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How Fanum Built an Empire Streaming Much More Than Video Games

GQ • Published on 27 Jan 2025 • ~4150 words
He got big streaming videos of his gaming exploits. He got huge (like, millions-of-fans huge) streaming videos of his offline life. Now, one of Gen Z’s wildest success stories explains his plans to revolutionize the rest of the media landscape.
Even among high-earning streamers, Fanum represents something new. He is not performing wild stunts, he’s not a pro gamer, he doesn’t even have a magic voice. He’s…just a dude recording himself vibing out. Chillness is key to his everyman appeal. That, and his uncanny ability to create viral phrases: The phrase “Fanum tax,” which refers to Fanum’s habit of “taxing” his friends by taking bites of their food, jumped from the land of internet-born brain-rot humor into the real world, spawning countless articles trying to enlighten boomers—and terrifying countless zoomers with their first taste of losing touch with internet slang. It was an early example of Fanum’s ability to cross over—something he seems to want to do more often.

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Added on 28 Jan 2025 13:45

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