An Interview With Twitch’s World Of Warcraft-Streaming Grandma

WowGrandma78, the elderly streamer who has been streaming on the platform since January 2020, turned 80 last month. To honor its eight decades around the sun, WowGrandma78 is hosting a multi-day sub-athon on Twitch, which has entered Day 15 as of this writing. It’s unclear if she plans to quit anytime soon, but Kotaku had a chance to catch up with her between breaks to discuss streaming, World of Warcraft and life off the Amazon-owned platform.

WowGrandma78 is not a new streamer. She’s been on the platform every night since 2020. It was never intended to become a full-fledged content creator, but she was convinced by a former WoW guild member.

“I said who is going to want to watch an older person play a game,” WowGrandma78 told Kotaku on Discord. “[I left that guild for personal reasons], but he was the one who got me going. I finally got a camera one day, and a friend came over and showed me how to set up OBS. I took it from there. Another streamer helped me create my homepage graphics because I had no idea.

Yeah, that looks pretty cold. Image: WowGrandma78

And off she went, racking up hundreds of hours of streaming on the back of World of Warcraft, Blizzard’s MMORPG she’s been playing for nearly 20 years now. WoWGradme78 played other MMOs but struggled to stay invested as other people left. As such, WoW remains his game of choice.

“I love environmental graphics, I love raids, and I guess dungeons forced them on us lol,” WowGrandma78 said. “I love my characters. My second and main alliance [restoration] Druid has 767 days played on it. You become attached to these digital personas.

Although WoW was his main game, it was by no means his first. WowGrandma78 told Kotaku that she “wanted to learn how to build computers in 1998” so she could play the games she saw back then. This included Starcraft, and later Warcraft 3 and Runescape. She’s since become addicted to WoW to the point where she has five different druids, a shape-shifting hybrid class capable of fulfilling multiple roles she switches between.

Train them young. Image: WowGrandma78

When she’s not kicking an orc’s ass, WowGrandma78 is busy taking care of her poodle Zoey, spending time with her big family or “hiding” on another stream to give player credits. Hey, streamers need to support each other.

“I made children’s musicals from 1979 until the pandemic,” WowGrandma78 said. “I directed a school musical last fall. In the past, hiking and mountaineering were my addiction, [but] now it’s streaming and [WoW]. I usually have about five streamers while I stream.

His first sub-athon may be coming to an end unless more people subscribe to his Twitch channel. WowGrandma78 called the follower marathon “overwhelming” because she didn’t expect it to explode. But she says she’s loved it so far and the support has been “incredible”. Still, she’s dedicated to the platform and might even consider another sub-athon for her 81st birthday.

“I foresee [to] keep streaming for as long as possible,” WowGrandma78 said. “I haven’t missed a single day of streaming since I started. Even when I flew away for the summer to my son’s house, I bought a PC and put [it] up there [so] as soon as i arrived i prepared the stream. People tell me to take a day off. I might have to do it someday, but for now I’m fine with it [seven] days a week.”

And if you’re wondering if she should change the “78” in her branding:

“We decided not to change the 78 because it [was] my age when i started streaming [and] viewers thought it should stay the same,” WowGrandma78 said. “They’re happy to know me that way.”