Pokimane

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Pokimane
Pokimane 2019.png
Anys in 2019
Personal information
BornImane Anys
(1996-05-14) 14 May 1996 (age 25)
Morocco[specify]
Nationality
Occupation
Twitch information
Also known asPokimanelol, poki
Channel
Years active2013–present
GenreGaming
Games
Followers8.5 million
Total views204 million
Associated acts
YouTube information
Channels
Years active2013–present
Genre
Subscribers8.1 million (combined)
Total views744.9 million (combined)
YouTube Silver Play Button 2.svg 100,000 subscribers 2016[a]
YouTube Gold Play Button 2.svg 1,000,000 subscribers 2018
Updated: 10 September 2021

Imane Anys (/ˈɪmɑːn ˈæniːs/; Arabic: إِيْمَان أَنِيْس‎, romanized: ʾImān ʾAnīs, pronounced [ʔimaːn ʔaniːs]; born 14 May 1996), better known by her online alias Pokimane (/poʊkimeɪn/), is a Moroccan-Canadian Internet personality. Anys is best known for her live streams on Twitch, broadcasting video game content, most notably in League of Legends and Fortnite. She is a member of OfflineTV, an online social entertainment group of content creators.

Career[]

Twitch streaming[]

Anys created her Twitch account in June 2013. She began streaming later that year with a $250 PC she bought off a classifieds website after she reached Platinum rank in League of Legends. The name Pokimane is a portmanteau of Pokémon and her name, Imane.[1]

She gained 450,000 followers on Twitch in 2017, earning her account a place within the 100 most followed on the platform.[2] As a result of her account's rise on the platform in 2017, the Shorty Awards named her as the Best Twitch Streamer of the year.[2] The Shorty Awards detailed that her gameplay and commentary on the popular game League of Legends propelled her to popularity on Twitch.[2] Anys had a cameo appearance in a League of Legends trailer announcing a new game mode.[3]

Anys has been known to stream gameplay and commentary of Fortnite, which she first streamed as part of a sponsorship.[4] At E3 in 2018, Epic Games, the developers of Fortnite, arranged a pro–am event.[5][6] The event paired streamers with mainstream celebrities in a match of Fortnite's Battle Royale mode; Anys was paired with rapper Desiigner but shortly before the event, he was replaced with basketball player Josh Hart.[5][6] In mid-March 2019, Anys addressed her declining amount of Fortnite streams, stating that she needed to "think about what I like or dislike about the content that I've been making."[7]

Tech news website Digital Trends detailed that Anys frequently interacts with her audience and described her "laidback but enthusiastic personality" as "perfectly suited to long-form streams."[8] Aside from streaming gaming content, Anys also podcasts and streams miscellaneous real-world moments.[8]

As one of the more popular streamers on the platform, Twitch has directly partnered with Anys. In July 2018, Twitch selected her as one of 15 ambassadors for the 2018 iteration of their TwitchCon event.[9] Later that month, Twitch also scheduled Anys as a partner for their Twitch Creator Camp, a series of broadcasts and articles designed to help content creators build successful channels.[10] In March 2020, Anys signed a multi-year exclusivity with Twitch.[11] Social Blade listed Anys as the 9th most followed user on Twitch, with over 8.5 million followers as of 21 December 2021.[12]

In late October 2020, Anys collaborated with U.S. representatives Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Ilhan Omar along with several other notable streamers including Disguised Toast and HasanAbi for a session of Among Us as part of a get-out-the-vote initiative for the 2020 United States presidential election.[13][14]

Anys was named a featured honoree in the 2021 Forbes 30 Under 30 under the category of "Games", which noted her prominence as the largest female streamer on Twitch and as one of the founders of OfflineTV.[15] She had 8.5 million followers on Twitch as of July 2021.[1]

YouTube[]

In addition to streaming on the Twitch platform, Anys also has multiple YouTube channels: Pokimane, Pokimane Too, Pokimane VODS, Poki ASMR, and imane.[16][17] The Pokimane channel features edited gaming clips from streams while Pokimane Too includes unrelated clips of her gaming content, vlogs, and podcast. On the Pokimane VODS channel, full unedited VOD clips of streams are uploaded. The Poki ASMR channel featured videos that are part of a broader YouTube community of ASMR content, though Anys has ceased uploading on the channel.[18] In 2021, Anys launched a new channel entitled simply 'imane' which covers more personal topics and vlogs rather than gaming-related topics.[citation needed]

Anys is also a member of OfflineTV, a collaborative YouTube channel made up of content creators.[19] Speaking about the channel, Anys stated, "it's not fun being a streamer and living alone, so we decided to come together in a way so we not only keep each other company but we can also collab and actually do good work and content for everyone else."[19]

Other ventures[]

On October 2019, it was announced that Anys, among a number of other internet personalities, would appear in the film Free Guy, directed by Shawn Levy,[20] which was released in August 2021.[21]

On June 2020, Anys joined Markiplier and Jacksepticeye's fashion brand Cloak as a partner and creative director.[22][23]

Anys made a cameo appearance in the music video for Bella Poarch's song "Inferno", released in August 2021.[24] In October 2021, it was announced that Anys had helped launch a talent management and brand consulting firm called RTS, where she will serve as the Chief Creative Officer.[25]

Personal life[]

Anys was born in Morocco on 14 May 1996.[26][27][28] Her family moved to Quebec, Canada when she was four years old.[26] Her parents were academics.[1] Anys attended McMaster University and studied chemical engineering but dropped out later to pursue her streaming career full-time.[26]

Filmography[]

Film[]

Year Title Role Notes Ref.
2021 Free Guy Herself cameo appearance [20]

Music videos[]

Year Title Artist(s) Role Notes Ref.
2021 "Inferno" Sub Urban and Bella Poarch herself cameo appearance [29][24]
"Break Out" MaiR Pokimane OfflineTV's official animated music video [30]

Accolades[]

Awards, recognitions and nominations received by Pokimane.

