Welcome to Streamers on the Rise, where we find streamers who are growing their channels, content, and audiences in extraordinary ways. Each week we’ll talk with a creator about what goes into livestreaming–both on and off camera.

Three years ago, HappyHappyGal thought she’d missed her chance to do something she really loved.

Now, she has nearly 150,000 Twitch followers to prove otherwise.

Happy grew up a gamer, with titles like Spyro, Crash Bandicoot, Donkey Kong, and Pokemon, and then, as a teenager, got into first-person shooters like Call of Duty with her sister. Her antics in these games matched her IRL attitude: “My whole life, I’ve been very energetic and silly, always wanting to generate that happiness and make people stay,” she says. “The natural course of that is, you get to senior year and everyone’s going to college. I’m not alone in saying this, but I didn’t know what I wanted to do or be, or what was the next step. You just go where life takes you. Then years go by.”

She was in a full-time “standard office job, very little room for creativity, that typical restrictive, show up, do your job, go home kind of thing,” she says, when she began leaning more into gaming as relaxation with her husband. They played things like Apex Legends together for hours, and it was during one of those gaming sessions that Happy brought up how she thought it was cool people manage to stream as a career.

“I was like, ‘Isn’t it just crazy that people do this for a living? That’s wild.’ He’s like, ‘You would be so good at this.’ I was like, ‘Nah, what are you talking about? No,’” Happy says. Her husband kept encouraging her, and “One day, I just jumped into it. I don’t even know how I had the confidence to do it.”

Now, three years later, she’s found her home streaming Fortnite on Twitch, and over the last year has grown in leaps and bounds, with her average per-stream viewership going from 184 people in June 2023 to 1,888 people in June 2024. She also had her best month ever this past January, with all-time peak concurrent viewership of nearly 7,000 people, according to data from Streams Charts (which you can see above).

Check out our chat with her below.

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

Tubefilter: So I know this is your first interview, right?

HappyHappyGal: Yes.

Tubefilter: Super low-pressure. Like I said over email, I’m a fellow gamer. I am a fellow Twitch viewer. We’re chilling.

HappyHappyGal: Nice. What do you play?

Tubefilter: Right now my biggest thing is I’ve actually gone back to Red Dead Redemption 2.

HappyHappyGal: Okay, yes. Pretty popular game right now.

Tubefilter: For sure. My big one for the past few years was Apex.

HappyHappyGal: Nice. Apex is good!

Tubefilter: Dead by Daylight is another big one for me. All the big ones right now. What are you playing? I know you play Fortnite, but anything else you’re playing lately?

HappyHappyGal: No. I try to typically stay in one in one lane. I get confused. [laughs] 

Tubefilter: Sorry, we’re going a little out of order with usual questions, but I’d love to hear, imagine somebody is reading this and they don’t know anything about you. Give me a little bit of introduction about you, where you’re from, and what you got up to before streaming.

HappyHappyGal: My name is HappyHappyGal. I’m from Florida. I’ve been born and raised my whole life in Florida. Then as far as what I did before streaming, I just worked that normal office job nine-to-five, bounced around, did a couple of jobs. The job I was in for the longest before this was, like I said, just a standard office job, very little room for creativity, that typical restrictive, show up, do your job, go home kind of thing.

Tubefilter: How did you find Twitch in the first place?

HappyHappyGal: We started out streaming on Facebook Gaming. Facebook Gaming was relatively new, at least. It was doing a really good job. Their algorithm was. We had grown to about 10,000 followers over there before we had realized they lacked, I don’t know, long-term vision. We were noticing numbers drop and viewers drop. We’re like, “Okay, well, we love doing this. This isn’t long-term, so what do we do next? Where do we go?”

We knew we loved Twitch, ideally, but we knew their algorithm for beginners was very lackluster. It’s just a pool of creators. It’s really hard to…How do you stand out? Because I think we started out there with such a base, when we made that shift to Twitch, it was very easy to almost already have a community to say like, “Hey, come watch us over here now. This is where we’re going to be at.” Even still, we only averaged about 30 to 40 viewers over there.

Tubefilter: Yes, that’s totally normal. Something a lot of people talk about is the struggle with discoverability on Twitch. How did you grow your audience? Did you notice that there was anything that did help you grow beyond those early numbers?

