Pokimane Feeling Happy On Twitch Again
Imane “Pokimane” Anys has declared she’s “really happy” again, a year after admitting she nearly ended her ultra-successful Twitch streaming career due to industry fears. The 26-year-old won’t be walking away from her path anytime soon. “I’m very happy,” the top Twitch star said on her 26th birthday live.
Pokimane has been open about how close she was to giving up everything at the end of last year. Trolls, the weight of expectations, a “flimsy level” of representation in streaming, and the pandemic all contributed to the Moroccan-Canadian’s decision to stop broadcasting on Twitch. Pokimane was on the verge of pulling the plug when everything melted into one big pot.
In January, she said, “I very like would have [retired] At some point, it’s like, fuck this shit, I want to have fun! I don’t mean to be sad, but that’s how I was feeling.” Pokimane, on the other hand, is back on track after five months.
Pokimane, who turned 26 on May 14, said she thought long and hard about streaming in 2021, her entire career, and where she wants to go in the months and years ahead, and she opted to maintain the course.
Pokimane said; “I’m just happy. I didn’t have any expectations for life at 26, but I mainly am just happy now because over the last year I have made progress in my personal and professional life that makes me really happy. And, at the end of the day, isn’t that all that really needs to be celebrated?”
Pokimane adds that it didn’t take her birthday to notice, but the “chance to reflect and celebrate” put things in perspective for her. Pokimane has battled to maintain her energy and passion on Twitch—a platform she recommitted to in February this year—despite her admission that quitting was just around the corner in the previous twelve months.
Twitch’s top female streamer stated at the end of 2021 that she would be taking a “extended hiatus” from the platform throughout August and September. Although she said she didn’t want to do it, Pokimane needed time to “get in the headspace” again after working nonstop on creating her streaming empire since breaking into the spotlight seven years ago. She also honored her word, with the exception of one surprise Among Us broadcast.
She returned to the purple-branded site in late September. She’s since re-signed with the Amazon-owned company, launched an exclusive podcast with Felix “xQc” Lengyel, became the first female streamer to reach 9 million followers on the platform, and amassed 219 million views.
For the time being, it appears that the happy-again Pokimane is here to stay—in her own words, she “can’t get enough of that good Twitch chat,” no matter how up and down streaming is.