Despite backlash and threats of being “canceled,” Nick ‘NICKMERCS’ Kolcheff’s following is growing drastically after the Pride controversy that saw his Call of Duty Operator skin removed from the game entirely.
On May 31, Activision finally launched the NICKMERCS and TimTheTatman Operator skins after weeks of speculation and teasing, bringing the true-to-life looks of both streamers to players looking to impress in Modern Warfare 2 and Warzone 2.
Barely two weeks later, however, both Operators had been removed from the game entirely. Nick posted a tweet on June 7 that many critics deemed to be homophobic or anti-LGBTQ+, after which Call of Duty decided to cut ties and remove the Operator bundle from the store.
Within days, TimTheTatman made a public statement, asking COD to also remove his Operator bundle in support of his friend.
What happened after, though, the higher-ups at Call of Duty may not have predicted, as the drama spread far beyond just COD and was picked up by those even outside of the gaming space entirely, becoming as much a global societal and political conversation as it was a Call of Duty one.
Attempts to ‘cancel’ NICKMERCS flounder
With that, many fans accused critics or those opposed to his tweet of attempting to ‘cancel’ Nick, but actually, it looks like the opposite could be happening.
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At the time of writing on June 12, Nick’s follower count on Twitter has grown by around 50,000 since June 8, despite the fact that Nick was actually losing hundreds of followers a day prior to the tweet, according to social media stat tracking site SocialBlade.
NICKMERCS has seen a dramatic increase in Twitter followers amid the controversy over his Pride tweet pic.twitter.com/lsESP96XSq
— Dexerto (@Dexerto) June 12, 2023
What Nick would prefer though, is that that growth is reflected in his Twitch metrics too. Socialblade has his Twitch following growing at a slightly faster rate than before, though whether that ends up reflected in his subscriber count remains to be seen.
Neither Tim nor Nick have streamed since June 9, the same day Nick’s skin was removed. Fans will no doubt be keeping an eye out to see when they do go live again and, more significantly, how they address the situation.
Nick has already refused to apologize for what he said, though clarified that he never meant to hurt anybody.
