What Does 'Poggers' Mean On Twitch? The Gen Z Slang Term 'Pog' Explained

Gen Z slang can be hard to decipher, but Gen Z slang that emerges from the live-streaming site Twitch is sometimes so far removed from common English that it requires its own historic etymology in order to be understood.

From the site that brought to us words like rizz and gyatt in 2022 came an even earlier, even more inscrutable term, "pog." But what do the term and their variants PogChamp and poggers mean?

Where Does The Word "Poggers" Come From?

The term "poggers" is derived from a Twitch emote called PogChamp, which is one of the oldest usable emotes on the video streaming website. For those not in the know, Twitch is a live-streaming platform popular amongst video game streamers and live-stream hosts that broadcast their feed to hundreds of thousands of viewers daily. A Twitch emote is an emoticon that is used by viewers of a Twitch chat to express their reaction to what a streamer is doing.

As seen in the graph above, the most popular Twitch emote back in the website's nascent stages was called "Kappa," closely followed by an emote called PogChamp. PogChamp was designed to resemble a memorable facial expression made by a streamer named Ryan "Gootecks" Gutierrez, and was added to Twitch's official emote database in 2012.

The emote was subsequently removed after Gootecks shared some questionable opinions on the January 6th storming of the U.S. Capital.

What Is The "Poggers" Emote?

The Poggers emote originated back in 2017 and was inspired by Gootecks aforementioned expression. The emote combined Gootecks' face with the imagery of Pepe the Frog, a popular internet mascot that has sometimes been tied to right-wing ideas.

The emote was used to signify excitement or happiness in a stream, with some Twitch streamers taking to the practice of shouting the word "pog" or "poggers" when they get excited.

How Is The Word "Poggers" Used In Popular Meme Culture Today?

The word "poggers" has gathered a reputation for being overused by children on the internet over the past few years. This phenomenon is perhaps best shown using a series of TikToks that demonstrate the less-than-cool value of the term.

However, the word has also been used by corporate entities trying to cash in on young adult slang. This phenomenon found an unwitting practitioner in the form of the corporate mascot Chuck-E-Cheese. The mascot can be seen in the following video using the slang phrase, and taking on some questionable enunciation choices while doing so.

For the full history of the term Poggers, be sure to check out Know Your Meme's encyclopedia entry for more information.