Kathleen ‘Loserfruit’ is Australia’s top female streamer who has turned gaming into a full-time career. She is a Melbourne-based content creator with more than one million Instagram followers, 4.4. million Tiktok, and over four million on YouTube, her videos have hundreds of thousands of views every day. We caught up with Losefruit to learn more about her gaming career journey.
Your fun and irreverent humour really comes across in your videos, how much of a factor has that been in your success?
If I’m not having fun, the viewer won’t have fun – unless they’re enjoying laughing at my expense. But there is only so much of that they can do, so I think about 30% would be to that.
Who are your role models in your industry and why?
I feel the role models are always changing, I came in when it was a newer industry and would be looking up to Jenna Marbles and other early Youtubers for just being themselves. Now it’s about looking up to people who are doing content no one else is doing like QTCinderella with her big events, how personable Ryan Trahan’s content is, the variety of people I get to see on TikTok or my close Fortnite friends like Lachlan or Lazarbeam for when they come up with unique ideas in a game that has been out for 7 years.
At what point did you turn gaming into a full-time career? And what would you say to other female gamers thinking about making the transition?
It was a year after streaming that I wanted to make it a full-time career. It was a different time, no one was really doing it and the few people I saw doing it, I was determined I could do it better and that was a huge motivation for me. The thing I would recommend to female gamers or just anyone getting into it, is don’t copy or do what someone who is already successful is doing. Because why would someone watch you over them when they already have that person doing that thing? You gotta do something more unique and better than them. I could talk more in depth about this and how many untapped approaches I see when I’m doing my research for myself, but maybe I’ll do some sort of mentorship about that one day.
What do you love about gaming? Given its huge popularity, do you think gaming is unsung in the media in general?
I love gaming as it’s not just entertainment, it’s interactive entertainment where we are the ones in charge of the story. I think gaming doesn’t have the support it should have that the other entertainment industries yet, because it’s more complicated and expensive to create. But gaming has grown so much in the past 20 years! Mobile games are starting to become more popular and have made gaming even more accessible – you don’t necessarily need a dedicated console or expensive setup anymore. Take for instance Samsung’s new Galaxy S24 Ultra, it’s powerful enough to play Fortnite on which is crazy, and I think this accessibility and advance in technology has opened the door for so many new people to try gaming, and that’s what makes it so exciting.
What’s the inspiration behind your handle? Tell us more about you and your life growing up in Melbourne.
Loserfruit is a name I came up with to insult my friends as they were making a clan called the fruits and wanted to know what fruit I would be. And I thought I would never play the game we were making usernames for and then I started to really like it. My life in Melbourne was great. Growing up in a single mum household, my mum was the epitome of an independent woman doing work, getting her masters, raising us and also playing mario party with me. So I had a great time growing up. I did my University degree in Melbourne and loved the time living in the city.
How long have you been a gamer? What games most inspire you?
Since probably 3 and seeing my cousins play goldeneye. I am most inspired by The Sims, GTA and of course Fortnite. Gaming for me started back when I was a little kid, maybe 3 years old, watching my cousins play Goldeneye. That’s where I fell in love with gaming! In terms of inspiration, games that allow for creativity and open worlds have always been a favorite of mine. The Sims, GTA, those classics definitely shaped how I approach games.
I think that’s why I love Fortnite so much and playing Samsung’s new Clash of Commuters game. It reminds me of those games I fell in love with when I was little and just having fun with friends or family and just goofing around. Of course with Clash of Commuters I get to goof around in my own town and you can win some cool prizes which is cool. So yeah, long story short, I love being a gamer.
What devices do you use and why?
I must admit I’m a bit greedy when it comes to phones, I have 2 devices. My main gaming phone is the Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra. It’s super responsive and the graphics are incredible. I use it for filming my streams and recording TikToks too. Then there’s my Samsung Galaxy Flip 5, it’s so cute and compact, it fits perfectly in my pocket. Plus, I love the nostalgia factor of the flip phone design. I keep all my personal messages and some photos on this one. The front screen is also super handy as it lets me see exactly what I’m capturing in a selfie.
Can you share some insights into how you built your audience on each platform?
SO I feel like its been 3 different strategies with each platform. Long form, streams and short form (shorts, TikToks, reels etc). These are the main three I focus on – Instagram and Twitter and anything else is more just there. Long form is a longer Youtube video that is driven by a really cool story whether it is a crazy challenge that I did in 24hrs, weeks or it’s something that requires other people. It’s something that needs a hook, something to wait for, a journey and some fun genuine moments to fill it up. Streams are more of a casual, relaxed environment to interact with chat without necessarily a purpose. It’s just somewhere to be with like minded people. And short form is doing a trend, twisting a trend, asking a question, putting quick little opinions on the game. But that’s a super exaggerated form of myself. Sorry about the paragraph. This was honestly just fun for me to think about. But each of these have a slightly differing audience. The shorts are quick, reactionary fun that build up a big but wide audience, long form is a more dedicated audience and stream is the most loyal audience.
What do you like most about each platform?
How different they all are in strategy and just because you’re big in one, you’re not big in the other and learning why that is. It’s fun. The short form is what I have so much fun with and helps build creativity when I get exhausted by the full on aspect of the longer form or streams. But I wouldn’t do that unless it helped me with my streaming or long form youtube videos, cause they’re what I am most passionate about and LOVE to look back on.
What’s your all-time favourite post and why?
That’s difficult. It would still be the most viewed video I have, which is “he sniped me for 6 months”, which is a video about iLee, a pink bunny, finding me in Fortnite games for over 6 months. It was such a special video because it was entertaining to watch and a special character people fell in love with. BUT also because it’s when I was shown that I didn’t have a limit on views. For some reason early on, I would assume because I don’t see too many female gamers getting crazy views, I shouldn’t. But this one has like 22 million right now and it’s a long form. So it was a ceiling shattering moment for me and I loved it, although I won’t lie it was more recently that I have forgotten about that ceiling entirely
Would you like to see more female gamers? How can we encourage more female gamers?
I would love to see more female gamers and have seen a significant increase in females in streaming and youtube. Because the gamers are pretty even in numbers, it’s just the representation that still feels uneven. I think it’s about not treating them any differently and I might have a bit of a controversial opinion here, but I don’t do my best work when I know I’m different. Like I know I’m surrounded by male fortnite youtubers and to think that some people get “embarrassed” watching my content because I’m a girl or they’re not as comfortable watching it because I’m a girl, it’s more discouraging. So I pretend that it doesn’t exist. Seems delusional, but it works for me. So just enjoy your passion as any other person does and not hide it and there will be a surprising amount of female gamers that start yapping about their favourite games.
My sister started gaming at 50. What is it about gaming that it appeals to all ages, all genders?
Because you can be anything you want to be and it’s in your control. I don’t think I’ll ever stop gaming even if I stopped making videos. It’s entertainment that’s also more challenging.
What’s your next project? Plans for the future.
Honestly, I don’t think too much about the future. I just want to continue to make the best Fortnite content out there and keep in the game industry. Making Fortnite maps is an interest and going even crazier with content ideas I think is the plan. But I have to keep it a mystery!
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