Year Ceremony Category Result Ref.
2018 10th Shorty Awards Twitch Streamer of the Year Won [2]
8th Streamy Awards Live Streamer Nominated [31]
The Game Awards 2018 Content Creator of the Year Nominated [32]
2019 Esports Awards Streamer of the Year Nominated [33]
2020 Canadian Game Awards Best Canadian Streamer Nominated [34]
Esports Awards Streamer of the Year Nominated [35]
10th Streamy Awards Live Streamer Nominated [36]

Notes[]

  1. ^ Anys's two other channels, Poki ASMR and Pokimane Too, reached 100,000 subscribers in 2017 and 2020, respectively.

See also[]

References[]

  1. ^ a b c D'Anastasio, Cecilia. "Pokimane Has Done Enough—and Has So Much Left to Do". Wired. ISSN 1059-1028. Retrieved 4 December 2021.
  2. ^ a b c d "Pokimane - The Shorty Awards". Shorty Awards. Retrieved 1 August 2018.
  3. ^ Dedmon, Tanner (20 May 2018). "League of Legends' New Clash Trailer Offers Advice From Faker". Comic Book. Retrieved 2 August 2018.
  4. ^ Nicol, Will; Winn, Riley (15 June 2018). "Twitch streamer Pokimane on playing 'Fortnite' full-time, building a community". Digital Trends. Retrieved 2 August 2018.
  5. ^ a b Bishop, Sam (24 May 2018). "Fortnite's Celebrity Pro-Am gets more details". Gamereactor. Retrieved 2 August 2018.
  6. ^ a b Goslin, Austen (1 June 2018). "Here's everyone playing in Epic's major Fortnite E3 tournament". Polygon. Retrieved 2 August 2018.
  7. ^ Bonfiglio, Nahlia (4 April 2019). "Pokimane explains why she stopped doing Fortnite streams". The Daily Dot. Retrieved 17 September 2019.
  8. ^ a b Gurwin, Gabe (19 April 2018). "Here are 8 fun Twitch streamers you should start watching". Digital Trends. Retrieved 2 August 2018.
  9. ^ Weiss, Geoff (6 July 2018). "Pokimane, Avajaijai, Djarii Named First-Ever 'Ambassadors' For Twitch's TwitchCon". Tubefilter. Retrieved 2 August 2018.
  10. ^ Chan, Stephanie (24 July 2018). "Twitch Creator Camp has both crash-courses and master classes for streamers". GamesBeat. VentureBeat. Retrieved 2 August 2018.
  11. ^ Asarch, Steven (5 March 2020). "Pokimane will be streaming on Twitch for at least a few more years". Newsweek. Retrieved 5 March 2020.
  12. ^ "Top 100 Twitch Streamers Sorted by Followers". Social Blade. Social Blade. Archived from the original on 3 November 2020. Retrieved 19 May 2020.
  13. ^ Stephen, Bijan (20 October 2020). "Watch AOC play Among Us live on Twitch with HasanAbi and Pokimane". The Verge. Retrieved 21 October 2020.
  14. ^ Fudge, James (20 October 2020). "U.S. Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Ilhan Omar to Join Pokimane in Among Us Twitch Stream to Promote Voting". The Esports Observer. Retrieved 21 October 2020.
  15. ^ "Forbes 30 Under 30 2021: Games". Forbes.
  16. ^ "Pokimane – about page". Pokimane. YouTube. Retrieved 2 August 2018.
  17. ^ "Poki ASMR – about page". Poki ASMR. YouTube. Retrieved 2 August 2018.
  18. ^ Gutelle, Sam (23 June 2018). "ASMR Creators Rustle Up Some Revenue On YouTube And Beyond". Tubefilter. Retrieved 2 August 2018.
  19. ^ a b Lee, Julia (14 July 2017). "Pokimane on Offline TV, trying new things and why Scarra is most like Zilean". The Rift Herald. Retrieved 2 August 2018.
  20. ^ a b Walker, Ben (4 October 2019). "Ninja, Jacksepticeye, Pokimane and more will co-star in Ryan Reynolds' Free Guy". Dot Esports. Retrieved 5 October 2019.
  21. ^ Kit, Borys (28 September 2018). "Ryan Reynolds, Shawn Levy Team for Action Comedy 'Free Guy'". The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved 19 March 2020.
  22. ^ Anys, Imane (18 June 2020). "insanely happy to announce i've joined @cloakbrand as a partner + creative director". Twitter. Retrieved 16 July 2017.
  23. ^ Hale, James (18 June 2020). "Top Twitch Streamer Pokimane Joins Markiplier And Jacksepticeye's 'Cloak' Brand As Partner, Creative Director". Tubefilter. Retrieved 16 July 2020.
  24. ^ a b Haylock, Zoe (13 August 2021). "Bella Poarch Welcomes You to Her Tower of Terror in the 'Inferno' Video". Vulture. Retrieved 16 November 2021.
  25. ^ "Pokimane is starting a talent management company for streamers". Engadget. Retrieved 27 October 2021.
  26. ^ a b c Spangler, Todd (19 April 2021). "Game Streamer Pokimane on Twitch's New Safety Policies, Favorite Games and Her Upcoming Film Debut". Variety. Retrieved 16 November 2021.
  27. ^ Diaz, Ana (14 May 2021). "Pokimane trolled everyone with her hot tub stream". Polygon. Retrieved 16 November 2021.
  28. ^ @pokimanelol (14 May 2021). "25!