I don’t have irl friends. Listening to someone screw around in a game lobby with their mates feels like you have mates by extension. It simulates the noise of having company. I’m a zoomer, and i used to be way, way more into this stuff when i was younger, just because no one at school would speak to me - at that point a bunch of 30-year-old strangers on the internet feel like an adequate substitute. Used in moderation it should be fine, no worse than listening to a podcast; the only issue being that streamers don’t tend to release an hour of content a week like a podcast or old-style youtuber would, they can do about 6 hours a day. Thats where it can become a crutch. Listening to that shit for hours is much more comfortable than listening to an empty fucking apartment all day, but its not healthy. Idk what else do for company really.

There’s also a (probably healthier, but also much more annoying) section of people who treat it like a reality tv show or stanning a band, as if streamer drama is the new celebrity gossip. Thats a big attraction for some people, hollywood drama that they can actually interact with and that feels more “real”.