nyone still thinking of gamers as antisocial nerds living in their parents’ basement has clearly never met Nick Kolcheff. At a meet-and-greet event a few blocks away from San Diego’s TwitchCon in October, the 32-year-old megastreamer known as “Nickmercs” arrives with all the swagger of a traditional celebrity – black SUV, sunglasses, gold chain, entourage.
Kolcheff signed his latest two-year deal with Twitch in October 2021 at the peak of his leverage, when his dailystreams were regularly drawing over 50,000 concurrent viewers and several other high profile creators had just defected to YouTube. One does not need to do much math to figure out just how significant the deal was.
Kolcheff’s lifeline will always be the “MFAM,” or “Mercs family,” a community that is the envy of the creator world. That’s why he’s investing heavily to make sure his fanbase feel connected not only to him but to each other, and as a result has cultivated an audience that will mobilize to support his various ventures, regardless of whether they’re gaming or not.
“He’s still the same goofy, stupid guy he was all along, but I’ve seen him turn into a multi-millionaire now,” says Tiongson, 32. “He’s shown me we don’t have to outgrow gaming.”