Whippy used to think he’d “amount to nothing” because he couldn’t see anything beyond living in rural New South Wales, paying off a large mortgage, and working a job he didn’t enjoy.
That Whippy, on the eve of his massive Twitch signing announcement, can’t believe how far he’s come since he first went live all those years ago.
On May 29, the now-Brisbane-based actor revealed his new, exclusive deal with Twitch, Amazon’s massive streaming platform. Whippy will be tied to the purple-branded site for several years under this streaming deal, which is similar to others we’ve seen over the years. The contract would be a significant milestone in any streamer’s career, but it means even more to Whippy: he’s finally made something of his life.
Whippy, who is also signed to Click Management, realizes he’s exaggerating when he says he’d “never amount to anything” in another life, but he had carried that fear deep down until recently. He was dubbed “the dumb kid” at school and wasn’t given much of a chance to prove himself. That made an impression on him.
When he finally decided to pursue streaming, it wasn’t as simple as pressing a button and attracting tens of thousands of Twitch viewers.
Whippy, now 22, used to play out of a shed in the beginning. The focal point was a wooden pole that held the entire structure together. There were no temperature controls, and if it was hot outside, it was boiling inside. The windows were taped over with garbage bags that barely kept out the sun—a must for Whippy because he would often sleep through the day to hit U.S. hours—and there were no temperature controls; if it was hot outside, it was boiling inside. Cold? The shed was extremely cold.
His life was also disrupted by the hours he aimed for in the United States. Whippy eventually settled on a Twitch streaming schedule that saw him stream from 10 p.m. to 8 a.m. He claims it reached a large American audience, but it nearly cost him everything.
Furthermore, the NBN internet rollout in Australia had yet to reach rural New South Wales. Whippy was stuck paying around $1 AUD per gigabyte to stream, a price he couldn’t avoid. Costs quickly mounted.
The first 24 months were the most difficult, according to Whippy, and they put him in a difficult situation: accept what he had or try for bigger fish in a different time.
He had built an Australian audience in the late hours of the night and had others trickling in through the early hours of the morning, but his numbers were stagnating and his mental health was deteriorating.
Whippy decided to go for it, and as it turns out, the GTA star hit the nail on the head.
It took some forethought—the popular No Pixel roleplaying server, known for its streamer-led Grand Theft Auto theatre adventures, was updated to “3.0” in February 2021, and Whippy was included.
Whippy had already benefited from GTA roleplaying. He’d built a fan base around his central characters, drug-addicted gang leader Irwin Dundee and Crocodile Steve, the server’s “most petty cop”—both Australians, of course. He had the celebrity (or notoriety, depending on which character he played) to pull off a time-swap and join new GTA adventures.
Whippy did just that as No Pixel relaunched.
More success came with the 3.0 update. On Twitch, the entire GTA roleplaying scene exploded, and the platform’s biggest stars were quickly creating characters to join the chaotic world of Los Santos.
Whippy found himself playing with top stars like xQc and Sykkuno (the latter of whom has since left for YouTube) and building an even larger audience thanks to Dundee and Steve.
Whippy continued to grow. During April of 2021, he reached a peak of 6,600 average viewers in every stream, which he maintained for the rest of the year.
In 2022, the numbers have dwindled a little, with just over 4,000 eager viewers tuning in at any given time to watch Whippy bring Dundee and Steve to life in Los Santos, but he still has around 6,000-7,000 monthly subscribers.
Even after experiencing the rollercoaster, he still can’t believe it. Whippy is still on Twitch because of his loyalty.
There were other options for the 22-year-old, but he only considered Twitch, according to Dot Esports. It would have felt “disloyal” to leave after half a decade of building his fan base on the website, he explained.
Whippy promises that now that he’s signed on to Twitch, there’ll be more than GTA—a racing car stream, cooking, and IRL adventures are all on the cards—but he really just wants his Twitch fans to know that he’s not going anywhere anytime soon.
And, to top it off, Whippy’s big Twitch announcement comes just days after another, more private celebration: he has finally paid off his mother’s mortgage after years of streaming. Whippy has had this goal simmering in the back of his mind since he first started dabbling in the streaming world. He’s finally reached that final goal on the eve of his re-signing announcement.
