Russian streamer Ilya “Maddyson” Davydov reflected on how content creators achieve real popularity and urged colleagues to change tactics. In a Telegram post he argued that long live broadcasts no longer produce genuine recognition, and that creators should concentrate on short, highly shareable pieces and on generating topical news hooks to build a wider, real audience.
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In his post Davydov said he’d come to the conclusion that staying confined to the streamer environment is pointless. He called the format essentially dead and complained that many streaming personalities are neither widely watched nor truly known outside a narrow circle. According to him, creators should move toward short, attention-grabbing content and frequent newsworthy posts — show your face, keep publishing in messaging channels, and manufacture information occasions to stay relevant. He argued that popularity measured only within a streaming platform is meaningless — "zero" — unless someone is backed by an organization or inflates their numbers. He also noted that some people have earned huge amounts by presenting a painted, fake popularity and misleading their audiences, but that beyond the money and the sham numbers they have little real standing. Davydov said he has a base of genuine fans he wants to grow and that long-format broadcasts won’t do that because, in his view, few people watch them now. He encouraged others to create highlight outlets, produce short shareable posts and videos about him, and generally flood the internet with content; he even said he would stop issuing strikes and invited people to post whatever they like.
Davydov added that the main problem he sees is that real fame does not automatically turn into monetization: he claims to have virtually no sponsors despite considering himself among the most prominent figures not only on his platform but across the Russian-speaking internet. He went so far as to say he believes he would be one of the best-known people in Russia even without the internet.
Earlier, Maddyson also commented on the scale of botting in the Russian-language segment of a popular streaming platform, stating his belief that roughly 85% of reported concurrent viewers are artificially inflated. He said he had discussed the issue with a platform representative who allegedly confirmed this assessment. Further reporting on that situation has been published separately.