Plink (Twitch Emote)

About

Plink, also known as Plink Cat, is a Twitch emote and online reaction GIF of a white cat blinking while looking into the camera, which became popularized after its inclusion into Twitch chats as a 7TV and BetterTTV feature in late 2022 and early 2023, as well as its use as a Discord emote. The cat's dead stare, combined with its slow blink, caused it to become prominently used in livestreams when chat is watching the streamer perform an action or trick in a game.

Origin

Plink was first uploaded to the platform 7TV^[4] on November 12th, 2022, by user RandomCancer_ (seen below). Within three months, the emote was used in over 10,000 Twitch channels including notable streamers such as Sodapoppin, xQc, Amouranth, Pokimane and more. As of late February 2023, the emote was also listed as "#1 on Trending" within the platform.

Following its upload on 7TV, Plink was then added to Better Twitch TV, a website in which Twitch emotes are able to be easily added to a channel and categorized, by the creator localbonfire^[1] on January 2nd, 2023. Within one month, Plink was added to over 540 active channels in three different size options (shown below).

Spread

As Plink continued to grow on the platform, reactions to it also began to emerge elsewhere online, with the reactions being noticeably polarized based on the love or hate for the cat. On February 8th, 2023, Twitter user @vengefulcake^[2] uploaded two screenshots from Discord showcasing a very negative reaction to Plink, getting over 130 likes in two weeks (shown below).

The emote then became synonymous with Twitch chat when used in videos, with an example being a YouTube video uploaded on February 13th, 2023, by the channel DailyTyler1Clips^[3] in which it's used to express chat staring at Tyler1 as he begins to rage at his stream's chat due to the emote being spammed and threatens to remove all of them from the channel (shown below).

On February 16th, Plink was also mentioned in a We Have X at Home meme on the /r/xqcow^[5] subreddit by Redditor Harith178, receiving over 80 upvotes in one week (seen below).

Search Interest

External References