On October 9, 2024, Kamala Harris’ campaign Twitch account streamed Tim Walz speaking at an Arizona rally while Twitch creator Preheat played World of Warcraft and commented on the game. Walz did not play the game, and the coverage does not establish how many people watched or whether the broadcast changed anyone’s political views.
What happened during the broadcast?
The campaign paired a live feed of Walz’s Arizona rally with Preheat’s live World of Warcraft gameplay. The broadcast was scheduled for 6:30 p.m. ET, according to WIRED’s preview; Engadget reported later that evening that it had taken place. WIRED described Preheat as a campaign volunteer, while Engadget reported that the creator encouraged viewers to vote.
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The game’s setting is Azeroth, which inspired WIRED’s playful framing of the event as coming “from Arizona and Azeroth.” In practice, the rally and gameplay appeared alongside one another in the same broadcast.
Did Tim Walz or Kamala Harris play World of Warcraft?
No. The reports identify Preheat as the person playing and commenting on World of Warcraft. Walz was the rally speaker whose speech was carried in the broadcast. The coverage does not say that Harris appeared to play, either.
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Why did the campaign use Twitch?
A Harris campaign spokesperson told WIRED that the campaign wanted to reach voters who were difficult to reach through conventional media. In August 2024, when discussing the campaign’s Twitch presence, spokesperson Seth Schuster said: “Our job as the campaign is to break through a historically personalized media landscape, taking the VP and her vision for the future directly to the hardest-to-reach voters and those who will decide this election.” That statement explains the campaign’s rationale; it is not evidence that a particular stream reached new voters.
WIRED reported that the campaign aimed to increase Harris and Walz’s visibility among young men, citing a campaign spokesperson’s characterization of young men as a majority of Twitch’s user base. That is the campaign’s audience rationale, not a demographic breakdown of this broadcast. The stream was the account’s first reported live gameplay broadcast, but not its first Twitch broadcast: WIRED noted that the account had streamed Harris’s Democratic National Convention acceptance speech in August.
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What is known about the stream’s audience and impact?
The reviewed coverage does not provide verified event-level viewership, audience demographics, or evidence that the broadcast affected voter intention or turnout. WIRED reported that Preheat had more than 50,000 Twitch followers at the time; that figure is the creator’s follower count, not the number of people who watched the rally stream.
The Associated Press later placed the Twitch event among broader Harris-campaign efforts to communicate with male voters. That context does not show how this specific broadcast performed or whether it was effective.
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- Planned start: 6:30 p.m. ET, as reported by WIRED before the event.
- Creator following: More than 50,000 Twitch followers for Preheat, according to WIRED at the time of its report.
- Stream viewership and effects: Not established by the reviewed reports.
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