"Viewership dropping huh?": Fans react as Nickmercs teases first Call of Duty Warzone stream since last year's scandal

Nick "Nickmercs" has teased a Call of Duty stream in a post on his official X profile captioned "Tomorrow.", indicating that he might be streaming the game on Kick soon. This will be the first time he plays the game on his channel since the big controversy last year after his operator bundle was removed due to problematic posts about the LGBTQIA+ community.

Since then, Nickmercs has steered clear of playing the game, with some of his fans also boycotting Call of Duty and its battle royale version, Warzone. However, it appears that the Kick streamer will finally be playing it on stream and posted a stylized picture of himself in-game on X as a teaser.

While many fans welcomed the news, some netizens appeared unsympathetic towards it. An X user insinuated that Nick had returned to Warzone because of lowered viewership numbers, writing this in response:

"Viewership dropping huh?"

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Nickmercs teased Warzone stream eight months after Call of Duty scandal

The fallout over Nickmercs's comment about the LGBTQIA+ community last year caused quite a stir in the Call of Duty community. Along with some of his fans, many of his friends also joined in a supposed boycott. YouTube streamer TimTheTatman, who frequently collaborates with him and had his operator bundle added to Warzone, had his skins removed from the game.

Popular FPS streamer Dr DisRespect, who has been beefing with Call of Duty and its developers for a long time, had also been one of the content creators who boycotted the game at the time, uninstalling it on stream in solidarity.

That said, TimTheTatman started playing the game last year, but Nickmercs has not streamed the game since then, opting to play other battle royales such as Apex Legends. Since then, he also left Twitch and has been streaming on its rival platform Kick instead. The move has also caused a lot of backlash, especially after he announced buying a house outside the USA to make gambling content.

His return to Call of Duty has been a long time coming, especially considering Nick is a veteran streamer who made a name for himself playing Warzone and previous CoD titles. Many in the esports community were quite happy when Nickmercs teased that he would be streaming the game again.

Here are some general reactions to the announcement from X, with TimTheTatman also responding with a clip:

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Despite several prominent streamers, including Dr DisRespect and TimTheTatman, boycotting Call of Duty in June 2023, Warzone's player base has not significantly declined. That has made many in the community claim that content creators do not impact a game as much as many might think.