HappyHappyGal: I think the shift definitely happened when we went to Fortnite. We started out streaming Apex. Then when we moved from Apex to Fortnite, it fit like a glove. It was where I was meant to be the whole time. We started out with Apex because my husband and I, that’s what we played, just at home. We were like, we love it so much, we’re very passionate about it. Then, when I finally got on the Fortnite train, I was like, “Whoa, this is me.” It embodied my personality and everything I like to do. When we made that change, you could really see it in the numbers as well.

And the same with TikTok. We went and started a TikTok and going live on TikTok as well. It just flourished everything. It went crazy.

Tubefilter: Who was your Apex main?

HappyHappyGal: Horizon or Octane. Octane is a lot of fun. My husband loves Pathfinder, but I can’t use that grapple.

Tubefilter: I feel like Octane is still underrated despite his popularity. He’s one of my favorites in lore.

HappyHappyGal: Yes, he’s a lot of fun. It’s fun to get in, get out, push…without your team…

Tubefilter: [laughs] Oh, I see, a true Octane player. I was a big Revenant main before the revamp.

HappyHappyGal: Oh, yes. He’s a lot of fun.

Tubefilter: He is. I think you’re the first streamer I’ve spoken to who started on Facebook Gaming. Have you always been a gamer, or was this something that you got into as a couple, or…?

HappyHappyGal: I don’t know if I would say gamer. To me, yes, but when you compare it to others, no. Growing up, I played Spyro, Crash Bandicoot, Donkey Kong, Pokemon on the Game Boy, just here and there games, Sims. 

Then my sister and I started playing Call of Duty, Call of Duty Zombies. We loved doing zombies. I could feel it’s ingrained in my brain, remembering like, “Wait. There’s no beating it? You just keep going? You just keep getting attacked?” That was really where I started out. Then, I got away from it a little bit like I wasn’t heavy into it. Then when we met, we started gaming more and more together. Then that’s where we connected through with Apex.

Tubefilter: What really appeals to you about Fortnite?

HappyHappyGal: Like I said before, it’s just everything about it just fits who I am as a person. I’m very energetic. I’m very silly. I feel like that is what Fortnite is. It’s got all these crazy skins that can really embody a characteristic or personality. There’s funny, silly, girlypop ones. The emotes is something that’s really unique to our stream, at least. They constantly are coming out with emotes, but we do something called a like goal. It’s where we ask our communities through TikTok to get us to a like goal or that challenge, that number. When we hit it, I will get up and do that in real life emote with my character. It’s really fun to be able to get up and do that for them and dance and be silly. 

Just Fortnite in a whole, every week they’re changing their game, they’re updating it, they’re adding new aspects to it. They’re always keeping it fresh. That, to me, speaks volumes to them as a company and as a game. It’s like they’re trying to always keep their community happy, despite what the community says. They’ll still be like, “You didn’t give it to us. Change that.”

Tubefilter: Unfortunately. Tell me about your current stream schedule.

HappyHappyGal: We actually, I don’t know everybody out there and what they create, but our stream schedule is, we don’t have one. We go live just about every day except for Sunday, but sometimes we will. We’ll switch between Sunday or Saturday. We really drive our community to be a part of our Discord. Then we’ll let them know in there, “Hey, we’re going to be live at this time today.”

Our goal isn’t to be like, “Meet us Monday to Friday from 8:00 to whatever.” It’s, I want to be able to reach and meet everyone’s schedule, in a way. A lot of people watch me while they’re at work, or a lot of people want to watch me after work, before bed. Some people want to watch me in the morning. We pride ourselves on the fact that like, “Hey, we’re going to be here whenever you need us to. Maybe today you won’t be able to catch our stream, but tomorrow you will.”

I think that shows too that in community we have family. We have them here in the United States, in Canada, in England, in Australia. We have them just everywhere, all over the place. I think it’s because our schedule’s all over the place.

Tubefilter: I think that’s totally valid. I do think there’s an approach to being on at random hours and not sticking so strictly to one frame.

HappyHappyGal: Our normal stream is about four to five hours long, but then we’ll do something called a double, and we’ll do eight hours, maybe nine, depending.

Tubefilter: Interesting. How did you end up settling on the structure of your streams?

