Twitch proceeded to dump on all our nostalgia with a 144p TwitchCon clip. Yep-you saw that right. I mean, the most powerful giant of streaming services showed its Bruh moment by posting an unfocused and pixelated clip under the caption, “TwitchCon, but in 144p. Shot on Nintendo 3DS.” The whole internet spun out of their mind.
The tweet is hilariously simple, basically showing what looks like a sea of TwitchCon attendees through the grainy Nintendo handheld camera from early 2011. And honestly? It’s kinda sick. There is a certain charm to viewing a grand-scale modern event through the potato quality lens of a gadget we all carried around in our good old days.
Opinions ran wild. Some gamers totally enjoyed the throwback mood, including OTK Esfand, who responded, “Wait this is kinda sick,” whereas others like CupidDuzt said it was “peak cinema.” The Official Twitch UK & Ireland account joined in the fun joking about almost stealing the 3DS Cringe during the event. Then there were those almost-few who turned the royal space for heated discussions about Twitch’s moderation policies concerning certain streamers, again proving that given half a chance, gamers will turn any tweet into a bloodbath.
The 3DS footage looks like it was ripped from some 2012 YouTube vlog, complete with blur attacks every time anything moved slightly too fast. How weird-a-flex showing the biggest annual event of theirs looking like it was filmed on a toaster. But with honesty? Respect. There is something that feels refreshing about embracing the jank in these times of 4K streams and crisp-clear quality.
The joke was elevated in some replies, with Vile35tv joking about “Missed a 0, supposed to be 1440p,” while Wuestenigel wanted to know, “Is 144p streaming actually coming to Twitch for April Fools?” Meanwhile, poor Jeremy Frieser was just lost, tweeting, “I was so confused,” which is true for most of us.
The ones who really won here, though, were the streamers depicted in the footage-JojoSolos saying “We look GOOD,” followed by some joking from aimsey and company about getting put on blast by Twitch through accidental memes. TheOrionSound chimed in too: “jumpscared myself I forgot I took this,” but that’s totally relatable.
But of course, being on Twitter, it never stays neat for long. Several of the replies went off into unrelated (and downright tiring) debates about platform moderation, proving again that no tweet exists in a vacuum. But to most gamers, this was just a silly little moment-absurd enough to remind us that sometimes the internet is best viewed in 144p.
So yeah, TwitchCon looked a little different from last time. Not an upgrade; not really worse-either way, just pixelated. And, honestly? We wouldn’t ask for anything more. Now, if you excuse me, I’ll go and dig my old 3DS out from the closet to check if it still holds a charge.
