HOLOLIVE — Banzoin Hakka told viewers on Wednesday that his live count had jumped past 20,000 during a chat stream and that he suspected bots. “Am I getting botted? I am getting hella botted, aren’t I?” he said, then put his average at about 22,000. He said he had not noticed it happening, and he asked whoever was behind it not to bot people, calling it the worst thing you can do to a content creator. The number soon dropped back, and Hakka joked that he had fallen off.

The stream drew 72 Super Chats and Stickers, and many of them came from a trick that spread through chat. After one viewer paid with Google Play credit, others checked their accounts and did the same, and Hakka checked his own Google Play points on stream. “Free super chats, guys. Literal free super chats,” he said, and later declared that chat had “cracked the code.” He thanked senders by name as the messages piled up.