PirateSoftware, real name Jason Thor Hall, has made a name for himself as a reputable source of behind-the-scenes gaming information. With his background in infosec at Blizzard Entertainment for World of Warcraft, his work at Amazon Games Studio, and his experience as an indie games developer, fans are tuning in to hear PirateSoftware’s informed opinions on a range of data and software topics.
Following on from our profile on VTuber Dokibird, we’re looking at PirateSoftware’s rise to prominence on Twitch. The last six months have seen some phenomenal growth for PirateSoftware, despite first streaming way back in 2017. His inside-baseball analysis of Twitch’s algorithms has captured the interest of Twitch users, rocketing him to acclaim within the streaming industry.
PirateSoftware Commands a Mass Following with Highly-Specific Content
By turning his full knowledge of analytics towards streaming, PirateSoftware has begun to dominate Twitch. PirateSoftware has pulled in 10M hours watched on Twitch, most of this stemming from the last six months. His success isn’t the result of a one-off popular event, but rather a consistent schedule. Fans have to stay tuned to hear his opinions on the constantly evolving meta of Twitch analytics, listening in for insights such as PirateSoftware’s explanation for Twitch’s monetization algorithm.
Although PirateSoftware does play games such as Helldivers 2 and Palworld on his channel, by far his most popular Twitch streams are game dev Q&A’s. Four of PirateSoftware’s top ten streams are game dev Q&A’s, accounting for 452K hours watched alone. Many of these streams cover the ongoing development of his story-driven RPG Heartbound, which was released in early access on Christmas Day 2018. This particular genre, exemplified by titles like Earthbound, Omori, and Undertale, is incredibly popular online, fostering passionate communities who become emotionally invested in the games’ characters and themes.
PirateSoftware Plays the Twitch Algorithm to Break Hype Train Records
Much of PirateSoftware’s growth has come over the last six months, rising rapidly in November of 2023. From the start of October with an average minute viewership (AMA) of 367, PirateSoftware has since climbed to a peak AMA of 15.9K over the Easter weekend – a massive 4331% increase. Although six months is a short timeframe, his growth has been stable which implies a solid strategy for continued growth rather than clickbait-y attention grabbing.
On the 13th of December 2023, PirateSoftware’s popularity massively spiked with donations of roughly 2.2M Bits across the whole day. Roughly 1.8M of these Bits came solely from the day’s record-breaking Hype Train event in which PirateSoftware gained 7.3K new followers. PirateSoftware repeated the stunt on the 27th of December, pulling in an additional 2M Bits across the whole day. The swell of support for PirateSoftware was overwhelming, far exceeding what he ever expected.
Just this last weekend, over Easter, PirateSoftware crushed his own record by creating an even more incredible Hype Train. Across the 1st of April, PirateSoftware pulled in 8.6M Bits, 8.2M of which came from his Hype Train event – an absolutely absurd show of support that launched PirateSoftware to the highest daily Bits generated of all-time. It’s unbelievable to think all of this came off the back of an April Fool’s stream in which PirateSoftware created fake patch notes for Heartbound in a banana costume.
PirateSoftware Also Achieves Success on YouTube and IRL
Outside of Twitch, PirateSoftware also regularly uploads to his YouTube channel of the same name, mainly posting longplays of video games and supporting behind-the-scenes content from Heartbound. Looking at socials data from Sideqik reveals that his YouTube channel is actively engaged with, rather than just being a repository of historical content. PirateSoftware’s YouTube videos garner an average of 59K likes and 874 comments, with his total viewership on the platform amounting to 1.6M subscribers.
Beyond fan reception, PirateSoftware’s skill has been commended with a number of awards. As an infosec professional, PirateSoftware has competed in teams to win three Black Badges at DEF CON, an annual hacker convention in Las Vegas. Off the back of his recent streaming success, PirateSoftware was also named Best Software and Game Developer Streamer at the Streamer Awards 2024.
With such a diverse array of talents and a constantly evolving streaming landscape to explore, PirateSoftware is sure to remain in the discussion for years to come. When Heartbound releases (date as yet unannounced), PirateSoftware is sure to put on a spectacular display to promote the game – possibly even setting new records on Twitch.
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