KYM Review: The Top Streamer Moments Of 2022

This year continued 2021's previous push for increased streamer dominance among consumed content online, with Twitch and YouTube fighting over control of the space. While there were many different moments across all the genres of livestreaming, as well as large events held by streamers themselves, there was only a handful that can arguably be considered essential to the core experience of streaming in 2022.

These are streams that in one way or another encapsulate the time period of 2022, and those that should have their VODs watched for understanding future streams and references that might take place in 2023. This list is entirely not in order of importance, because not putting Dream's face reveal at No. 1 could be considered a health hazard, and doing so is too obvious.

Kai Cenat's 100k Sub Stream

Twitch streamer Kai Cenat has grown into a force of nature on the site, propelling online culture forward and bringing dancing and having fun with the boys to the forefront of the platform. This energy cannot be explained any further than the absolute chaos that was his 100k-sub stream two months ago.

A hundred-thousand subscribers on any website is a big deal, but on Twitch, it cemented Kai in first place as a streamer, where he remains as of this article being published. As part of watching the six-digit number take form, Kai and his friends celebrated in his room, with the hype increasing as it got closer and closer before finally crossing that finish line.

PayMoneyWubby Interviews Gus Johnson

YouTuber and content creator Gus Johnson had a contentious end to 2021 with abuse allegations coming out against him as a result of the failed relationship with Sabrina. This caused Johnson to immediately cut back on all forms of content and reaching out to others — not so dissimilar to what was seen with ProJared's cheating scandal. However, a chance moment one night brought the situation back with Twitch streamer PayMoneyWubby having the spontaneous opportunity to interview Johnson live on stream over the phone and taking it.

What makes this moment a key one for the year (and arguably the future) is the way in which the situation was approached by Wubby — knowing that due to the online nature of the relationship, with each having their own fanbase, anything relating to the incident would be polarizing and trying to keep neutral ground and extend opportunities to both parties to give their side.

With streamers having a penchant for dating other streamers, breakups can happen and can easily become messy, so a moment like this is arguably key in highlighting a way to navigate future drama between streamers.

Kitboga Redeems The Card

Kitboga has made a career out of scamming scammers, either by directly ruining their scam business or creating muti-hours-long streams out of keeping these scam callers on the phone while they lose their patience.

One such instance, with a scammer named "Abel," went on for over 10 hours of time before Kitboga decided to send him way over the line by redeeming a $500 Google Play gift card in front of the scammer as he powerlessly watched. This eventually became a phrasal template meme that was subsequently spread all over YouTube anytime someone mentions the word "scammer" or "scamming" in an unrelated video.

Jerma's Baseball Stream

Jerma, who famously put together a Dollhouse stream prior, decided to up the ante by hiring several paid actors and baseball players to create a wacky game of baseball — complete with him as the umpire. The baseball stream, which was between a team of magicians and clowns, featured all the insanity that can be expected, such as red noses, rainbow wigs, top hats and magic cards.

Impressively, it also featured real feats of baseball prowess, as shown by Xavier McMagic doing a behind-the-back one-handed catch complete with a back tumble, all without spilling any of the beer he was in the middle of drinking. When it comes to high production and throwing away almost a hundred thousand in cash for a few hours of entertainment, Jerma can't be beat … if only he was real.

IShowSpeed Takes A Test

The controversial 17-year-old IShowSpeed is undoubtedly a powerhouse in the Zoomer humor genre, complete with acting out on stream and generally doing whatever it takes to remain entertaining. While many of his 2022 moments could count for this spot, such as his Kylie Jenner challenge or him shooting off live fireworks in his bedroom, nothing really screams the downfall of society like a streamer outsourcing his virtual school homework and quiz to his livestream chat, who proceeds to get every question wrong.

Many streamers and content creators have filmed themselves doing internet challenges or destroying stuff for clicks, but almost none have had a chat of over 50,000 people try their best to fail on essential-to-graduate school work, perfectly showcasing online learning and fame intertwined.

Amouranth Opens Up About Abuse

Amouranth is known as one of the most popular and long-standing female streamers on the platform for years, which only increased the shellshock that took hold of Twitch when she livestreamed a phone call with her husband that revealed years of abuse and how toxic the relationship and parts of her streaming career were. The alleged threats on her life and her pets, financial insecurity and other controversies — there was so much to unpack that it was a bit much for a lot of people.

This is why the stream itself is a key moment and should be noted because no matter how long you can watch a streamer or how put together they seem on stream, there can always be stuff going on behind the scenes viewers are completely unaware of. Amouranth opening herself up to being vulnerable by having deeply personal strife be out there inspired others to talk about their own personal lives as well, with Amouranth eventually being able to turn her situation into a better one.

Dream Face Reveal

The Minecraft YouTuber known as Dream finally revealed his face after years of being an anonymous mask online. The ultimate face reveal was one of the most watched livestreams of 2022, and when it finally happened, memes and hot takes began flying at breakneck speed online as people reacted to the biggest Minecraft content creator being what many apparently expected a Minecraft content creator to look like — which is seemingly an amalgamation of every other famous Minecraft creator.

Honorable Mentions

xQc Obama Potato

During a stream of Who Wants To Be A Millionaire, which was briefly the meta as a quick fix for content-starved streamers, the streamer xQc thought he had an EZ GG answer to a question, only to turn into xQc Despair.

Will Neff's Hey Donna!

Twitch streamer and content creator Will Neff was one of the lucky streamers to partner with the revived G4TV to create a show called Hey Donna! in which he played a caricature of an older New Jersey lady who would take calls from watchers and give advice, mixed with a bit of spice being dished out to the revolving panel of guests and co-host QTCinderella.

If you know the guests, the inside jokes back and forth to each other are insane, and if you don't know the guests, watching the show will feel like people reading out Yahoo Answers at each other as advice for people going through classic, depressed and online-addicted Millennial struggles.

Looking for more of this year's best viral phenomena and memes? Be sure to check out our other 2022 meme roundups below:

• The Top 10 Memes Of 2022
• KYM Staff Picks Of 2022
• The Slang of 2022
• Breakthrough Meme Formats Of 2022
• The Year Of AI Generators
• Top Gaming Memes Of 2022
• Wildest Stories Of 2022
• Top Streamer Moments Of 2022
• Top TikToks Of 2022
• Top Lewd Memes Of 2022
• Trolls, Rumors and Hoaxes Of 2022
• Top Exploitables Of 2022
• Top Meme Creators Of 2022
• Top Meme Revivals Of 2022