Kai Cenat's latest endeavor, Streamer University, concluded on May 26 after four days of newsworthy moments. The project, aimed at gathering upcoming streamers and content creators in one place to help build their careers, was another livestreaming success for the Twitch megastar, possibly hinting at what could become a fixture in the industry's future.
The Streamer University educational platform witnessed participation from 17 professors (many of whom are prominent names in livestreaming) and 120 students. The curriculum was an amalgamation of entertainment, business, and networking, as aspiring influencers converged at the University of Akron in a bid to establish themselves as the next big stars in the community.
The four days of academic lessons meted out by teachers like Darryl Dwayne "DDG" Granberry Jr. and Emily "ExtraEmily" Zhang were livestreamed by numerous creators. It received the most traction on Kai Cenat's Twitch channel, totaling over 3.37 million Hours Watched (HW) and 638,289 Peak Viewers (PV), which it hit on the first day.
This made the 23-year-old the second-most popular channel on the purple platform this year, behind only Ibai "ibai" Llanos. It also helped Kai Cenat accumulate a not-so-inconsiderate 343,946 followers, with as many as 9,244 channels live broadcasting proceedings at some point to reiterate just how big a deal the entire exercise was in the community.
Some of the highlights from the four days of activities included a prank call that had YouTuber Ibrahim "Young Dabo" Dabo in tears and sex education as curriculum, which had almost everyone confused. There was also beef between various influencers, like the one involving Javontay "SoLLUMINATI" Baynes and Zoe Spencer.
Drake made a surprise appearance on Kai Cenat’s Streamer University, and delivered a speech #StreamerUniversity????
— Drake Charts ⁶? (@DrakeChart) May 26, 2025
pic.twitter.com/5u1pwYiI7Y
To cap the entire exercise off, Kai Cenat brought in none other than Drake to deliver a speech during the closing ceremony. The pop star praised the hosts' vision, saying:
"To be able to organize this incredible academic event and gather you all together in one place is something that has never been done before. It's an extraordinary feat, and I want you all to show the most love that you possibly can for your Dean, the one and only Kai Cenat."
Not everything was positive, though, as many viewers and online users accused the Twitch megastar of gatekeeping the content creation space by only recruiting his friends and other already renowned names as professors and students. This also caused many to ask if Streamer University was to actually help smaller streamers or if it was just another PR stunt to build Kai Cenat's brand.
There were questions about the application forms as well, with queries like "Can you bite your elbow?" causing critics to label the process "a circus."
Nevertheless, such hype around Streamer University was what encouraged Twitch to give it its own category, not something we see every day. Unsurprisingly, with so many eyeballs on the product, it shot up the rankings, almost overtaking the perpetual number one segment, Just Chatting, by peak concurrent viewership and finishing second over the past week by watch time.
That it was able to outperform legacy segments like Counter-Strike, League of Legends, Special Events, Grand Theft Auto V, and IRL is no mean feat. Generating such interest in any project can be hard in a world where attention spans are so limited due to the way social media works, so getting a separate category and then attracting thousands of viewers shows just how big of a deal Kai Cenat has become, a little over two years after first breaking through.
The likes of DDG, Ray "rayasianboy" Hsu, ExtraEmily, and Din "Agent00" Muktar giving continuous coverage definitely helped. In fact, a cursory look at the most-watched streamers list over the weekend showed that most of the top names had covered this category.
There was also the revelation from Kai Cenat himself that he had received offers from major streaming names like Netflix, Tubi, and Amazon Prime to air the Streamer University project on their platforms. However, he decided to keep it independent and turned these industry giants down, saying it was "rooted in a desire to maintain full creative control and ensure the authenticity of the program":
"With an idea like this so original, you gotta keep it where it's at. I want y'all to learn something, bro. Y'all channels, and who you are as a person… This y'all idea, this is your guy's stuff. Treat your platform as you would treat as you would treat other platforms. Shout out to all these big platforms, they have subscriptions, bro. Twitch, I think of it all like this: If you gonna sub up, you gonna get some good shit. Y'all have the opportunity to make y'all platforms as big as other platforms."
- Kai Cenat
Kai Cenat also held a Streamer University awards, which is where Drake's message was played to kick off the proceedings. The ceremony saw 23 awards being presented by the show's creator as DDG ended as the only streamer to win more than once, with the other gongs going to the likes of Corey "Corey2u" Johnson, OjaySuave, Rakai, and Tylil James.
To surmise, Streamer University was another in a long line of livestreaming-related ventures from Kai Cenat that have succeeded. Despite criticisms and controversies rearing their head, at the end of the day, it attracted huge interest from his peers, fans, and viewers (and Drake), so don't be surprised if there are more editions of this project in the future.
