Good morning. Streamer Maya Higa’s Alveus animal sanctuary is taking its biggest step yet: a breeding and recovery center for endangered species.

In the first day alone, she has raised $500K to grow the wolf population in North America. If anyone knows the power of the pack, it’s creators.

— Hannah Doyle & Syd Cohen

Over the weekend, we went to Twitch’s 10th annual livestream convention, TwitchCon, in San Diego.

There was a unique mashup of creators and livestreamers geeking out on the craft and a ton of programming, but the biggest story was Twitch’s security measures after gaming streamer Emiru was assaulted by a fan during a meet and greet.

What else happened? We saw creators of all sizes and niches—from Trixie Mattel to bbno$ to California governor Gavin Newsom—roaming the event.

Here are our top industry takeaways from TwitchCon 2025 →

VTubers are taking over. VTubing is one of the fastest-growing niches on Twitch, which hosts 60% of VTuber channels. The animated streamers hosted interactive talks and even explored the expo floor with the help of VTuber Research Club—a startup that builds mobile VTuber robots.

Streamers are developing deep loyalty. Longtime comedy and gaming streamer Chris Melberger told us that some of his viewers have been paid subscribers for eight years. That’s double the average number of years people subscribe to Netflix. 

“I try my best to platform good things and keep it chill. Banter and goofing on people is important but there’s a line always,” Melberger said, noting that subs are his largest stream of revenue.

Twitch is angling for mobile views. As viewers turn to Twitch for more short-form video, the platform is leaning in with two vertical updates: 1) dual-format streaming that allows creators to stream from both vertical and horizontal feeds and 2) an auto-clipping tool that selects clips from livestreams to share vertically across platforms.

Chess creator Alexandra Botez makes her opening move into the video game market with Chess Arena, a game that combines the strategy of chess with the multi-player competition of Fortnite—where the last person standing wins.

Catch up quick: Alexandra has spent the last seven years making chess YouTube videos with her sister Andrea, livestreaming games and hosting a lifestyle podcast. Together they’ve amassed over 2 million subscribers and 1 billion views.

Chess Arena is the first release under Alexandra’s game development studio, Millions of Monsters. The game took three years to develop and is available for users to playtest October 25.

Zoom out: The Botez sisters are part of a growing class of chess creators including Magnus Carlsen and GothamChess who are merging the classic game with the excitement of esports. With Chess Arena, Alexandra has the opportunity to build brand affinity—and creator game play—apart from her own videos.

A fight between Greg and Rowley from Diary of a Wimpy Kid set to Olivia Rodrigo’s “Drivers License.” Scenes from Conclave atop Lady Gaga’s “Judas.” Fan edits like these aren’t just going viral—they might get creators studio jobs.

How? Movie studio Lionsgate has seen the impact of fan edits on their own IP (like The Hunger Games), and it’s now hiring TikTok editors for promotional tactics. 

UTA manager Felipe Mendez, who reps Lionsgate, said Creed viewership increased by 29% on Prime Video following a fan edit that garnered almost 20 million likes.

Big picture: “Edits are single-handedly responsible for getting me to watch/feel strongly about so many different shows and films,” X user Anthony posted under Lionsgate’s announcement. 

From “Kamala is brat” TikToks to a Wednesday x Lady Gaga mashup that gained more views than the show itself, fan edits are a powerful tool to move the needle across politics, music, and movies.