The 'NPC' livestream TikTok trend helping creators earn cash

If you click on the TikTok feed of Fedha Sinon – better known as PinkyDoll – you’ll find something that may seem unconventional, even otherworldly. The Montréal-based 27-year-old is known for repeating sing-song, often nonsensical phrases on TikTok LIVE: her catchphrase “Ice cream so good” has swept the internet, vaulting into meme status.

PinkyDoll is at the vanguard of the ‘NPC’ trend that has captured the attention of TikTok users, in which content creators mimic the repetitive actions of a non-playable character (NPC) in a video game. PinkyDoll has said she’s inspired by the background characters that inhabit the world of the Grand Theft Auto series of games. Also called “idle animations” video game developers code in these background characters to create the effect of a bustling world.

“These characters in games have few phrases to say or actions to perform and often cycle through them,” says Jess Maddox, assistant professor at the University of Alabama, US, and an internet culture expert. “As such, NPC creators will only cycle through the same phrases and actions while avoiding too many new ones.”

The NPC livestream trend may seem odd, but some creators are finding it lucrative.

Viewers can buy ‘gifts’ for the creators within the livestream, which pop up on screen. When the creator sees it, they respond with their ‘pre-programmed’ response. For PinkyDoll, gifting an ice cream will prompt the “Ice cream so good” phrase; a cowboy hat will elicit the response “Yeehaw, yes”. Creators receive a portion of the cost of the gift.

And although small – gifts often cost just a few cents – these micro-revenues can add up.

The trend of human creators imitating NPCs is a recent phenomenon. One of the earliest recorded instances comes from Japanese TikToker nautecoco in a 2022 video. Other creators have followed with similar TikTok livestreams, to mixed receptions. Maddox says several well-known creators have jumped on the NPC streams, but “the trend really exploded with PinkyDoll”.

And interest keeps rising, says Marcus Bösch, a TikTok research fellow at HAW Hamburg, who runs the Understanding TikTok newsletter. As part of his research into how these trends evolve, he’s gathering an ongoing – and growing – list of NPC videos. According to proprietary data seen by the BBC, creators using the hashtag #NPC uploaded more than 47,000 videos in July, which have been viewed a collective 835 million times.

Sitting in front of a phone and livestreaming yourself repeating the same phrases over and over may seem like a strange way to pass the time, but some NPC creators are seeing revenue from the trend.

In July, PinkyDoll told the New York Times that she made between $2,000 and $3,000 (£2,360 to £1,570) per livestream from those in-app gifts that trigger her mechanical responses. That represents a large, highly engaged viewership, not least because individually the gifts are often only worth pennies. For instance, sending an ice cream cone gift to PinkyDoll costs $1.30 (£1.02).

Although she’s never studied NPC creators specifically, Maddox says these TikTok creators “have told me they make the bulk of their app income through [livestreams]”. Maddox also believes it’ll only be a matter of time before brands jump on the bandwagon and get an NPC creator to produce sponsored content, further enhancing these TikTokers’ earning power.

Although it’s spiking now, the NPC trend isn’t guaranteed to stick around – like many things in social media, phenomena can fade as quickly as they gain steam. Yet the experts think the NPC trend could be more than just a flash in the pan.

“I can definitely see this trend continuing,” says Maddox. “I’ve spent years studying ASMR on YouTube, and the parallels to NPC TikToks are striking.” Indeed, some ASMR creators are moving away from YouTube as their platform of choice and turning to TikTok to generate quick revenue and build an audience.  

Regardless of the staying power of NPC creators such as PinkyDoll, this phenomenon represents a larger trend: creators are finding new ways to make money through social media, and will continue to do so – however unconventional the approach may be.

-bbc