Ironmouse Talks Breaking Kai Cenat’s All-Time Twitch Subscriber Record

When you think of a world-famous Twitch streamer, there’s likely to be a couple of obvious details. They’re probably playing video games in a bedroom or living space filled with neat props and toys. Maybe they’re roaming the streets or at IRL events, speaking to fans or pulling pranks. But one thing is clear about streamers: they’re all people. Their accessibility and humanity are often their greatest appeal. More raw and real than traditional celebrities, streamers are supposed to be relatable — or at least, they’re perceived that way.

Right now, the most subscribed-to streamer on Twitch is Ironmouse. She’s a person, too, although she looks a little bit different than you’d think. She’s a Vtuber, a content creator who uses an anime-styled avatar for their on-screen appearance. Nobody knows what Ironmouse really looks like, but it doesn’t matter. To her 2.1 million followers, the cartoonlike “Twitch witch” with the high-pitched voice is their demon queen.

For nearly 40 days, Ironmouse has been on a mission, an ongoing “subathon” — a series of marathon streams held to raise a certain number of subscribers — and on Sept. 30, she broke the all-time record of over 312,000 subs, taking the crown from Twitch superstar Kai Cenat. Cenat previously held the record in Feb. of 2023 after surpassing Ludwig, once one of Twitch’s most famous creators who now airs exclusively on YouTube.

Early Thursday morning, the subathon officially ended with her record standing at over 326,252 all-time peak subs. In an emotional final hour for the streamer and her followers, Ironmouse put a punctuation mark on a historic Twitch moment with teary renditions of classic ballads like Frank Sinatra’s “My Way.”

This is just the latest milestone in the rapid ascension for the Puerto Rican streamer. After beginning to stream in 2017, she became a founding member of the Vtuber group VShojo in 2020, where her profile continued to rise among Vtuber and more casual Twitch fans. Using her platform, she’s worked as an advocate to bring awareness to immunodeficiency disorders, herself afflicted by CVID (common variable immunodeficiency). Her condition makes it difficult for her to travel, making the global reach of the Ironmouse persona all the more important.

Last year, she was awarded both the “Best Vtuber of the Year” and “Best Content Creator of the Year” at The Game Awards 2023. With her seizing of the all-time subscriber crown, she also pulls off a hat trick as the first Vtuber, Latina, and woman ever to lead Twitch subs.

For Ironmouse, the subscriber record is a huge honor, but the journey hasn’t been with mishaps. During her recent subathon, Ironmouse’s YouTube channel was abruptly taken down — an occurrence that’s becoming increasingly common for major creators.

Recently, Rolling Stone caught up with the content creator to discuss the intent behind the subathon stunt, the response and controversies she’s seen as a result, and why she just wants people to know that, behind the anime eyes, she’s still a real person.

This interview had been edited for length and clarity.

What was your initial reaction to breaking this all-time record?
I honestly did not expect this to happen. I didn’t even expect it to last a few days, let alone a week, let alone this amount of time. But my community is amazing, and they’ve been incredibly supportive and very, very kind. They are just wonderful. It’s been a crazy month.

So, it kept extending as people continued subscribing. Was it difficult to suddenly find yourself needing to keep going and going?
The first week is always the hardest. Once the week was over and we kept on going, I was like, “Okay, maybe we might make it.” And then we started pushing to beat my record from last year, and the second we beat the record, I started thinking, “Okay, I wonder how far this is gonna go.”

I made a little bit of a joke, saying that I wanted to beat my friend Ludwig’s record after I beat my own record. Then my community took it all the way, and it was just the most insane thing that has ever happened, and I am just extremely humbled and grateful. It’s just been a dream.

You’ve played a lot of games on stream during this last month. What’re you most hooked on still?I’ve been bitten by the horror bug to the point where I have to consume every horror game that’s come out. It’s been a bit of a problem; it’s taking over my life. Silent Hill 2 just came out, and I’ve been playing it nonstop. And now October’s here, and it’s the perfect time. The perfect excuse. Everybody’s like, “Mouse, you already play horror games anyway.” But it’s extra horror now.

What was the deal with your YouTube channel? It was taken down during the subathon.
That was rough. I think that was the worst part of subathon, to wake up and find out that my channel was gone, and I was devastated and cried. I didn’t think they were gonna come back, but then they did and it was like Christmas.

Why did they take it down?
Right now, I don’t know if I can discuss at the moment. But when I do, we’ll see…

Despite not traveling physically, you also attended TwitchCon remotely during the subathon. There were tweets showing you rolling around on a monitor screen talking to people. What was that like?
Yeah, we went to TwitchCon. They were able to walk me around TwitchCon [on a screen], and I could take chat around TwitchCon. It was really nice to be about to talk to community members [while] streaming.

