On October 20, United States Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez hosted a Twitch stream that became one of the most-viewed broadcasts in the history of the live-streaming platform. The debut Twitch stream for Alexandria-Ocasio Cortez (also known as AOC) has amassed over 4.5 million views and had around 435,000 concurrent viewers while it was live, putting it in the top 5 for concurrent viewers.
During the AOC Twitch stream, Ocasio-Cortez played the mega-popular game Among Us with some of the world's top streamers. Pokimane, Corpse, DisguisedToast, DrLupo, and more joined AOC in the hugely successful stream, producing plenty of "clippable" moments in the process. Fellow Congresswoman Ilhan Omar joined in for some of the stream as well, and earned some praise for her skill at playing the game despite being new to it.
The AOC Twitch stream seems to have been mostly well-received by the community, as while it had the message to "get out and vote," it also had a lot of entertainment value. Ocasio-Cortez spent some time discussing political topics like universal healthcare and the importance of voting, but a good portion of the Twitch stream was just people playing Among Us and having a good time doing so.
The success of AOC's Twitch stream seems to have worked so well partly because she is genuinely a gamer. In the past, AOC has played Animal Crossing: New Horizons with her Twitter followers, and has discussed her League of Legends rank on multiple occasions. This is opposed to other politicians that have attempted to appeal to gamers, but have either been mocked or not taken seriously. This includes the infamous Hillary Clinton "Pokemon GO to the polls" line as well as the recent Joe Biden Animal Crossing island stunt.
It will be interesting to see if Ocasio-Cortez continues to utilize Twitch moving forward, as it is clearly a major way she would be able to promote her ideas as well as campaign for candidates she supports. Other politicians have used Twitch in the past, like Bernie Sanders and even Donald Trump. However, AOC is the first to not just use her channel for political purposes, but also to stream gameplay and attempt to entertain her audience. Other politicians may take note of how successful AOC's Twitch stream was and try to replicate that success, but if they aren't genuine gamers, fans will notice and it's unlikely that they will reach the same heights.
In any case, AOC's Twitch stream has been covered by mainstream media outlets, which should give a boost not only to her channel, but to Among Us as well, potentially making the hit indie game even more popular than it was before.
Among Us is out now for PC and mobile devices.