HappyHappyGal: Our plan from the beginning was to create a space where people can come in and just feel joy and be okay with being reminded you can be silly at any age, in any stage of life. Come in and have a good time. I’m not a professional gamer. I’m not here to drop 20 bombs, 30 bombs, win every Cash Cup. I’m here to create joy and create a space that people can come in, and have fun, and connect.

There’s only a certain amount of time that I physically can even do that. I wanted to make sure that we’re maximizing on that time. If I can go hard for four or five hours, maybe eight, and give and generate the best content for them, I’m not going to stretch it out just for the sake of it. You don’t want to be on there for, again, 12 hours for just the heck of it, and then your viewers are dropping and you’re just there to be there.

You just create that good content that you can, and then you come back and you do it again when you’re ready, whether that’s maybe take a two-hour intermission and come back, or come back the next day. It’s just always about creating the best, I think, the best content for them, and give a piece of yourself.

Tubefilter: I wanted to ask you, do you play Fortnite off stream? Is it purely an on stream thing for you?

HappyHappyGal: I’d say it’s like fifty-fifty. It depends, because it doesn’t seem like you’re gaming that much when you say, like, “I’m on for four hours.” I feel like I go so hard for the four hours that when I’m off, I’m like, “I need to go touch some grass.” [laughs] Lately, my husband and I have been playing a little bit more ranked. If I am off stream, typically we’re thinking more so about, how can we make the next stream good, what ideas can we bring in?

People come in and ask me all the time, “How do you not get tired of playing Fortnite? You play every day.” One, because Fortnite does make changes every week, so it is still fresh. Two, I think it’s because we are more creative-based than competitive. We’re always thinking of, how can we incorporate challenges or fun things for the community to be a part of? That’s where I think a lot of my time outside of being actually live goes, is that creative brainstorming of, how can I make the next stream even more fun for them? I’m not playing too much.

Tubefilter: I’d love to hear about some of the things you do with your community.

HappyHappyGal: Of course, the like goals are a big part of it. They love to be challenged and meet that challenge and then tell me to get up and do it. I’ll griddy around or I’ll do all the different silly dances that are in there. Then we have something anybody on Twitch can do, but they’re called predictions. Before we get into a match, we’ll be like, “Do you think Happy will get an odd amount of kills or an even amount of kills?”

Then in doing that, their attention is captivated throughout the whole game because they want to know if they got it right or wrong. If I get an even amount, they’re like, “Oh, please kill somebody else!” Their eyes are glued to the screen in a sense, at least you hope so, because they want to see what you can do. They then can get rewards with those points that they win from that prediction. We’ve got games that they can play with me. 

I paint, so I will give those away to the community as well. Then we do different challenge streams where they can sabotage me and make me drop guns or walk backwards, get fall damage, all kinds of different silly stuff like that. Really, there’s always a healthy balance, I think, with this is my stream, but it is theirs too. You try to figure out how they can still be in control of some aspects, but where like you still feel in control as well.

Tubefilter: Yes, absolutely. That interactivity is the core of Twitch. Very cool. I don’t think we mentioned, when did you start streaming?

HappyHappyGal: It’s been three years. We started streaming March, 2021. I think that’s three years ago.

Tubefilter: Sorry, I’m going out of order of my questions. What ended up pushing you to start streaming? That’s pretty intimidating.

HappyHappyGal: Oh, 1000%. For me, my whole life, I’ve been very energetic and silly, always wanting to generate that happiness and make people stay. The natural course of that is, you get to senior year and everyone’s going to college. I’m not alone in saying this, but I didn’t know what I wanted to do or be, or what was the next step. You just go where life takes you. Then years go by.

My husband and I were talking while we were playing, I think, Apex. I was like, “Isn’t it just crazy that people do this for a living? That’s wild.” He’s like, “You would be so good at this.” I was like, “Nah, what are you talking about? No.” He’s like, “For sure. You could do it. You have this personality that I think people would really like love to be a part of.” We just did a bunch of research. One day, I just jumped into it. I don’t even know how I had the confidence to do it.