Ironmouse has no bounds. With the right tech, you can be anywhere.
Yeah, I have a lot of wonderful friends that helped me see the world, and I’m very grateful to them, because if it wasn’t for them, I don’t think I’d be able to see all these amazing things.

Tell me about the moments after breaking the all-time sub record.
I cried a lot. It meant a lot to me because it’s Hispanic Heritage Month, and I am Latina, and it meant a lot to me as a Latina, it meant a lot to me because I was the first Vtuber to do it, the first woman to do it, and it was just a lot of firsts. But also, what meant the most to me was that I did the subathon because I wanted to raise money for the Immune Deficiency Foundation, which is a charity that means a lot to me because of my immune condition.

What kind of reception did you receive from the community?
I saw so many nice things, and it’s hard because I’m not prepared to read all those nice comments, all those nice words from people. I get very flustered, very overwhelmed, and very emotional when I do.

I saw a lot of people mention, “As a Latina, this means so much to me.” And I saw a lot of comments from people saying, “I have a chronic illness and this means a lot to me because I felt like my life was over, and I felt like I wasn’t going to be able to do anything. To see you doing something inspires me to want to do stuff.”

That must feel good, to know that your success is inspiring other people with similar conditions.
I want people to know that, just because you have a difficulty in life, and just because things might not go your way and you have a lot of hurdles, if you really want to do it, just try to do it your way. Try to make your dreams come true.

But it’s also a huge leap forward Vtubers, right? What kind of reactions do you see from others?
I have people from the Vtuber community [who feel] like this is a big step, to be seen. And I agree — because we kind of have our own little bubble going on, and it’s just nice that people are learning about what Vtubers are and what we’re about. I know it can be a little bit confusing to see, you know, an anime girl on screen. ‘What is that? What is happening here?’ But it helps making it a bit more normalized.

What’s the biggest misconceptions you see about Vtubers?
I get a lot of comments from people saying, “Is she real? Is she AI? Is she a robot? Is she a man? What is she? Is she a fictional character?” I see a lot of fictional cartoon character stuff being thrown out there, so I think it’s important for people to know that, you know, there are some Vtubers out there that could be AI, but I am not one of them. I am a real life, human woman.

And it’s just a different way of streaming. Some people want to stream with a face cam, some people don’t want to stream with a face cam. Some people want to be a character, some [don’t]. It’s just a different way to create content.

What do you think fans are looking for when they tune into a Vtuber?
Some people just want escapism, and some people just want to see, “Funny, ha ha, anime girl on the screen.” But there’s also a lot of people that are interested in my lore as a character, but also interested in me as a person. I think it’s just different for everybody. There’s not one right or wrong answer, it just depends on the person. And there’s a lot of different reasons why people want to watch Vtubers, just like there’s a lot of different reasons why people watch streamers. It’s because they want to find something that speaks to them and something that they can relate to. I think that’s amazing.

Some people, like Adin Ross, responded negatively to you breaking the subscriber record — and flat out mocked Vtubing in general. Did you look at those kinds of reactions?
There were a lot of streamers that were very, very supportive. It was [heartwarming] to see. There’s always going to be negativity from certain spaces and places, but for the most part, creators have been amazingly kind to me and wonderful. There’s always going to be people on the internet that are not going to understand what you’re doing and they’re just not going to get it. Just confused. And that’s okay.

I’m more a positive person, I don’t like to pay attention to people saying nasty things or mean things. I had to address my community because a lot of people were getting upset because they saw a lot of [negative] comments, and a lot of my community members were getting upset. My message is: Always be kind, always understand that some people just don’t get it. And if you feel like you have to say something, just say, “Donate plasma.”

That’s all I have to say.

The previous record holder was Kai Cenat. He made a statement that implied he’d be looking to take back the crown. Thoughts?
Records are meant to be broken. I think it’s incredible and amazing if he comes back and he breaks it, because you just have to keep moving on and moving forward. I think it’s amazing for his community; it’s amazing for the streaming community as a whole. I did this because I wanted to raise money for the Immune Deficiency Foundation, and I wanted to do something really fun for my community. So, keep on going. Keep reaching higher.

Some time in the middle of your subathon, you tweeted that you didn’t really know why anyone would want to watch you. Why were you feeling that way?
At the time when I tweeted that, it was because a lot of people were coming in being like, ‘What are you watching this? Why would you watch this?’ And I always answers with, ‘I don’t know!’ I don’t know why people watch me. I don’t, I don’t understand. And you know what? It’s fine. I’m just happy that people [do].

When I first started, I just wanted to make friends, I started very small. I didn’t expect any of this to work out. I just wanted to make friends and hang out on the internet. I figured, I’ll just stream to a couple of friends, and that was it. Then just move on with my life. Then, everything started to pick up.

The fact that I can take care of my family and take care of myself, and I began this amazing career. It’s completely changed my life.