Streamer Alexander Levin, known as Nix, responded to accusations that he artificially inflated his audience figures. He said representatives of the hosting platform inspected his account prior to The Streamer Awards 2025 and did not observe any unusually large spikes in viewership.
Levin categorically denied ever buying or faking viewers, calling such actions disgraceful. He emphasized that achieving results through deception is something he would never do and described the very idea as humiliating. He said he has always preferred honest effort over shortcuts and uses the example that he would rather play in a lower-tier team on his favorite role than win by dishonest means.
He also noted that advertisers have been very pleased with his metrics and see them as genuine, which, in his view, supports the legitimacy of his figures. According to Levin, platform administrators checked for anomalies when he was nominated for an award and, while there may have been minor irregularities, nothing significant was found.
Levin dismissed the controversy around his numbers as hype generated by others. He argued that high viewership during major events is sometimes driven by the competitiveness and storyline of a match: this year he reported about 400,000 viewers during a particularly compelling 3:2 final involving a prominent player, while last year he had roughly 300,000 during a less exciting 3:0 final. In his opinion, a close 3:2 final would attract a similar audience to any broadcaster.
Nix was nominated for The Streamer Awards 2025 in the category of Best MOBA Streamer but ultimately lost to former esports player and content creator Mark Robert Lamont, known as Caedrel.
Earlier, Yaroslav Kuznetsov, known as NS, expressed doubts about the authenticity of Levin’s reported viewership. Later, caster Vladimir Kuzminov, known as Maelstorm, voiced support for that skepticism and claimed that Levin’s real audience had been artificially increased by at least two times, according to his assessment.