Animal Crossing live streams vanish in China

The popular Nintendo Switch game disappeared from ecommerce platforms after Hong Kong protest art went viral, and now it’s vanishing from live streams on Bilibili and other sites

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Despite word of a ban, on Monday a stream of Animal Crossing: New Horizons was still live on Bilibili, one of China’s most popular video platforms. (Picture: Bilibili)

Published: 7:29pm, 14 Apr 2020Updated: 7:29pm, 14 Apr 2020

This article originally appeared on ABACUS

After its sudden disappearance from China’s ecommerce platforms, Animal Crossing: New Horizons now appears to be no longer welcome on the country’s live-streaming platforms.

On Monday, internet users started lamenting a ban on live streaming for the popular Nintendo Switch game on the country’s Twitch-like streaming sites Douyu and Huya. Some shared screenshots on microblogging site Weibo allegedly showing notices about the ban sent to streamers.

How Douyu won the live-streaming war to become China’s Twitch

At first, the ban didn’t appear to be absolute. A live stream of the game was still available Monday night on Bilibili, a popular streaming platform better known for its anime offerings.

Bilibili, China’s biggest anime site, covers the screen in user comments

But that had changed by Tuesday, when searches for Animal Crossing across several local sites failed to bring up any live-streaming videos. Abacus reached out to Bilibili, Douyu and Huya and will update if we receive a response.