NPC LIVE STREAMING ON TIKTOK: WHAT IS IT?

Harrison (@harrisonxflint) NPC live streaming on TikTok August 29th 2023

Spend enough time on TikTok and you’ll notice that (almost) every 2nd live is some version of this…but WHAT is it & WHY has it taken over the platform?!

NPC live streams have, over the last few weeks, become a HUGE HUGE (so huge, I had to say it twice) trend & at first it doesn’t make a whole lot of sense, but, it’s not the first time NPC (none playable character) content has been a viral trend; usually seen with people remaking GTA (Grand Theft Auto) IRL (in real life) videos (both with playable and NPC’s)

🤓History lesson: The trend actually kicked off in 2021 with Natuecoco (a Japanese TikTok Creator) who started it as a ‘thought experiment’, drawing inspiration from cosplay and art.

NPC live streams serve 2 purposes;

💰 1. The creators that are doing these live streams are making BANK!

TikTok (much like YouTube with their creator monitisation) is paying people to go live.

The more viewers give you gifts (which are assigned a $$ value through TikTok coins) the more the creator does that assigned action (watch the video to see the creator be gifted a microphone and, pull out a physical mic to “sing”) and the more money you make.

🤝🏾 2. It gives people a way to “interact” with “NPC’s” in a way they wouldn’t be able to do it in an actual game with a playable character, obv you are the playable character and don’t get to see what the NPC can do.

🙀 So, we’ve got the “what’s the trend” & “why it’s happening” but (as I was asked by my team) “why would anyone enjoy that content?!”

🪝 🔂 The simple answer: a humanised (well, human) hook model - put the money in the machine, make something happen, get the dopamine hit, make it happen again, rinse and repeat.

TikTok as a live streaming platform keeps going from strength to strength (or interesting to odd depending on how you look at it). It’s the home of trend explosion (and trend development), keeping its users entertained, engaged and on platform for longer. chat to us about how to make TikTok work for your brand!