Zack Hoyt, better known as Asmongold or Zackrawrr on Twitch, has become one of the most popular right-leaning online personalities in the U.S. after building on his success as a grungy video game streamer. His popular stream-of-consciousness political punditry often includes right-wing messaging, presented under the guise of gaming industry criticism. 

Recently, Hoyt appears to be trying to court white nationalist influencer and Holocaust denier Nick Fuentes, who set off a wave of right-wing media infighting around his October 27 interview with former Fox News host Tucker Carlson. Hoyt says he doesn’t agree with all of Fuentes’ politics, but he has argued that the podcaster is speaking for “disaffected young men” and suggested it’s unwise to ignore his views. In November, Hoyt commented that Fuentes should have been nominated for a streamer award and hinted at doing a stream with Fuentes in the future, saying it’s “not a matter of if, but when.” 

Hoyt’s own online presence is massive.

• He amassed 2.4 billion views across his two active YouTube channels in 2025, according to Media Matters’ analysis based on data collected from Social Blade. In fact, his YouTube views this year are the highest among the hundreds of right-leaning podcasts and streamers Media Matters tracks. 
• His active YouTube channels, Asmongold TV and Asmongold Clips, have nearly 5.8 million subscribers combined. 
• He has 2.2 million followers on his Zackrawrr Twitch account, where he regularly streams. 

Hoyt got his start by making videos of himself playing World of Warcraft, an online role-playing game that he estimated in 2022 he had played for over 36,000 hours. Over the years, he has cultivated a massive fan base of “roaches,” named for a viral clip of a cockroach climbing on him while he streamed from a trash-strewn room. These fans have dubbed him the “roach king” and they seem undeterred by his claims about not showering for months, changing his pillowcase only twice in his life, buying thrift-store clothes rather than doing laundry for years, and falling through his roof in search of a dead animal. 

Hoyt has accepted the label of “roach defender” and claimed, “I stick up for people that I think are being mistreated and people that are being misrepresented. I think that's what I do more than anything. Obviously, whether it’s Zoomer incels or anything else, I don’t really care. The only thing that I care about is making sure that, you know, people get a fair shake more than anything.” 

Asmongold hypes drama between streamers and attacks supposed left-wing bias in the video game industry

In a profile of Hoyt in The Atlantic last spring, Spencer Kornhaber described him as someone “playing the role of a buddy on the couch” — but “a buddy with a lot of opinions” — saying he watched Hoyt’s channel to “understand what it means for politics to be processed through the lens of video games.”

Hoyt’s right-wing shift follows a legacy of outrage against inclusivity in gaming, specifically as it pertains to women. Kornhaber wrote:

Hoyt typically ends his streams by playing a video game, but the first few hours are often filled with his commentary on streaming drama, the gaming industry, and politics. 

Industry drama is a never-ending source of content for Hoyt as he comments on popular streamers, criticizes streaming services, and feuds with other creators. Left-leaning streamer Hasan Piker is a frequent target (see Hoyt’s YouTube videos with clickbait titles like “Hasan crossed the last line,” “Hasan is getting cancelled,” or “Hasan was FORCED to address this”). Last year, Hoyt appeared on Piker’s stream for a debate after Hoyt described Palestinians as “terrible people” from “an inferior culture.”

Hoyt is also a major critic of the gaming industry, and he’s even drawn recognition for that commentary from Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX). 

In 2022, Hoyt announced on a stream that he had contacted the senator’s office about “loot boxes,” mechanisms that allow gamers to buy in-game cosmetics or advantages with real dollars that Hoyt had described as “predatory.” On his own podcast days later, Cruz expressed agreement with Hoyt, describing the issue as a problem of “gambling and kids,” and extended an invitation to talk to Hoyt.

However, many of Hoyt’s critiques revolve around perceived wokeness and diversity in games. 

In November, he criticized a remake of the game Gothic that desexualized some female characters, bemoaning the “army of swamp hags that are in these video game companies that are ruining your video games to make themselves feel better about being fat.” 

In another video, he attacked a video game review site as “totally captured by identity politics and progressive values.” 

In October, Hoyt claimed developers of the popular Assassin’s Creed series had made a “political messaging device,” adding, “I could have sat in my room and played video games my whole life and I would have never been involved. But then they had to go and add a girl into my fucking game. And you think that I'm not going to burn the whole motherfucking place down? Metaphorically.” 

Asmongold pivots from video game criticism to right-wing talking points

While Hoyt became known for gaming, these days he spends much of his streams discussing politics with his chat. 

In August, Hoyt came across a post on his Reddit page that noted, “At Gamescon, they’re currently showcasing a game about illegally crossing into the US and processing the trauma of being a minority with real audio clips from real illegals.” (The game, Take Us North, is described by its creators as an “interactive narrative that follows the journeys of migrants and asylum seekers on their way to cross the US-Mexico border.”) 

Hoyt exclaimed, “I have to see this. I have to see this. This is content.” 

As he watched a presentation on the game, Hoyt started attacking migrants, saying, “They’re stealing the jobs. They’re creating more traffic. They overload social systems. They steal people’s identities to get government benefits.” 

Content is king to Hoyt — and for him, the king of content is President Donald Trump. 

