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TikTok’s NPC Livestreaming Trend on The Viral List

We round up the most viral moments of the week…

Written and Edited by the YPulse Editorial Team

Jul 28 2023
North America

KEY TAKEAWAYS

NPC livestreamers on TikTok are imitating video game characters and making strange noises for money
The FIFA Women’s World Cup is sparking a ton of viral moments and proves that women’s sports content is increasingly popular among young people
Gen Z creators are clapping back at a Billboard study which shows that their drinking less when they go out to clubs and events

Courtesy of TikTok NPC Livestreamers on TikTok are IRL video game characters—and viewers are loving it A new trend of simulation-like streamers is going viral on TikTok Live. Creators on the social media platform are quickly gaining attention for their imitation of non-playable characters (NPCs), which, according to Mashable, are “the characters in video games that have been pre-programmed and cannot be controlled by players.” These characters have limited responses when interacted with, making it such that repeated interactions will result in stacks of the same phrases over and over—which these streamers are replicating with their own set of pre-generated responses. The trend is believed to have started from TikTok user @natuecoco, who has an impressive 1.5M followers. The hashtag #NPCLivestream currently has 11.7M views on the app, though the thousands of Live viewers don’t factor into this, and PinkyDoll is one of the most viral creators who has hopped on the trend. Her frequent TikTok Live streams quickly gain thousands of viewers, who watch her NPC performances...