He hosted then prime minister Jacinda Ardern on a stream and is one of New Zealand’s most popular TikTok accounts. Liam Rātana talks to Daytona Taputu about making viral fame work for him.

It’s been four years since Daytona Taputu, aka Broxh_, shot to internet stardom. The humble whakairo artist went viral almost overnight after people began gifting and purchasing paid subscriptions to his Twitch channel, despite it being free to watch. Taputu attempted to return the money to those subscribing, which just motivated even more people to subscribe and gift. Life hasn’t been the same since.

Now 32 years old, Taputu was trained at The National Wood Carving School at Te Puia in Rotorua before beginning work as a carver in 2020 at Tamaki Māori Village (now known as Te Pā Tū). Soon after, the pandemic struck. He was told the business could no longer pay him, so Taputu decided to become a freelance carver, taking on commissions from friends and whānau.

Although he had some early success with commissions, Taputu says the money was inconsistent and there were several mahi aroha commissions, or jobs where whānau would pay with something like a kamokamo. “Those are the worst ones, because they take the longest and pay nothing,” laughs Taputu.

After seeing his cousin stream on Twitch, Taputu says he was inspired to give it a go. In April 2020, he was featured on Twitch Australia and New Zealand’s Creative Showcase. It was during one of his streams on this showcase that he caught the world’s attention.

Although not necessary to watch his stream, a viewer gifted a subscription to Taputu’s channel for a small cost. Taputu was surprised by the kind gesture, and asked to return the money live on the stream. This only encouraged more subscriptions from those watching. Taputu insisted people hold on to their money and continue to watch him for free but it was all in vain as the internet had already fallen in love with him. A clip of Taputu’s reaction started circulating on the internet and before he knew it, there were dozens of people subscribing to his channel. In one month, Taputu had amassed 500,000 followers on the platform. “It was quite overwhelming to be honest. When I first started, I stopped one of my streams after five people started watching me because I was too shy,” Taputu says.

Six months later, then prime minister Jacinda Ardern appeared on one of Taputu’s streams as part of her election campaign. By this point, Taputu had thousands of monthly viewers, hundreds of paying subscribers, relationships with international streamers, and brands such as Red Bull had begun showing an interest in what he was doing. At his peak, Taputu had 29,000 viewers on a single livestream, over 1,000 subscribers, and was widely considered the country’s top Twitch streamer. While many would have tried to milk the opportunity for all they could, Taputu stayed humble and forever appreciative of the support he was receiving. Unlike many other streamers and vloggers that rise to stardom, Taputu has kept his relaxed and wholesome demeanour, which forms a major part of his appeal.

Like all things on the internet, virality can be incredibly short-lived. “I always knew those numbers would come down,” says Taputu. Four years on from stumbling upon internet stardom, the recently married father of two says he has managed to turn his accidental fame into a regular income, supplemented by his whakairo commissions. After three years of streaming for the love of it, Taputu says his Nan finally sat him down last year and convinced him to start embracing people’s generosity. “Only my Nan could talk me into it,” he says.

Taputu has amassed over 1.8 million followers on TikTok, making him the second most popular New Zealander on the platform behind Jazz Thornton. He’s begun streaming there too, as well as YouTube, attempting to reach a wider audience and build additional revenue streams. While the stream chat from viewers is generally good-natured, Taputu still has a team of volunteers who help moderate the chat. He has also begun sharing clips and other more general life content on his social media channel, adding to his appeal.

While the number of Twitch subscribers now sits at approximately 750, with around 260 average viewers per stream, it’s still enough for Taputu to pay his bills and feed his family. He credits his stable streaming income to the solid community, or whānau as he calls it, on his channel. “A lot of my viewers and subscribers are from overseas, predominantly the United States. They just have an interest in what I’m doing [whakairo] because they’ve never seen anything like it,” Taputu says.

In August last year, Taputu became the country’s first Twitch ambassador and subsequently attended TwitchCon in Las Vegas last October. He has received invites to travel around the world but says he struggles to leave his family alone. An added bonus of the international reach is that Taputu’s commissions are now almost all exclusively for overseas-based customers that have found him via Twitch or on socials. Taputu is about to start carving a pou whakairo of a Grand Theft Auto character for an overseas client.

While he doesn’t plan on staying a streamer forever, Taputu says the immediate goal is saving to buy a house for his whānau. The income from streaming helps to pay the bills, while the income from carving is saved towards a house deposit. “I don’t want to be 40 and streaming on Twitch, with people telling me to ‘get off the internet old man’,” he laughs.

In the meantime, Taputu continues to utilise his platform to inspire the next generation of carvers in Aotearoa, especially in his hometown of Rotorua. There have been school visits, encounters with rangatahi on the street, and thousands of viewers on his streams. Although there has been newfound fame and money, Taputu remains true to his core purpose of sharing Māori culture and whakairo with the world.

This is Public Interest Journalism funded by NZ On Air.