Twitch streamer Gronkh was extremely surprised when he received his first donation in 2015. Especially since he never set up this feature. This excerpt is currently experiencing a revival on TikTok and many viewers are reminiscing about it.
How did it all start? Since its beginnings in 2010, Gronkh, one of the most well-known German content creators on YouTube and Twitch, has built a massive and loyal following. Many of his viewers have been following him since his first Let’s Plays on YouTube. Others only joined his community over time.
The streamer became particularly famous for his involvement with the game Minecraft, for which he produced 1,278 episodes of Let’s Plays over three years. With an impressive total length of more than 21,000 minutes, it captivated many spectators.
In 2014 he started streaming on Twitch and quickly gained a large fan base there too. On January 17, 2015, Gronkh experienced an unexpected turning point when he received his first donation.
You can find out more about the streamer here:
“I didn’t even set that up!” explained the streamer
How did his first donation go? When Gronkh started his stream in January 2015 and told his viewers about his previous recordings for The Forest, he had no idea what to expect. In the middle of his stories he suddenly received his first donation.
“nekkode” donated €1, and Gronkh’s first reaction was a mix of surprise and confusion: “What? How is that possible? Huh? I didn’t even set that up!”. Astonished, he asked the donating viewer how he had managed to donate since he had neither set up a donation link nor activated the relevant alerts.
The streamer admitted that he had been asked for a donation link several times, but had not bothered with it until now. Even though he knew the function from other streamers, he felt somehow uncomfortable with it.
As a new Twitch partner, he was still very inexperienced
What did Gronkh know about the function so far? But his inexperience with the topic became particularly clear when a viewer named “Captainsinasparrow” asked him this question: “Does the money end up with you or with Twitch?”
Gronkh admitted that he did not know exactly how the proceeds were distributed. As a newly minted Twitch partner, he simply signed the contract without reading it thoroughly, assuming the terms would be similar to YouTube, where there was little room for negotiation.
“I feel so bad,” Gronkh said
Just as Gronkh was about to begin telling his viewers that he had been thinking about the way he wanted to handle donations, he was interrupted again by a donation. This time the donation from “LurchLiebe” came in for €1. But instead of continuing his thoughts, he was overwhelmed by a flood of more €1 donations that kept coming.
Gronkh barely had a chance to finish a full sentence before he was interrupted again by an alert. Amid this flood of donations, he confessed to his viewers that the sudden monetary donations made him feel uneasy. But then a donation of €150 arrived from “Toxinator84”.
The streamer stared at the screen in shock, unable to believe what he was seeing. “I hope this isn’t serious. I hope what it says isn’t true. Toxinator84, I hope that’s not true! I hope it’s one of those things that goes back in the end,” he explained while pointing his index finger at the camera. However, even after this remarkable donation, the donations did not stop.
Gronkh would like to donate half of the proceeds
With the overwhelming number of donations continually coming in, Gronkh felt increasingly overwhelmed. At some point during the stream he made a decision: he wanted to donate part of the proceeds. He emphasized again that the donations shouldn’t actually be activated yet. Still, he was so overwhelmed by the generosity of his viewers that he decided to split the donations.
The streamer explained to his viewers that he intended to split the amount 50/50: half would be donated, while the other half, as he put it, he would “steal” to buy new lighting for his setup .
Although Gronkh is often referred to as a “veteran” of the German gaming community, he continues to prove that his time is not yet up, despite critics’ claims to the contrary. You can read more about it here: Twitch: Gronkh has clear words for critics who claim: “You’re too old to play”