading platform for everyone from celebrities to relatively unknown teens to build followers who can monetize their videos through advertising deals, subscriptions to live streams, and commissions from TikTok links. there is.
So why pretend to be an NPC? Non-player characters are intended solely as filler within a video game, repeating the same few lines and interacting with the main player to provide context. But video game fans tend to have their favorite NPCs within each game they play, and the creator hopes to emulate that relationship with his TikTok livestream.
NPC streaming on social media is not entirely new, as some in the cosplay community have been doing it since 2021. He told Insider that Japanese TikTok creator @natuecoco, one of the first NPC streamers, thinks of each NPC in a video game as: A unique piece of art, like a statue. “If you think about a statue in a museum, people have different reactions to it. When you perform, you can see different reactions and experiences in real time and learn about them,” she said. On her live streams, she essentially becomes a lifelike statue that responds to the viewer's commands.
She often appears wearing wigs, cat ears, and soft makeup. Her videos racked up her 5.5 million views.
Crystal Alana Bennett, 37, works as a customer relations representative for an airline and previously delivered food for Uber Eats and DoorDash. But when she joined NPC Her streaming last month, the trend was about to explode, she said she found it mentally rewarding, more lucrative than gig work, and less physically taxing. I realized that.
Bennett pokes fun at it while joining in on the NPC trend. For example, she holds items in her curling iron before responding to tips and donations from her viewers. She also has a tendency to laugh out loud and break out of character, which viewers seem to enjoy.
I now earn money in two hours that used to take me two weeks at my other job. I'm also quitting Uber Eats and DoorDash deliveries and handing off my airline shifts to other colleagues so I can focus on monetizing my TikTok presence. .
Live streaming may seem mindless, but it requires intense concentration and quick reaction time. “You have to keep people's attention every 10 seconds, or they'll lose focus and leave,” Bennett says. She must memorize the appropriate catchphrase for each gift she receives, in sessions lasting from 1 to 4 hours.
NPC live streaming makes life easier for creators because they don't have to reinvent the wheel every time they go live.
“Once you're ready, the hurdles for creators are lowered,” said Ellen Simpson, a postdoctoral fellow who studies creative labor at the University of Colorado.
Despite such a rapid increase in demand for NPC streaming, Simpson points out that viewers will inevitably move on to new, shiny trends, potentially leaving creators behind. “The problem is that you then get typecast and get stuck in a rut where you can only be an NPC streamer and not anything else,” Simpson says.
“Welcome to the Temple of Healing,” says Georgia State University student Indigo Zahir, 22, as she rocks a scarf over her head and rocks back and forth, responding to each tip with a positive and encouraging word. Ta. viewers. She invests the money she makes from streaming NPC into her main passion: creating feel-good videos using Autonomous Sensory Meridian Response (ASMR) techniques. With her week's earnings from streaming her NPC, she was able to purchase a high-quality microphone and artificial nails to use to make the tapping sounds, she said.
For Briggs and Colls, NPC streaming is a team effort. The couple's livestream is like watching a dance performance where the couple express different emotions, quickly coordinate, and improvise.
The couple, aged 22 and 23, said they have multiple sources of income. The couple runs an Airbnb, and Briggs works as an esthetician. Although the income from NPC streaming may not last long, they see long-term potential in content production.
“I can kind of imagine this happening full-time,” Colls said. He and Mr. Briggs are considering making a video of their two children. “I plan to continue doing this for a while until it becomes unprofitable.”
