Roaring Kitty returned to the public eye in a much-anticipated YouTube stream Friday afternoon, but his viral profit-wielding tactics of old didn’t appear to have the same effect this time around.
Kitty, whose real name is Keith Gill, began his stream more than 20 minutes late with more than a half-million people watching. He pulled on his usual antics, talking endlessly about random things like the Boston Celtics and his birthday, while viewers had their eyes locked on a live chart that—for a majority of the stream—showed GameStop’s stock steadily going down.
The stock, GME, briefly spiked when the stream began with Gill saying nothing for 20 seconds before laughing, smiling, and saying, “Oh, shit.” The share price peaked at just over $38 in those first minutes, but, as Gill rambled on, it started tumbling.
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By the time he Gill cut the stream about 45 minutes later, GME shares were worth just $28 apiece.
A live chat on the stream showed a mixed bag of reactions—some were cheering on Gill’s return, while others were frustrated GME’s price was plummeting. Thousands of messages flooded the chat, urging others to buy GME and send its stock price to the moon as many had done in 2021—a scheme that was dramatized last year in Dumb Money, featuring Shailene Woodley and Paul Dano. Gill said Friday that he’s yet to watch the film.
Three years ago, Gill manufactured hype around GameStop that screwed over big hedge-fund short sellers and drove the stock’s price from near-worthless to as high as $81 a share. But Washington and Wall Street came down hard on Gill, and he disappeared from social media.
After three years in the shadows, Gill began teasing his return last month by posting a string of cat pictures to X. That buzz was enough for GameStop shares to shoot up more than 90 percent over 30 days, but the momentum seemingly died the moment Gill showed his face.
That dip may be attributed to the randomness of Gill’s stream. He showed himself with bandages on his face and his arm in a sling, but later clarified it was all fake. He spoke endlessly about the difficulties of being a streamer, artificial intelligence, and cracked open a beer after declaring it must be five o’clock somewhere.
“It’s not five o’clock here, but it’s about to be,” he said.
Barstool Sports founder Dave Portnoy spent the morning fawning over Gill’s return but, by the afternoon, he was sharing his displeasure with the stream. He first appeared annoyed that it began more than 20 minutes late, tagging Gill in a post to X that said, “This is bullshit.”
Once the stream kicked off, Portnoy posted again.
“The Roaring Kitty live stream is kinda disappointing,” he said. “Not gonna lie.”
Gill, a Massachusetts native like Portnoy, cracked jokes even as viewers watched GME’s price get cheaper and cheaper by the minute.
“Oh no, I’m causing it to go down. I’m causing it to go down,” Gill said while laughing. “Where’s—I need a button that like, I press the button and it ejects me from this if the price is going down. Or if I say something, oh boy, just press the button and get me out.”
Shares of GameStop were halted multiple times during his stream and on Friday morning—a measure put in place to protect shares that become volatile in a short period.
As it became clear GameStop’s stock price was trending the wrong way, Gill told viewers the real reason for his return was to check in with everyone and “say what’s up.”
“No real game plan here,” he conceded. “Just wanted to hop in, see what’s popping. Damn, yo. There’s mad heads in here.”
He then reiterated that the stocks he invests in are particularly volatile, and that those following him in investing should know that going in.
“You should know that... these are, these are very risky opportunities,” he said. “That’s the trade off—big potential opportunities, or you could lose it all.”
