Kai Cenat walked into the 2025 Streamer Awards with five nominations and walked out with four wins, but it was his vulnerability, not his trophy count, that defined the night.
The 23-year-old creator, who collected honors including Best Marathon Stream and Best Just Chatting Streamer, used his acceptance speech for Best Streamed Collab to talk about something far more pressing than numbers: mental health.
“One thing I wanted to say to you guys tonight is I hope a lot of creators in here and everybody at home and the viewers and the streamers really take care of your mental health,” he told the room. It was a message grounded in lived experience.
After wrapping “Mafiathon 3” — his 30-day, 24/7 September subathon that topped 1 million concurrent viewers, pushed him past 1 million active Twitch subscribers, delivered more than 80 million hours watched, and turned celebrity drop-ins into a month-long cultural event — Cenat stepped away from streaming altogether, a rare silence for one of the internet’s loudest stars.
He shared what filled that quiet: anime.
“I just noticed that recently I just been going through things in my head,” he said. “And I was able to turn to anime — “Death Note,” “Naruto” recently, since I’ve been gone — and I just been able to find happiness within that.”
It wasn’t the first time Cenat publicly confronted the pressure cooker he lives in. Back in June, he went viral for bringing therapist Aubri Ebony Williams onto his stream after spending more than 60 hours stuck on the final boss of Elden Ring: Shadow of the Erdtree. What unfolded was part gaming chaos, part impromptu counseling session, as Williams coached him through breathing exercises, positive self-talk, and visualizing victory while he fumbled through the mechanics of the game he’d been grinding for a combined 92 hours.
Williams later described the moment as a “wild experience,” noting to Business Insider that he was as receptive as anyone could be in the middle of a delirious livestream marathon.
At the Streamer Awards, Cenat connected that same self-awareness to the state of the wider creator community. Calling collaboration “everything,” he urged streamers not to let fanbase drama or industry tension fracture the culture they’ve built.
“As long as we don’t tear each other apart and let that get in between us, we going to be just fine,” he said. “So, I appreciate y’all.”
While Cenat didn’t win Streamer of the Year—that honor went to IShowSpeed—he walked away with something harder to quantify: A reset. A reminder. And a room full of people who saw the human behind the highlight reels.
It was a rare moment where the night’s biggest winner made it clear: the biggest battle isn’t always on-stream, and sometimes the thing that gets you through it is as simple as pressing play on anime.