If you tune into a stream today, I can confidently say if you were to watch one from three years ago, it’s the same me. I was pretending like I was talking to thousands of people even then because I was just so excited. I think that ultimately it was just such a fit of who I am to my core and then having that ability to live in a lifetime of technology where you can reach people from your home and make a difference in their life. I don’t know. It just definitely met all those criteria of who I am and my purpose. It’s just really cool. I don’t know. I don’t know, though. You’re like, “It is intimidating.” I don’t know how I got here. It still feels unreal for sure.

Tubefilter: No, it’s huge to go into it with that sort of confidence where you’re like, “Yes, I am talking to 1,000 people.” That’s really helpful, actually.

HappyHappyGal: Hello, my mom, uncle, cousin, cat. How are you? [laughs]

Tubefilter: If you project that, then people stay. Clearly that’s worked for you. I do know you have some interesting product partnerships. I’m curious about that too.

HappyHappyGal: Doing this, it opens doors and opportunities to work with people, companies. We’ve had some really cool opportunities to work with Mountain Dew. That was really cool. Then we get to work with Epic themselves, actually, doing quite a few videos with them, TikToks and collaborations. I’m excited to see what kind of opportunities and doors open the more we grow.

I don’t know. It’s pretty wild if you think about it. I talk about it like that imposter syndrome of like, “Who am I, and how am I here?” Especially like, I’ve only been in Fortnite for a year, and the growth in Fortnite has been massive. Then to see all these other creators being stacked up against them, I’m like, ooh…

Tubefilter: I understand the imposter syndrome. But you’re definitely there. You’re doing it.

HappyHappyGal: Thank you.

Tubefilter: How much production time goes into your TikTok behind the scenes?

HappyHappyGal: When it comes down to creating the actual video, it’s little to none, to be honest, you’ve got to hit record, delete, record, delete, record, delete. I think there’s big volumes to the communication, and the negotiation, and trying to figure out what the client wants and how we can properly deliver on that. 

I’ve been saying “we” a lot. My husband is a huge help into where I am today. He does a lot of the manager-type stuff. I’m bad when it comes to all that. He has helped me a lot understand how to communicate with them and how to do that. It’s more than you think, but also less than you think, I think. I don’t know. It’s craziness.

Tubefilter: No, I got you. The managing aspect is definitely a whole other job.

HappyHappyGal: That part gets overwhelming. I don’t know how other people do it in their streams and stuff, but it is a lot. I’m grateful to have such a good team behind me that is able to help know how to produce the best content in that production area.

Tubefilter: How did you end up signing with Loaded?

HappyHappyGal: They reached out to me, and they said, “We see what you’re doing over there, and we love it.” I was like, “Wait a minute. What?” [laughs] I was like, “Do you? Do you love it?” We just briefly looked into them. We haven’t, obviously, been with them very long yet, but I’m excited. I’m very excited. They’re an amazing company. Knowing and seeing all that they’ve done outside of me and the discussions that we’ve had, it seems like we’re going to be a great team.

Tubefilter: What are you most looking forward to over the next year or so?

HappyHappyGal: Definitely still just growing and learning. We’re about to hit a million followers on TikTok, probably this week, which is mind-blowing. We’ve definitely got big plans for the community to celebrate that. Our main goal always is just, how do we keep growing in this space, in spreading more positivity and joy in the gaming community? I know, obviously, you hear it 1,000 times, but the internet is scary. Twitch can be scary. The gaming world can be scary. Having a space, again, that I’m in control of in the sense of the narrative of, we can still be Happy. I know not everything is perfect, but we can still find the joy in things. Just that growth, I think, for sure where we can go.

Tubefilter: Perfect. Is there anything else that you want people to know? Anything else you want to be able to share?

HappyHappyGal: Yes. Again, it’s just all about the connections that we make with people and being able to connect with people around the world and knowing they’ve invited me into their space. I have so many people tell me, “I have you on my TV in my living room” or “My dogs are watching with me and my kids.” We just had someone actually send us a message saying, “Thank you for what you’ve created. Your stream has allowed me to learn about the game, and then connect with my kids.”

They now have that opportunity to spend time with their kids because I’ve created a space for them to come in and learn and have fun. To know that people are making friendships. We’ve had people meet in real life. We’ve had people meet and get married. To have this community really come together is this craziness. I think that that’s what’s really cool about gaming and Twitch themselves, the community in general. A lot of people don’t understand what it is, but it’s life-changing for sure.

HappyHappyGal is repped by Loaded.