The streamer has repeatedly referred to Trump as the “content president” while discussing his press conferences and tweets. He reacted to Trump’s Thanksgiving post that called Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz “retarded” and advocated for “reverse migration,” saying, “If you were to take, like, an AI and generate a president that would do things based off of my stream, it would generate a statement like this.” 

But Hoyt has some reservations about Trump, arguing that he should be “more authoritarian”:

• He complained that Trump is “not more authoritarian,” saying “I don’t think he goes even 10% of how far I would want him to go,” and called for the government to “black bag” liberal judges. He continued, “Anybody throwing a rock, anybody threatening with a knife, a federal officer, just instantly shoot them.” [YouTube, Asmongold TV, 8/25/25]
• Hoyt also argued for Trump to go “Old Testament” on his political enemies. He continued, “Houses raided, I’d have gone through all their stuff, I would have done everything. I would take and charge them with as many possible things as I could. And the — whatever the worst thing possible is, that's what I would do, because they tried to do it to me.” [YouTube, Asmongold TV, 10/17/25]
• In November, he lamented getting “scammed” by Trump’s second presidency, saying, “We were promised a dictator and we didn't get one. I thought we were going to get a real one, and we didn’t.” [YouTube, Asmongold TV, 11/22/25]

Often Hoyt’s political commentary comes in response to videos from right-wing media, and he frequently turns to Fox News. He also uses footage of anti-ICE and anti-immigrant protests from Turning Point USA through its Frontlines initiative and reacts to videos from right-wing personalities like Dave Rubin or Carl Benjamin (known online as Sargon of Akkad). 

His outlandish reactions, honed on video game and streaming content, are frequently directed at immigrants, left-wing politicians, and the LGBTQ community, among others:

• In April, Hoyt claimed, “Every trans kid is a victim of a parent with mental illness.” [The Express Tribune, 4/6/25]
• In July, he said that if he was a politician he would “put in prison or to institutionalize 2% of the population at a minimum.” [YouTube, Asmongold TV, 7/17/25]
• In August, he argued, “We should do as many things as possible to stop people from voting.” He added, “If I could figure out a way to stop 80% of the population from voting, I would do it,” telling his audience, “How do you win to make sure that Democrats don't get elected? Remove the systems that get Democrats elected. No more mail-in ballots, don't count illegals on the census, redraw all the districts and get rid of the Democrat districts.” [YouTube, Asmongold TV, 8/19/25]
• In October, Hoyt called for anti-ICE protesters to be used for “compelled slave labor.” He called for mass arrests and felony convictions to “effectively disenfranchise them out of the voting system” but argued ICE shouldn’t injure protesters, saying, “I'm not a fan of that, only because I would want to utilize their bodies for compelled slave labor. That's the only reason.” [YouTube, Asmongold TV, 10/8/25]
• In October, Hoyt also advocated for ICE to detain people in front of their children, saying, “I think they should do it more.” He said, “I guess I don't have a heart. I'm totally OK with it. I think they should do it more. Just because you have your kids with you doesn't mean that you're immune to consequences.” [YouTube, Asmongold TV, 10/11/25]
• In November, he said that “as a white person, I would never vote for” Mamdani “in a million years.” He said, “As a white person, I would never vote for this guy. Never. Not in a million years. Even though I agree with him on a lot of these topics.” [YouTube, Asmongold TV, 11/5/25]
• He called for the deportation of residents who are in the U.S. legally if they are “causing trouble.” He then bartered, “I see Trump deport their ass, then maybe — maybe I'll vote for him for the third term.” [YouTube, Asmongold TV, 11/28/25]

Hoyt’s political commentary has led to some consequences. In October 2024, he was suspended from Twitch after claiming he didn’t “give a fuck” about civilians killed by Israel and declared that Palestinians had an “inferior culture.” In May, Hoyt was edited out of a rapper’s video that featured several streamers. The rapper, bbno$, claimed he censored people “whose values I do not support” and “emphasized that the funds generated by the music video will be donated to the Palestine Children's Relief Fund.”

Asmongold shifts his focus from streamers to pundits as he cozies up to Nick Fuentes and attacks critics  

Hoyt has been vocal about the recent right-wing media infighting over former Tucker Carlson’s interview with white nationalist Nick Fuentes, calling it “one of the best interviews.” 

Following right-wing pushback to the interview, Hoyt praised Carlson for dismissing condemnation from other conservative voices, saying, “Absolutely based fucking response. I am not accountable to you, I am accountable to my audience, and that’s it. I love this. Thank God — thank God we’re moving away from this weird virtue-signaling garbage.”

After Fuentes said on his show that he wants to “collaborate” with Asmongold, Hoyt responded that it’s “not a matter of if, but when.” He also acknowledged that “Nick brings in views” and said of Fuentes’ politics, “Some I agree with, some I don't. ... It's not like I agree with everything he says, but I agree with a lot of it.” 

Hoyt also argued against some of those who criticized Carlson for interviewing Fuentes, saying, “Let's say theoretically, somebody you think is a Nazi, right, gains a tremendous amount of prominence inside of a political space. Do you think that it’s a good idea to not like — how long do you think you should pretend like they don’t exist until you acknowledge that?” 

He has even gone as far as to say fascists and neo-Nazis “have a solution” to political problems, adding, “You might not like it.”