Asmongold accuses Hasan Piker of viewbotting, claims evidence
Zach “Asmongold” Hoyt and Hasan “HasanAbi” Piker are involved in drama yet again after top Kick streamer Asmongold called out Hasan for allegedly viewbotting on Twitch.
Asmongold and HasanAbi aren’t new to controversy and drama, and in some ways that comes with the very public space that both streamers occupy. The two are also prone to reacting to other content creators and developing beefs within the industry, which typically leads to more drama, and sometimes to entertainment for fans.
Now the two content creators are part of a new controversy as Asmongold has alleged that Hasan is manipulating his viewers through the misuse of bots. Viewbotting is a significant issue on Twitch, and Asmongold has provided seeming evidence in his claims against Hasan Piker.
Asmongold breaks down the numbers, alleges viewbots inflate Hasan viewership
During a live Kick stream, Asmongold analyzed Hasan Piker’s viewership figures, highlighting recent trends while claiming that the Twitch streamer is viewbotting.
Hasan has faced intense scrutiny and even lost some fans when he was accused of using a shock collar on his pet dog. It’s unclear if the resulting backlash set back Hasan financially, but his reputation certainly took a hit. The streamer denied the allegation, claiming that that he used a vibration collar and not a shock collar. But those denials carried little public water in the face of mounting evidence against him.
The recent shock collar drama involving his dog wasn’t the only controversy Hasan has been involved in of late, as fellow streamer Kacerytron settled the lawsuit with Ethan Klein and claimed Hasan never helped her despite previously indicating that he might. But the streamer has continued to perform well online despite these controversies, and Asmongold took time to explore that performance.
Image credit: Hasan Piker
In providing evidence behind his claim, Asmongold displayed a graph showing Hasan’s viewership and followers in a single stream. Hasan was consistently gaining only a small number of followers as the stream progressed, sometimes even losing a few. But then came a sharp increase. The Twitch streamer began to gain 500, 900, and eventually 1,200 followers.
While this alone does not stand as definitive proof, such a spike in followers, surrounded on either side by consistently slow or negative numbers, could be difficult to explain outside of viewbotting.
Asmongold used this unusual spike to allege that Hasan is viewbotting, though he couched the accusation by saying that the Twitch streamer does not himself need to be the one who is activating the viewbots. Hasan’s followers or mods could also be involved in injecting his stream with false viewers and followers.
These viewbotting accusation comes at a time when Twitch is reportedly taking serious action against streamers inflating their views. Publicly available data suggested that Asmongold was also affected by Twitch’s viewbotting purge, losing a significant amount of viewership on his own broadcasts. Other streamers including John “Tectone” Robertson also saw a drastic decline in Twitch viewership during the crackdown.
Asmongold has since started streaming more regularly on Kick, likely because of the greater earnings he’s able to get on the platform. Despite the shift in platform, Asmongold’s content is still the same as before. He has consistently continued to comment on Twitch drama, even when it means starting fresh been with other popular streamers.
Feature image credit: Asmongold, Hasan Piker
Khizar Mundia has been playing video games for as long as he can recall. Things have come a long way since the many days he spent playing the original NES, though. He now covers a variety of competitive games and esports, as well as the world of streaming, ranging from Twitch to Kick. If it’s of interest to gamers, it’s of interest to Khizar.
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