Asmongold

Zack Hoyt, better known as Asmongold, is an American YouTuber, content creator, online streamer, and right-wing political commentator. His content was primarily focused on ''World of Warcraft'', but he now covers politics as well as video games and topics related to gaming culture. He was a co-founder and co-owner of the streaming, gaming, and content creation organization One True King (OTK), based in Austin, Texas. He is also a co-owner of Starforge Systems, a computer company specialized in selling prebuilt gaming PCs. He stepped down from the leadership positions of both OTK and Starforge after facing backlash over anti-Palestinian comments he had made in a Twitch stream.

Early life

Asmongold was born in Florida and raised in Austin, Texas. He grew up with an interest in video games, particularly role-playing games (RPGs), and was introduced to ''World of Warcraft'' by a friend in 2006. He quickly became captivated by the game and started playing it extensively. Asmongold later attended college but dropped out to focus on his streaming career.

Career

Asmongold began his online career in 2009 by creating YouTube videos about ''World of Warcraft'', in which he shared his insights, strategies, and game knowledge. His YouTube channel experienced steady growth, and he eventually started live-streaming on Twitch in 2011, initially as a hobby, and he began his active streaming career on Twitch in 2014. As of 2019, his content mainly consisted of gameplay, guides, discussions, and reviews related to ''World of Warcraft'' expansions and patches.

Upon the release of '' World of Warcraft Classic'' in 2019, Asmongold surged in overall popularity. He became one of the most popular streamers on the platform in the same year. He was one of the platform's most popular ''World of Warcraft'' streamers during the 2020 release of '' Shadowlands''. On July 3, 2021, Asmongold started playing ''Final Fantasy XIV'' to hundreds of thousands of viewers. In 2022, he started to branch out into a larger variety of stream styles.

Business ventures

In October 2020, he co-founded One True King (OTK), a streaming and content creation organization, with other streamers and content creators, including Mizkif and Sodapoppin. In August 2022, he announced OTK's new PC building company called Starforge Systems in collaboration with fellow content creator Cr1TiKaL. The company was quickly met with backlash due to the high prices of their products, to which they responded by decreasing their prices by $100. He hosts a weekly podcast entitled ''Steak & Eggs Podcast'' along with fellow One True King members Emiru and Tectone. Episode 1 was released on February 17, 2023. On February 21, 2025, Asmongold announced that he left the organization.

Political and social commentary

Asmongold's main Twitch account was briefly suspended in August 2017 for a comment he made about survivors displaced by Hurricane Katrina. He later addressed the statement in a TwitLonger, clarifying his point of view and reaching an understanding with Twitch staff. In 2022, he reached out to Republican senator Ted Cruz to discuss regulating loot boxes in video games on Cruz's YouTube channel. Cruz expressed interest in meeting him but said he held a "strong libertarian bent" on the subject.

Asmongold criticized Samantha Rivera Trevino, commonly known as Rivers, who won the fan vote for the 2024 Esports Awards Streamer of the Year, saying: "I'm salty because it was obviously a diversity pick because she's a woman, and everybody knows it. It should've been Speed or Kai, or CaseOh, or like three other people. You put her up there because she's a female. It's embarrassing, it's patronising. She's not even a top female streamer either."

In a Twitch stream on October 14, 2024, Asmongold called Palestinians "terrible people" from "an inferior culture" that "kills people for their identity" and "is directly antithetical to everything Western values stand for." He also said that they "have genocide built into Sharia law right now, so, no, I'm not going to cry a fucking river when people who have genocide that's baked into their laws are getting genocided." His ZackRawrr account on Twitch was banned for 14 days due to violating the platform's hateful conduct policy. He posted an apology, stating that he deserved the backlash and the ban. In October 2024, he stepped down from leadership positions within both OTK and Starforge Systems following the backlash.

After Elon Musk was accused of having paid third parties to boost his '' Path of Exile 2'' account in January 2025, Asmongold challenged Musk to prove that he himself had worked a character of his up to level 97 in the game's hardcore mode. A few days later, Musk unfollowed Asmongold's X account, removed its verification mark and posted a print of their private direct messages. A community note under Musk's post stated that it was generally against X's guidelines to leak someone's private messages without their explicit permission.

By 2025, political commentary constituted a major component of Asmongold's streams. In one instance, he mocked Democratic Congressman Al Green's disruption of President Donald Trump's 2025 Congressional Address, stating that Green's actions made "people think es a fucking retard". Spencer Kornhaber of ''The Atlantic'' characterized Asmongold as "one member of a larger, right-leaning ecosystem". He described Asmongold's political commentary as reminiscent of the Gamergate harassment campaign, citing it as an example of "how the culture of gaming ... is bleeding into American politics". Kornhaber also noted that his channel was larger and more popular than left-wing streamers such as Hasan Piker.

Personal life

Before beginning his streaming career, he worked for the Internal Revenue Service for two tax seasons in 2012 and 2013. Asmongold acquired a business degree and was preparing to apply to law schools, but had to abandon that plan as he was taking care of his mother. In October 2021, his mother died after complications from advanced COPD, leading to his temporary hiatus from streaming.

Awards and nominations

References

{{Reflist
Year of birth missing (living people)
Living people
American company founders
American esports players
American gaming YouTubers
YouTubers from Austin, Texas
Streamer Award winners
American Twitch (service) streamers
World of Warcraft players
American political commentators
YouTubers from Florida