Imane Anys, known to millions as Pokimane, is a Moroccan and Canadian streamer, YouTuber and entrepreneur based in California. Born on 14 May 1996 in Morocco, she moved with her family to Quebec, Canada, at age four and later grew up in Ontario. French is her first language, and she has described her Moroccan Arabic as a work in progress. Those details matter less than what she built with them: one of the most-followed channels on Twitch and a career that now stretches well beyond a single platform.
From a Kijiji PC to a Twitch Career
Anys created her Twitch account in June 2013 and began streaming later that year. Her first setup was a $250 computer bought secondhand on Kijiji, the Canadian classifieds site, after she reached Platinum rank in League of Legends. The handle Pokimane is a portmanteau of Pokemon and her first name.
She was studying chemical engineering at McMaster University when streaming started to demand more of her time. She eventually dropped out to pursue content creation full time, a decision that looked risky then and looks straightforward now.
Her early broadcasts leaned on League of Legends gameplay and commentary. The format was simple: a player who was good at the game, funny in conversation and comfortable talking directly to chat. Digital Trends later described her laidback but enthusiastic personality as a natural fit for long-form streams. By 2017 she had passed 450,000 Twitch followers and entered the platform’s 100 most-followed accounts. That year the Shorty Awards named her Best Twitch Streamer.
OfflineTV and the Group House Era
Anys is a co-founder of OfflineTV, a collaborative group of content creators that became a fixture of the streaming landscape. Speaking about the project, she explained the appeal plainly: it is not fun to be a streamer living alone, so the group came together to keep each other company and collaborate on work.
The house produced years of joint streams, in-jokes and crossover moments. It also gave Anys a role beyond performer: co-founder, co-worker and occasional adult in the room. She remained part of OfflineTV until 2023, when she announced her departure, which the community treated as a graduation.
Platform Deals and a Changing Twitch
Twitch itself partnered with Anys repeatedly. In July 2018 she was one of 15 ambassadors for TwitchCon, and the platform featured her in its Creator Camp series for new broadcasters. In March 2020 she signed a multi-year exclusivity deal with Twitch, a significant marker of how valuable her channel had become to the company.
Her relationship with Twitch has not been static. In January 2024 she announced she would stop streaming on the platform, citing dissatisfaction with changes the company had made. She has continued to stream, but the announcement signaled a broader shift toward distributing her content across YouTube, TikTok, Instagram and other platforms rather than tying her future to one company.
One recurring theme in her interviews is the cost of constant output. She has warned that streaming 12 hours a day, seven days a week leads to burnout, and she has argued for reset time instead of chasing the algorithm. Early in her career, when managers pushed for eight to ten hour daily streams, she pushed back. In a business built on relentless visibility, that is a position with commercial consequences as well as personal ones.
Politics, Mainstream Media and Gaming’s Public Role
In late October 2020, Anys joined a get-out-the-vote Among Us stream with US Representatives Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Ilhan Omar, alongside streamers including Disguised Toast and HasanAbi. The broadcast drew enormous attention and became a standard example of gaming audiences intersecting with political outreach.
She has also appeared in mainstream entertainment. In 2021 she had a cameo in the Ryan Reynolds film Free Guy alongside other streamers. The same year, Forbes named her a featured honoree in its 30 Under 30 list for games, noting her position as the largest female streamer on Twitch and her role as an OfflineTV founder.
Her political engagement did not stop at one stream. In October 2024 she and Valkyrae hosted a livestream featuring US Senator Bernie Sanders in support of the Kamala Harris presidential campaign, alongside figures from streaming and entertainment. Whether or not one agrees with the politics, the format is now part of how campaigns reach young voters.
Business Beyond Streaming
Anys co-founded RTS, a talent management and brand consulting firm for gaming creators. Reports have described her exit from the company, but the details of that transaction are not something to treat as settled public fact without a direct source. What is clear is that she has built interests outside her own channel.
In November 2023 she launched Myna, a direct-to-consumer snack brand. The company has since rebranded and introduced crowd-sourced flavors, and it runs an affiliate program aimed at smaller creators with above-average revenue shares. The product line has attracted both praise and criticism, which is roughly what happens when a streamer attaches her name to a consumer brand.
She has also worked as a creative director for the apparel brand Cloak, another example of streamers moving into fashion and merchandise. In September 2024 she launched the Sweet n Sour podcast with fellow streamer LilyPichu. The show ran 68 episodes before wrapping up in April 2026, an unusually clean ending for a creator project.
Anys has been candid that financial goals were part of her motivation from early on, including taking care of her parents and repaying them for their sacrifices. That framing is worth keeping in mind when reading net worth speculation.
What the Numbers Actually Show
Audience figures are the easiest claims to check. As of mid-2026, Anys had over 9.4 million followers on Twitch, making her the most-followed female streamer on the platform, and she has millions more across YouTube, TikTok, Instagram and X. These are platform-reported numbers, not estimates.
Income is harder. Fast Company has reported that she earns seven figures a year, a credible descriptor of her scale but not a precise accounting of her wealth. Some outlets have published much larger net worth figures, but those numbers are unverified estimates that often blend sponsorships, equity and brand revenue without documentation. They should be read as speculation, not fact.
Community, Criticism and a Public Life
Anys has spoken about the hostility that comes with visibility, particularly for women and people of color in gaming. In a 2025 Rolling Stone interview with streamer Fuslie, she described difficult periods and said she sometimes felt she had no choice but to push through, partly because of financial goals tied to supporting her family. She also acknowledged that success has given her the ability to step back when needed.
Her public statements have occasionally gone viral for other reasons. In 2021 she responded to persistent hate-watching on stream with a line that became a meme. The moment captured something real about her relationship with a large audience: she is aware of the attention, including the negative kind, and she has learned to address it directly.
What Comes Next
The through line in Anys’s career is control over her own distribution. She moved from one platform to many, from streaming alone to a collaborative house, from on-camera work to ownership stakes and consumer brands. She has talked about wanting to develop a sense of self and values and attract an audience based on those things rather than pandering to what performs best.
At 30, she has already outlasted several waves of streaming culture. The next chapter will probably involve more business building and less live gameplay, though she has never fully left the stream. For anyone trying to understand the creator economy, Pokimane is less an exception than an early example of where it is going.
FAQ
Who is Pokimane?
Pokimane is the online handle of Imane Anys, a Moroccan and Canadian streamer, YouTuber and entrepreneur born in 1996. She is best known for livestreams on Twitch and for co-founding OfflineTV.
How old is Pokimane?
She was born on 14 May 1996. As of October 2026 she is 30 years old.
What is Pokimane’s net worth?
No verified public filing establishes her net worth. Fast Company has reported that she earns seven figures a year, while some outlets publish larger figures that are unverified estimates. Treat those numbers with caution.
Is Pokimane still on Twitch?
Anys announced in January 2024 that she would stop streaming on Twitch, though she has continued to stream. Her content now spans multiple platforms.
What is Myna Snacks?
Myna is a direct-to-consumer snack brand Anys launched in November 2023. It has since rebranded and added crowd-sourced flavors.
Featured image: Homen Biswas / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 3.0).
