Sleep-streaming is the new trend on TikTok, Twitch

Some TikTok users are making money and gaining followers by livestreaming themselves sleeping.

Make money by just sleeping (representative image) (Pramod Thakur/HT Photo)

People do weird things to go viral or at least gain some popularity on the social networking platforms. But did you know, some are acquiring followers and even making money by just live-streaming themselves sleeping overnight?

According to a New York Times report, many TikTok creators are using this trick to gain followers overnight. The overnight sleep live-stream also helps them make money through the "digital coins" which viewers donate. The report cites several accounts of such TikTok creators.

"Overnight my video blew up, and I got over 6,000 new followers," Oscar Reyes, an 18-year-old TikTok creator as saying. "After I stopped the stream I lost followers, so I don't know if people were just following for the stream, but I grew substantially. I went from 12,000 to 18,600 followers."

These sleep-streams gain viewers not necessarily because they are interested in watching the people sleep but join the live chat section where talk to each other without needing to pay attention to what's actually streamed.

TikTok, however, isn't the only social networking application to have such sleep-streamers. A separate Wired report reveals a similar trend of sleep-streamers on Twitch, one of the world's largest live streaming platforms for gamers. Twitch is owned by e-commerce giant Amazon.

 

There is a trend on TikTok where people livestream themselves sleeping to gain followers.

This guy has 12,000 people watching him sleep right now. https://t.co/9CfKbs5NWB pic.twitter.com/F6WcJRFB3q

— Brian Bosché (@BrianPBosche) February 27, 2020

"Over the last few weeks, streamers have been training their cameras on their mattresses as they doze off. In the intervening hours, viewers use Twitch's donation function to gift them small quantities of money—two dollars here, five dollars there," said the Wired report.

In January last year, a Twitch user woke up to 200 new followers after inadvertently passing out during the stream. The clip has more than 3.6 million views since then and is one of the most popular Twitch videos ever.

Just recently, popular Twitch streamer Mizkif made about $5.5k from media share donations and subscriptions after he posted livestream of himself sleeping.

The sleep-streaming isn't really a new phenomenon. YouNow, a popular live streaming app, had a similar trend on its platform way back in 2015. Other livestreaming apps such as Bigo Live also have similar sleep-streamers.