Jesse Daugherty started streaming on Twitch last year, but an accidental nap recently made him an overnight star.
Daugherty, 36, usually streams Hearthstone, with some other games thrown in the mix.
After, he usually changes his channel over to the “Just Chatting” category for some hangout time.
“I realized that it was garnering a little bit of a better audience so I decided to continue it,” he told BuzzFeed News. “It was an overall good experience to have a chill stream on the couch.”
That’s exactly what he was doing last Saturday. Except this time, he nodded off.
At the time he fell asleep, no one was even watching his channel. Daugherty’s channel didn’t have a huge following — a couple of hundred followers and a loyal subscriber. Subscribers, unlike followers, pay $5 a month, which the streamer gets a cut of.
Sound asleep and oblivious, Daugherty’s channel blew up as he snoozed. His chat box was full of people watching him dozing, and he had no idea.
This went on for three hours, with the chat reacting to his every move and sound.
“Next thing I knew, I woke up and 200 people were watching.”
In a rather endearing clip on his channel, Daugherty can be seen slowly coming to and realizing how big his audience had gotten. The clip, titled “The awakening,” now has more than 2.6 million views.
“I saw the total of 200 and I thought that was wrong,” he said. “Then I saw how fast the chat was moving and I was like, okay, that’s not wrong.”
Then he gave the sweetest little smile when it finally clicked what was going on.
The chat, meanwhile, was lit.
Daugherty quickly hopped back into streamer mode and started chatting with his new viewers.
“It was just a wild ride all around,” he said.
He ended up getting 2,400 new followers and about 50 new subscribers from the incident. People have also reached out offering gifts, love, and support.
“It’s been great everybody that has stopped by has been so supportive, which amazes me so much,” he said.
His newfound popularity may also help him get a better night’s sleep.
“The most exciting thing that has happened with it all is Tempur-Pedic has reached out and wanted to give me a mattress to help me get better rested so I’m not falling asleep on stream,” he said.