By: Brayden Yin

Thousands of people overran Union Square Park in New York City after Kai Cenat’s Friday giveaway of PlayStation 5 consoles, leading to injuries, the police called in, and dozens of arrests made.

Kai Cenat is the most popular streamer on Twitch, an online streaming platform. He had 6.5 million followers and more than 300,000 paying subscribers in February. To put this in perspective, many US newspapers have fewer paying subscribers. He grew his career in content creation when he collaborated with rappers such as 21 Savage and Bobby Shmurda. Each month, he earns tens of thousands of dollars just from streams of himself sleeping.

A post on Cenat’s Instagram story announced a giveaway at Union Square Park at 4 p.m. that day. By 1:30, there were already about 300 people gathered there. Jeffrey Maddrey, the highest-ranking officer in the New York Police Department, said that that amount of people was “something we would expect for a social media event like this.” By 3 p.m., news about the giveaway had spread online, and thousands of people started to flow into Union Square. Soon, the park was filled with people, obstructing traffic, taking down barriers, and throwing objects at police officers.

Police eventually removed Cenat from the park “for safety reasons”. The event had not been coordinated with police, said the chief. Cenat will be charged for two counts of incitement to riot, unlawful assembly, and multiple other charges. The police arrested 65, including 30 juveniles. Two officers and four civilians were rushed to the hospital in ambulances, and Maddrey said, “I personally saw other people leaving here with their heads split open, you know, cuts, bruises, lacerations.” He had also been hit on the head.

Now Cenat faces a year in prison, showing that the power of a social media following cannot be overstated.