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LOS ANGELES — The world of online creators has boomed during the pandemic. Sunday night, its stars gathered at the Beverly Hilton for the 2022 Streamy Awards, the creator economy’s inaugural awards ceremony.
It was the first year the awards ceremony had been hosted in-person since the pandemic, and it was the first to be streamed by many influencers. “It feels like a whole new generation of creators,” said Lauren Schnipper, vice president of corporate development at Jellysmack, a platform that allows creators to post to social media and co-host of the Creator Upload podcast. “It’s a completely different group of creators than last time, it’s a testament to how the creator economy has grown since the pandemic.”
Though millions are entertained online through platforms like TikTok, Instagram, Twitch, YouTube and more, the world of online creators is still not officially recognized by old-school Hollywood. “There’s the Emmys, Golden Globes, and Oscars for mainstream entertainment,” said Adam Rose, a TikTok creator with more than 4.3 million followers, “but the people in this space entertain more people in the world than those in it.” nominated people other awards.”
The size of the creator economy is measured in billions. YouTube announced that it paid out over $30 billion to creators between 2019 and 2021, and some of the internet’s top stars make tens of millions of dollars annually. A powerful content creator, MrBeast made over $54 million in 2021 alone.
The star power was palpable on Sunday evening. Fans pressed their faces and phones against the Beverly Hilton Hotel’s glass windows hoping to catch a glimpse of the creators as they walked the red carpet.
“You have TikTokers YouTubers, Snapchat Original Creators, Instagrammers, it’s an insanely wide range of platforms that make and break entertainment on the internet,” said Sidney Raz, a YouTuber whose lifehacks for people in their 30s have exploded on TikTok and Instagram . “It’s great to have an awards ceremony about all the hard work and creativity we put into the internet every day.”
The awards ceremony itself was produced by Tubefilter and Dick Clark Productions and broadcast exclusively on YouTube. Content creator Airrack moderated the event and streamed it on his own channel. Rapper Yung Gravy performed as a musical guest.
“Thank you for coming tonight and leaving your ring lights at home,” he said as he took the stage.
The talents honored at this year’s Streamys showcased just how cross-platform the creator ecosystem has become. Queen of TikTok Charli D’Amelio won the Best Lifestyle Creator award. Twitch star Kai Cena won the Breakout Streamer Award. YouTuber Markiplier took home the award for best screenplay series as well as the long-standing Gamer Award. Hasan Piker was awarded Best Newsmaker.
The Streamy award for best breakout creator is coveted among influencers. Stars who have won it in the past, including Bella Poarch, Charli D’Amelio, MrBeast, Emma Chamberlain and Liza Koshy, have become Internet A-listers, and this year 24-year-old Ryan Trahan took the award with him home .
Trahan has made a name for himself by racking up tens of millions of views for things like inviting 100 celebrities to his birthday, spending 50 hours in the dark and trying to exchange a dime for a house in less than a week .
Simone Giertz, a science YouTuber with 2.7 million subscribers, said this year’s streams felt more established than in previous years. It’s no longer seen as just something for teenagers, she explained. “It’s a lot more mature than it was a few years ago,” she said. “Before, it was just a bunch of teenagers in their rooms taking selfies. I haven’t seen a single person take a selfie yet. We’re all growing up.”
The TikTok stars of Retirement House, a content house whose members range in age from 70 to 85, are new to internet fame but have sat at the forefront among influencers decades younger than they are for the show. Other creators who took the stage on Sunday night spent their formative years in the public eye. Rhett James McLaughlin and Charles Lincoln “Link” Neal, a content creator duo known professionally as Rhett & Link, are both in their 40s but have been YouTube stars since 2006.
Ben Relles, a former YouTube exec who has attended every Streamy Awards since the first one in 2009, said he was most impressed by Rhett and Links, “who, after 15 years of creativity on YouTube, are still the winning show of the year and they had Streamy’s funniest moment.” (The duo got the audience laughing when it came to doing a long-form introduction for the short-form content award).
Caleb Marshall, a fitness pop star who’s like the Internet’s Richard Simmons, was in attendance with his two backup dancers and fitness trainers, Haley Jordan and Allison Florea. Marshall said the impact of the pandemic, coupled with the emergence of short-form video, has led to changes in the industry. “The standards of beauty and production built up over so many years have collapsed,” he said.
And more people than ever are tuning in to online creators. “People wanted connection,” Florea said, “and they found it through us and others like us.”