Who is Mellstroy?
Mellstroy—whose real name is Andrey Burim—grew up in a poor Russian family in Belarus. His father worked in a local factory, and his mother was a cashier. The family struggled financially, often leaving Andrey to wear hand-me-downs from his older brother.
Despite their difficulties, Andrey’s brother introduced him to the world of gaming and gifted him a new PC. This gift sparked Andrey’s lifelong passion for video games. His first love was Minecraft, which became the catalyst for his streaming career.
Transitioning from playing Minecraft to making money from it, Andrey started streaming on Twitch under the name Mellstroy. By the age of 14, he had created his own server and promoted it across various VK (a Russian social network) groups to attract players.
Mellstroy monetized the server by selling exclusive access, which brought him considerable income at a young age. In a way, this early financial success marks the beginning of Mellstroy’s entrepreneurial journey.
The birth of Mellstroy
Three years later, Andrey hit a ceiling with his Minecraft server monetization and sought new revenue streams. In 2015, he began streaming popular games like DOTA, CS:GO, and Minecraft on Twitch under his now-familiar handle, Mellstroy.
The streamer leveraged his online expertise to capitalize on the trend of selling CS:GO skins. However, it wasn't just his gaming skills or skin reselling that garnered attention, but rather his controversial behavior during streams.
Mellstroy's first controversy
Mellstroy gained notoriety for a scandal on Russian Omegle, where he enticed underage girls to perform inappropriate acts for his viewers. This led to a significant viewership spike but also drew the attention of law enforcement.
In 2017, the streamer's activities came under police scrutiny, leading to a criminal investigation. Although the case initially posed a serious threat to his career, it mysteriously fizzled out. It’s possible that a financial settlement was involved to avoid severe punishment.
Despite this close brush with the law, Mellstroy continued to push the boundaries of the terms of service of the platform, and the law.
The rise of trash streams
With the legal scare behind him, Mellstroy embraced his newfound fame and transitioned to a new type of content: trash streams. These streams were chaotic spectacles featuring alcohol, drugs, gambling, and outrageous challenges. They often included fights—whether verbal or physical—creating a spectacle that kept viewers glued to the screen.
His content further devolved as he began paying people on his stream to humiliate themselves in front of thousands of viewers. This style of streaming, though controversial, gained traction among other streamers as well.
Mellstroy wasn’t alone in this niche, he was part of a wave of Russian trash streamers. Figures like ReeFlay, who infamously locked his pregnant girlfriend outside in winter, were notorious for their extreme content. The goal was clear: The more extreme the content, the higher the viewership.
To monetize on this content, Mellstroy joined the first wave of popular online gambling streamers such as Trainwreckstv and xQc. His streams attracted crypto casinos, significantly boosting his income.At one point, he reportedly earned about $20,000 per stream from gambling advertisements alone.
The infamous punching incident
Mellstroy’s most infamous incident occurred in 2020 during a livestream when he assaulted a young woman named Yelena Yovanovskaya, also known as Yena Yova.
During an argument, Mellstroy grabbed Yena's head and slammed it onto a table multiple times, causing significant physical and emotional harm. She was rushed to the hospital with a broken jaw.
The assault led to widespread condemnation and a criminal investigation. Mellstroy was banned from major streaming platforms like YouTube and Twitch and faced severe public backlash.
He again managed to avoid substantial legal consequences, receiving a sentence of six months of corrective labor with a 10% wage deduction and ordered to pay 72,000 rubles (approximately $1,000 USD) in compensation to the victim. The compensation seemed disproportionately low compared to the pain and humiliation Yena experienced.
Mellstroy's comeback on Kick
After the assault, Mellstroy spent two years attempting to rebuild his online presence. He explored new platforms and formats but struggled to regain his former glory. It wasn’t until he discovered the streaming platform Kick that he began to see a resurgence in popularity.
In 2023, Mellstroy started a new stunt by offering large sums of money for outrageous stunts, such as blowing up cars or shaving heads, to other streamers and his chat participants. The substantial sums he offered attracted many, amplifying Mellstroy’s brand and drawing massive attention. His extravagant monetary giveaways, including luxury cars, contributed to his renewed visibility.
Successful viral stunts
Recently, Mellstroy went viral in yet another unconventional manner. To boost his online presence, he incentivized viewers to create memes about him and engage in outrageous stunts on stream, like urinating on friends for cash prizes.
The Belarusian streamer also offered $200 for every million views on TikTok, flooding the platform with content about him. Mellstroy claimed he was paying out about a million dollars per month to fans, though we haven’t been able to independently confirm. This strategy significantly increased his popularity almost overnight.
Another viral strategy involved paying fans to harass celebrities into interacting with him online. Mellstroy secured shout-outs from Russia’s biggest rapper Morgenshtern, MrBeast (through Fortnite pro Anas), and even managed to get a follow from Drake.
The streamer also paid nearly $350,000 for a shout-out from Kylian Mbappé and received acknowledgement from fighter Conor McGregor. Despite the high cost of these interactions, Mellstroy’s efforts seem to be paying off, infecting everyone's algorithm with his deep-fried memes.
Is Mellstroy's wife a Russian billionaire?
Let's cut straight to the point and save you some time going down yet another internet rabbit hole: Mellstroy did not marry a Russian billionaire, or one of Vladimir Putin’s alleged daughters, and he did not have an elaborate wedding with the upper class of Russia's wealthiest.
So why is there footage of Mellstroy getting married, living a happy life with his family, and other out-of-character footage plastered all over social media?
It’s all an elaborate meme, run by Mellstroy’s fan pages such as Mellstroy Mafia and Mellstroy Family, with over 800,000 Instagram followers combined.
Once you look closer, you quickly realize that the videos just don’t seem right. Everyone in the videos seems to have his exact face. In certain ones, he has children that seem to be around eight to ten years old.
At first glance, everything seems real, but it's only after you do some digging that you notice things are amiss. With other AI fakes like "Mellstroy at the Oscars" circulating, it's no wonder people get confused online about what's real and what's not.
