SmallAnt Twitch VOD & Videos

When most gamers try to beat a level as quickly as possible, they're speedrunning. When Tanner Ant does it, he might be playing the entire game upside down, with the floor turned into lava, or under some other wildly creative constraint that would make most players throw their controller in frustration. Better known by his online handle SmallAnt, this 29-year-old Canadian has carved out a unique niche in the gaming world by deliberately making things harder for himself – and somehow making it look entertaining.

The story behind his unusual username is charmingly simple: at 12 years old, while struggling to create a RuneScape account, he spotted a tiny ant crawling across his windowsill. That moment of inspiration would eventually become the foundation of a gaming empire. Before he ever touched YouTube or Twitch streaming, Ant was already showing his creative flair through Little Big Planet, where he spent hundreds of hours crafting custom levels so impressive that the game's official community managers featured them as team picks. His pixel art and game design skills were so advanced that he essentially built new game engines within Little Big Planet to recreate classic Legend of Zelda experiences.

What sets SmallAnt apart isn't just his technical skill – it's his willingness to embrace chaos. While traditional speedrunners focus on optimization and perfection, he thrives on the opposite. His content ranges from attempting "impossible" Pokémon challenges where trainers are maxed out at level 100, to tackling notoriously difficult fan-made versions of Super Mario Odyssey. His approach to gaming is summed up perfectly in his Twitch bio: "I play games wrong most of the time. Hope you're into that." This self-aware humor runs through everything he does, whether he's deliberately playing Echoes of Wisdom incorrectly or taking on challenges that other creators dismiss as too brutal.

Since uploading his first YouTube video in February 2018, SmallAnt has amassed over 3.12 million subscribers and 1.5 million Twitch followers. His breakthrough moment came in 2019 when his video "THE FIRST TIME THIS SPEEDRUN HAS EVER BEEN COMPLETED (10 Captures)" crossed the million-view threshold. Broadcasting from Prince George, British Columbia, he maintains a consistent weekday streaming schedule at 1pm Mountain Standard Time, creating a reliable touchstone for fans who've grown accustomed to his particular brand of controlled chaos.

The gaming community has embraced SmallAnt's unconventional approach, with fellow creators like Jaiden Animations challenging him to beat records in unexpected games like Cooking Mama. His influence extends beyond entertainment – by proving that there are countless creative ways to experience familiar games, he's inspired a generation of content creators to think outside the traditional gaming box. In a world where gaming content can feel formulaic, SmallAnt represents something refreshingly unpredictable: proof that sometimes the best way to master something is to break all the rules.