Image courtesy of Presley Ann Photo/Shutterstock

By Charlie Sawyer

Published Aug 30, 2023 at 12:38 PM

Reading time: 3 minutes

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The other day, I spent four hours watching a girl named PinkyDoll jolt up and down, smile manically at the camera, and spew out a mish-mash of random words and phrases which, when put together, made literally zero sense. Now, I won’t lie, as confusing as it was, watching this livestream was also insanely entertaining, and it led me to discover an entire segment of the online universe that I’d never experienced before. Let me explain.

There’s a new wave of influencers taking over the internet, and they go by the name of NPCs or non-playable characters. Now, if you’re into gaming, you’ll know that an NPC refers to a background character who repeatedly acts out a particular sequence or course of events while the protagonist gets on with the proper action. They’re kind of a side piece as it were—think Grand Theft Auto characters, awkwardly walking around and having few phrases to say or actions to perform. These NPC influencers, on the other hand, are no sideshow.

If you’ve never seen an NPC livestream before, let me try and explain how they usually go down. So, the influencer will sit or stand in front of the camera, usually wearing some kind of lingerie or a cute outfit. Then, as people begin joining the livestream, the NPC will start reacting to the emojis and gifts they’re sent—a gift can be bought using TikTok coins, the platform’s currency.

Reactions can vary from repeated word sequences like “yes, yes, yes” to audible sounds and noises like slurping and giggling. Some of PinkyDoll’s classic reactions include “ice cream so good” and “yes, popcorn.” Honestly, you really have to see it to believe it:

There are lots of different kinds of NPC content creators out there, but it’s undeniable that PinkyDoll is dominating the scene right now. With over 1.1 million followers on TikTok and a highly profitable OnlyFans account, the 27-year-old is redefining the ways influencers captivate audiences while making bank.

Having only been on these platforms for a few months, it’s astonishing how far PinkyDoll, whose real name is Fedha Sinon, has come. Based in Montreal, Canada, Sinon’s livestreams are now being classified as what people would consider to be fetish content.

A majority of NPC influencers are women, and so naturally their appearances, alongside their tendency to make intense audible noises and ‘bop’ around, is considered to be inherently sexual—although saying that, I think that men would find a way to consider any female-led content to be ‘inherently sexual’.

In a recent interview with The New York Times, fellow NPC creator Cherry Crush shared her thoughts on the matter: “I don’t make my show sexually suggestive at all. I always thought it was just funny and entertaining. There’s something here about how people consume media and how things get decontextualised and sexualised, whether or not that’s what the creator intended. It doesn’t mean nobody’s going to consume it in a sexualised way, but it may mean that that’s not what the creator was trying to do.”

While it’s unknown how much each individual NPC creator makes, PinkyDoll did recently reveal that she earns approximately $3,000 per stream. That, plus the income she makes from her OnlyFans and Instagram accounts, adds up to around $7,000 per day. Sorry, one second, I’m just going to have a quick career change.

Despite having only been in the spotlight for a short while, PinkyDoll has definitely already managed to get herself caught up in a scandal or two.

Most recently, the influencer was under fire for her appearance at the 2023 Streamy Awards. The creator had been invited to co-present the award for streamer of the year and during her appearance, people began to notice that she looked a lot different in-person compared to online:

Netizens were pretty divided online, with some speaking on the importance of ridding colourism from the entertainment industry, while others insisted that the difference in skin tone has more to do with the lighting PinkyDoll uses in her streams. Either way, the internet just cannot seem to get enough of this woman—whatever it is she’s up to.

In PinkyDoll’s case, there’s a lot to be said for focusing on the fact that as a creator, she’s potentially had to use a filter in order to appear lighter skinned to grow both her popularity and her ability to make money on these platforms, rather than spending time debating whether or not her content qualifies as sexual or fetish play.

There’s a whole new era of influencers on their way. Soon, mukbangs and daily vlogs won’t cut it, and we’ll all be muttering the words “ice cream so good” in our sleep.