Twitch's Hype Train is not a feature that everyone might be absolutely familiar with. After all, it is a peculiarity that most streamers and audiences interact with only during the start of any broadcast.
However, that does not mean it does not hold significance in the livestreaming platform's larger landscape, especially when it comes to rewards for creators hitting certain milestones. Just ask Vedal, the British developer and a level 5 certified hacker whose AI VTuber, Neuro-sama, recently broke the Hype Train World Record set early in 2024 by Jason Thor "PirateSoftware" Hall.
Twitch's Hype Train is a time-limited event that gets triggered when there is a surge in viewer support activity, i.e., an increase in the number of subs or bits received by the streamer. Once activated, the community has five minutes to get to the next level (which then resets the counter). The catch is that it gets exponentially harder to reach each subsequent level as it requires more and more support, via subs and bits, to reach.
That is why this activity witnesses a spike in the content creator's gifted subscriptions and special messages in the chat using bits. Moreover, participating in the Hype Train and reaching certain levels aids the channel's viewers in earning special emotes.
Interestingly, PirateSoftware and his fans, known as goblins, took just a few days to set a new record after Twitch had revamped its Hype Train feature in March 2024. The American shattered his own record from December 2023, with the purple platform's introduction of new rewards for reaching the 100th level of the Hype Train seemingly serving as motivation for Jason and his viewers.
All the while wearing a banana costume, PirateSoftware's record eventually reached level 106 and 47 percent on April 1, 2024, before reaching the station. This was way higher than his previous mark of reaching level 55 twice, which was the cap set for Twitch’s older Hype Train.
This spree of back-to-back records was smashed by Vedal and Neuro on January 1, 2025. The channel was amid a livestreaming subathon — which began on December 19, 2024, also Neuro's birthday — that has so far involved a new model reveal and other festivities, when it reached a new mark to kick off the new year on a high.
When the locomotive finally reached the station, Neuro-sama's new Twitch Hype Train record had touched level 111 and 56 percent of the way to level 112. Vedal's channel also accumulated 84,904 subscriptions and 1,201,225 bits overall, with over 16,000 swarm members watching live as the new record was created.
In a friendly bit of banter, PirateSoftware was on hand to congratulate his successor on X (formerly Twitter) and proclaim that he was coming back for his record in a few months:
"Today, Vedal987 has beaten our world record Hype Train. The new record is Level 111 at 55%, which smashes our Level 106 at 47%. I cannot stress enough how awesome Vedal and their community are. That being said, on April 1, at 10:00 am PT, the goblins will return fire."
Readers must note that Vidal initially created Neuro-sama for gaming, with the AI model spending a lot of 2024 playing games like Minecraft, GeoGuessr, and SOMA. She even beat a top osu! player last year and participated in major events like WeebCon 2024, increasing her profile and attracting fans on Twitch and Bilibili.
Neuro's subathon since the beginning of December 2024 has also seen her end among the top ten VTubers on Twitch in terms of bits received since January 2024. Only the top three, Sinder, Shylily, and Zentreya, have accrued over ten million bits during this period, with renowned virtual YouTuber ironmouse in the fifth spot with 8.25 million bits received.
