When people first figured out they could make money off an internet stream, Fishtank was the inevitable result.
Fishtank.live is a competitive livestream where eight unrelated contestants are forced to live inside a communal home together for six weeks. The stream has attracted a ton of online attention for essentially saying the quiet part of streaming out loud. The contestants’ mental health is visibly declining as the game goes on, but that hasn’t stopped thousands from tuning in to witness the downward spiral.
The core premise of Fishtank is isolating random strangers together and seeing what happens. The contestants are trapped in the house with no sources of entertainment besides each other and are forced to complete tasks given by the producers. There are few rules, but notably, they are not allowed to go outside or smoke weed for the course of the experiment. The stream features ten cameras that are always on showcasing every part of the house.
The entertainment value is helped by randomly occurring twists. These can be as simple as strange tasks, like being forced to count rice. They can also be more abstract, such as letting an “entity” loose in the house at night to scare the contestants. Controversial showrunner Sam Hyde has also appeared to talk with the contestants and give them boxing lessons.
Finally, viewers can pay real money to mess with contestants. These options include randomly playing loud noises or secretly enabling and disabling cameras with or without their knowledge. The show has even co-opted the battle pass style of video game monetization to get viewers to pay up. It’s not clear if the show is a financial success, but the biggest expense will be paid out at the end of the six weeks.
What will the last Fishtank stream member win?
The last surviving member of the Fishtank stream will walk away with a $10,000 prize, which finally puts a price tag on insanity. The prize isn’t visible on the official website, but it was announced in
the reveal video
hosted by creator Sam Hyde.
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