Twitch streamer Kai Cenat’s New York City giveaway creates chaos

Thousands of people gathered in New York City’s Union Square on Friday afternoon, hoping to win a massive gaming giveaway from Twitch streamer Kai Cenat. It was a chaotic scene as the crowd quickly outgrew Union Square Park, spilling out onto the streets and engulfing taxi cabs and cars.

Cenat announced that Cenat, YouTuber Fanum, and Cenat would be giving away PlayStation 5 consoles, PC gaming systems, and other accessories during the Cenat-Fanum meetup. The giveaway was expected to kick offET. ET. The tweet that advertised the event was deleted. Cenat live streamed for a mere few minutes, but the broadcast was abruptly cut shortly after Cenat, flanked and accompanied by his bodyguards left, followed by his vehicle. Before the stream concluded, the streaming device appeared to have fallen on the floor.

New York Police Department warns against the Union Square Park area. “Expect a police presence in the area and residual traffic delays,” it tweeted. An official from the police declined to make any further comments. A live helicopter feed showed people climbing on vehicles and buildings as police arrested people and loaded them onto a bus.

Cenat, Fanum and a group of people appear to be leaving the crowd as a black SUV. A person that appears to be Fanum, wearing a bright green hoodie, can be seen from the vehicle’s sun roof as the car backed out of the crowd. Once out of the crowd, the car exited the scene with several people hanging off the back — at least one person fell off the car as it was driving away from the scene, as seen on CBS New York’s live feed.

Photo: CBS News via livestream

The crowd started to gradually disperse after Cenat’s departure. Although there are many people around, they’re far fewer in number than thousands who occupied the park before 4:00 p.m. ET.

Cenat, 21, is a Twitch and YouTube streamer. He was the Twitch streaming star with the highest number of subscribers in the first half of this year. Ludwig Anders Ahgren had previously held the record. He won the Streamer of the year title at the Streamer Awards as well as the Streamys this past year. He is also a member of YouTube’s collective AMP, like Fanum.

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