“It’s favoritism”: Fans call out Twitch over Kai Cenat’s Mafiathon 3 spotlight

Twitch has received backlash from fans for heavily promoting Mafiathon 3 hosted by Kai Cenat, giving rise to cries of favoritism. The highly anticipated subathon that began September 1st, 2025, is already flooding the headlines with subscriber counts never seen before, massive guest star appearances, and bold promises. While Cenat’s stream keeps moving up, many viewers feel Twitch's support is unfairly cutting small streamers down.Mafiathon 3 is Kai Cenat’s third subathon, where a month-long streamer marathon has fans subscribing to keep the event going. Cenat set a very ambitious goal of 1 million concurrent subscribers, which had never been achieved previously on Twitch. Within three days, he had already so far achieved 200,000 subs, one-fifth of the target.The event soon took a pop culture spotlight. Mariah Carey surprised everyone and dropped in, model Winnie Harlow appeared, and a gag "rat cam" was thrown into the mix as the latest goofy segment. Cenat has also pledged that if the million-mark is hit, NBA star LeBron James will get a haircut live on Twitch, something all the fans are buzzing about.While the success of Mafiathon 3 is undisputed, Twitch has, however, attracted criticism for marketing the event. Screenshots posted online displayed that promotional content for Cenat's subathon was pushed to the homepage and emails, including:The level of treatment, in the eyes of many, feels very unbalanced. One fan wrote on social media, "I like Kai but yeah clearly it's favoritism to only blast him."Some even went as far as calling it "astroturfing", a term for fake grassroots promotion, arguing that Twitch is artificially inflating Cenat's popularity by creating the event to appear more organically than it really is.The backlash brings to light another issue in the Twitch community: visibility for less-prime streamers. While Twitch celebrates top stars over and over, many are seriously hurting for exposure in the middle tier and rising creator strata.Fans have argued that nearly giving Cenat the spotlight says much about the notion that only a few select streamers are worth investing in.The debate isn’t new big name sponsorships, homepage placements, and brand deals have already been alleged against Twitch. But the Mafiathon 3 controversy brought this topic back into public glare.Twitch views Cenat as a giant draw. His events have generated enormous engagement with celebrity guests dropping in here and there and dragging mainstream media attention to the platform. By promoting Mafiathon 3, Twitch ensures a fat ad revenue stream and a larger cultural footprint.As Kai Cenat’s Mafiathon 3 remains to trend, it becomes clear that it is both a cultural victory and an issue for communities. On one hand, Cenat’s record-breaking stats and celebrity cameos are setting new standards for livestream entertainment. On the other side, Twitch's dredged up promotion strategy has stirred an intense debate about attempts of privilege and unfairness in the platform.