Since the Russian invasion, regular life in Ukraine has been disrupted, people have been displaced from their homes, and thousands of lives have been lost. For one Twitch streamer, that story is no different.
Bobuubi, a Ukrainian live streamer, has been playing Escape from Tarkov on Twitch since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, about 2 years ago. He also started Tarkov Academy, an Escape from Tarkov training school where gamers can learn how to improve their gameplay directly from Bobuubi.
On February 24th, Bobuubi had to pause his live streams due to the Russian invasion. A clip of him signing off from that stream went viral with over 250,000 views, bringing attention to the war in the live streaming community. In an “On the Media” podcast episode from WNYC Studios featuring Bobuui, Bobbuui recalls that moment. He spent over a week afterwards trying to flee the country with his family. He said they were able to get to a small village near the Polish border, but after seeing the need for food and supplies there, he made the decision to stay and help his fellow Ukrainians.
Live Streaming from a Bunker
About 10 days after the Russian invasion began, Bobuubi started streaming again from a military bunker. His mission was now to raise money for Ukrainians in need and started Gamers 4 Ukraine to collect donations. In the podcast episode, Bobuubi said they’ve raised over $1,000 in the first couple of weeks. In addition, they’ve also driven refugees to the Polish border and helped build infrastructure on the ground.
Since the invasion, Bobuubi has streamed 27 times for about 100 hours of airtime. His streams have garnered 10,000 hours watched and had a peak viewership of 385 viewers. His community on Twitch and Discord have boosted the issue, helping Bobuubi and his mission gain followers and supporters. Since he started streaming again after the invasion, the hours watched on his live streams grew over 500%.
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