#online-fandom

#online-fandom

Confusing as it may seem to those of us on the outside, Nick Fuentes is indeed attractive to a small subset of groypers (his fanbase) known as "groypettes." There has, however, been widespread confusion about just how large this faction is. According to the TERF site UnHerd, "the community is simply too large to be a trolling fad - if you search for X accounts with 'Groypette' in the username, you can scroll and scroll."

There's something different about the "Heated Rivalry" online fandom from what I typically see - something strange brewing in the feeds, something I haven't seen in a long time, or maybe ever. It's easy for a topic to suddenly take over my Instagram Reels or TikTok feeds - those algorithms seem so sensitive that interacting with just a handful of posts on a topic can instantly send you down a rabbit hole.

Like many on Twitch, TheBurntPeanut streams for long stretches - often over seven hours at a time - while playing the popular game "Arc Raiders." It's not unusual for 75,000-plus concurrent fans to tune in to watch him dancing, chatting, and cursing out his competitors while gaming. The man behind TheBurntPeanut has not yet disclosed his name or appearance. That's a long-standing tradition for some gamers, who often show their screens instead of their own faces, and especially for VTubers.

Heated Rivalry, the Canadian LGBTQ+ sports drama about two rival hockey players who engage in a steamy romance, has taken the world by storm. If you're on social media, particularly the queer bits, you'll have more than likely seen actors Connor Storrie and Hudson Williams, who play Ilya Rozanov and Shane Hollander respectively, on your feeds. The two guys have remarkable chemistry, on and off screen, which has made them the fascination of many people online.