Influencers posing as NPCs report earning up to $3,000 per stream in new TikTok trend

A bizarre new trend in which creators livestream themselves acting like non-playable characters (NPCs) has been sweeping through TikTok, with the most popular accounts garnering hundreds of thousands of views per video.

While some have suggested the trend is fuelled by a "fetish" for NPC behavior, others have chalked it up to a desire for mindless entertainment that doesn't require much thinking on the part of the audience or creators.



According to the New York Times, while many have tried their hand at gaining notoriety by participating in the trend, only a few have managed to pull it off.

Among them is 27-year-old Fedha Sinon, a Montreal-based stripper turned TikToker who goes by the name PinkyDoll. She has managed to accumulate over 400,000 followers and claims to routinely pull in between $2,000 and $3,000 per stream.

In her videos, Sinon simply stares into her camera and repeats a number of catchphrases such as "Ice cream so good." Viewers elicit reactions from her by sending "gifts" through the live chat. 

Sinon told the Times she had stumbled into making NPC content by accident.

"I was just being cute," she said, "I remember someone saying, 'Oh my God, you look like an NPC,' and then they start sending me, like, crazy money."

Other creators who have since become popular for mimicking NPC behavior include Ohio-based Cherry Crush, and Satoyu727 of Japan.

The trend has been met with mixed reactions, with some warning it could signal a shift in the type of content people consume.

The term NPC originally referred to a character in a video game that could not be played, one that was void of independent thought and only acted in accordance with pre-programmed instructions.

It has since been co-opted by many in the online right-wing community to refer to leftists; instead of code, the political NPCs are directed by what they're fed by mainstream media and the government to "support the current thing."