Kai Cenat is the streaming king of the spectacle. Here are the hits from his record-breaking subathon.

Kai Cenat just reclaimed the record for most simultaneous games Twitch Subscriptions and take it to a breathtaking level 727,700– That means if all of these people bought Tier 1 subs for $4.99 each, he would make at least $1.8 million.

But Cenat’s month-long “Mafiaathon 2“The Subathon was about more than just instant money. It was all about cementing Cenat’s place as one of Twitch’s biggest spectacle streamers.

We’ve written lately about how live streamers in particular seem to be upping the ante and hosting more and more attention-grabbing events in order to attract more and more viewers. Only in current examples, Ghanaian streamer Afua Nash I tried eating live on YouTube for four days and there is that too emilyccthe streamer that Cenat put in the spotlight during his subathon, who was there live over three yearsincluding sleeping in front of the camera every night. (Sleep streams are a whole other level of extreme; these YouTubers completely forego their privacy and are sometimes watched by thousands of people while sleeping.)

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Cenat’s Subathon was a 30-day showcase of this culture of spectacle. He lined up dozens of special guests, including major mainstream celebrities, and found creative ways to occupy the time and maintain subscriptions.

Here are some of Mafiaathon 2’s biggest moments:

– Cenat started early with pre-stream promotions, painting over an entire building in Los Angeles, then teaming up with none other than Kim Kardashian to shoot the official trailer for Mafiaathon 2. She played his therapist who told her, “What is Mafiaathon?” I stream 30 days straight, 24 hours a day. What is Mafiaathon? They watch me eating, sleeping and showering on camera all the time.” The trailer has been viewed more than 20 million times on Cenat’s Instagram page and another 13 million times on Kardashian’s page.

–Snoop Dogg stopped by for a phone call on the second day of the stream to talk about his upcoming album missionarythen he helped Cenat watch the stream IRL with a tour of his massive LA compound. The 20,000-square-foot, 27-room home features multiple recording studios, a basketball court, a gym, an arcade, a casino, an outdoor cinema, a gamer’s dream facility and more. (Of course, they also smoked some weed together.)

-Snoop was far from the only celebrity who was there: Cenat also grabbed the tennis star Serena Williamswho chatted with him about her favorite fast food and every 90s kid’s favorite scientist, Bill Nye. Nye personally came to Cenat, showed him (and the audience) some at-home experiments and explained the scientific reasons behind things like an ice cube melting faster on metal than on plastic. Other traditional celebrity guests were there iCarly star Miranda Cosgrove, Soulja boy, Chris Brown, SZAAnd Lizzo.

-We say “traditional celebrity guests” because Cenat also featured numerous co-creators, including NPC streamers Pinkydoll And Malik Ambersleyalso known as “NPC Miles Morales.” Both Pinkydoll and Ambersley took command of Cenat’s stream for several hours, entertaining viewers while he slept in the background. For both of them, streaming over long periods of time is nothing strange; They became famous through long TikTok streams in which viewers could control their behavior and trigger reactions by purchasing certain digital gifts.

@pinkydollreal NPC activities with @kaicenat when waking up 😂 #yesyesyes #pinkydoll #reels #kaicenat #npc #npcqueen #trend #npctrend ♬ Original sound – Pinkydoll

–Ludwig was released on November 25th with a $100,000 raffle for viewers. He and Cenat went to LA and challenged viewers to find them. The first one to do it would get the money. The only catch was that the camera was zoomed in heavily on the duo, zooming out just a little each time another 1,000 subscribers streamed in. It took a while, but eventually someone managed to find them and secure the $100 K.

This lucky fan drove 40 minutes and won Kai Cenat & Ludwig’s $100,000 sweepstakes. He plans to split the money with a few of his friends 👏 https://t.co/xYAo72BYEQ

– Ryan 🤿 (@scubaryan_) November 25, 2024

– Not all of the stream’s viral moments were light-hearted. On Day 22, Cenat told viewers that he was sick, possibly had a cold, and that he was spitting blood when he woke up in the morning. He later reassured people that he was fine and “feeling a lot better,” but it’s still a reminder that these currents can take a significant toll on people’s bodies.

–Iron Mouse stopped by towards the end of the event and gifted Cenat his very own VTuber avatar. Her appearance was a surprise to viewers and appears to be a supportive measure by Cenat to counteract the way some of his fans have treated her. She set the Twitch sub record at ~321,000 in September, surpassing Cenat’s record of 306,621 from his previous Mafiaathon. Upon hearing the news, Cenat offered congratulations and spoke of a friendly rivalry, but his fans apparently weren’t so friendly. In the end, he called out the people on stream, saying he knew they were “defending” him, but they needed to recognize Ironmouse’s legacy in the streaming space. Now he put action into action and, while trying out his new avatar, gave her space to talk about how she started streaming and why becoming a VTuber changed her life.

I don’t want to be dramatic, but I believe that this collaboration will be a turning point in the perception of Vtuber

Many thanks to Ironmouse and Kai Cenat for introducing our medium to a wider audience!pic.twitter.com/NFynFu3SPI

— Croni 🍭🎀【VTUBER】 (@necronival) November 30, 2024

– And finally, Cenat donates 20% of his Mafiaathon 2 earnings to a school he is helping to build after a visit to the settlement of Makoko, Nigeria. As mentioned, if all 727,700 subscribers were Tier 1 subscribers and Cenat had a 50/50 split with Twitch, he would have made over $3.6 million. Some of these subs were certainly higher than Tier 1, and it’s possible that Cenat has a 70/30 split with Twitch, which would give him an even larger share: over $2.5 million. In any case, Cenat’s donation will represent a big part of the change. Speaking about the school in an Instagram story, he said: “I visited Nigeria not long ago and absolutely loved it. We will fund the entire project out of our own pockets with full staff, classrooms, uniforms, etc.”