Ever since the rise of Twitch in 2011, Livestream fails have existed for over a decade now, becoming their genre of content both on YouTube and Twitch. Watching people make silly mistakes while streaming directly to hundreds if not thousands of people has become a sort of guilty pleasure for many people online.

Whether it's a wardrobe malfunction or an uninvited guest in your stream, there are plenty of ways where things could go wrong, especially when going live. But what makes these fails so hilarious? And how have they influenced meme culture as a whole? Here's everything you need to know.

What Are Livestream Fails?

"Livestream fail" is a slang term used online to describe moments where streamers make mistakes on camera. Their prominence online has even resulted in the creation of a whole subreddit dedicated to this form of content called /r/LivestreamFail. The very first rendition of a "livestream fail" was January 29th, 2010, when YouTuber Roland Pelletier, reposted a 2008 video showing Brad of the 4 Player Network podcast livestreaming himself livestreaming, causing a glitch (shown below).

Over the years, the term became used more often as more and more clips of streamers messing up started showing up. This eventually led to the creation of the Livestream Fails subreddit on June 7th, 2015. As of 2024, it has a thriving community of over 2.7 million members, with new fail clips posted every day (example shown below).