Ranboo: what did YouTuber and Twitch star say on Twitter, is he gay - and what does ‘/srs’ mean?

Popular Minecraft YouTuber and Twitch streamer Ranboo has officially come out to his followers online.

This is everything you need to know about what he said on Twitter.

Who is Ranboo?

Ranboo is an American YouTuber and Twitch streamer, known especially for his Minecraft content. His real name isn’t known.

He is 18 years old and, prior to moving to the UK earlier this month, specifically Brighton, he used to live in the San Francisco Bay Area.

He began posting videos on YouTube in August 2020, with his first video being a Skywars gameplay video. He then started streaming on Twitch the following month.

Ranboo was invited to play on the Dream SMP server in November 2020 and since then his “lore streams” have become some of the most popular on the server, repeatedly reaching over 100,000 live viewers.

Dream SMP is a private multiplayer survival Minecraft server which is played on by the members of the Dream Team and their friends. It’s known as a roleplay themed server with participants mostly improvising the plot, and features a long history of characters, alliances, wars and eras.

Ranboo quickly started racking up subscribers and in January 2021, only four months after posting his first video, he hit one million YouTube subscribers.

As part of his online persona, Ranboo keeps his face covered whilst on camera, wearing a signature black and white face mask, and occasionally sunglasses and gloves as well.

He previously opened up on Twitter about covering his face in response to a person who asked: “Does it still scare you not having the mask, gloves and glasses on in public in case of it getting leaked?”

Ranboo replied: “I wear the mask and glasses because of severe facial dysmorphia actually so it doesn’t really scare me all too much when I’m just out in public and not in front of cameras :D”

He has said that he might do a face reveal if he reaches five million subscribers.

When did he come out?

On Sunday (24 April), Ranboo officially came out to his followers - however, he has made hints in the past about not being straight.

He created a thread on Sunday on Twitter in which he said “I mean how many more clues can I give”, linking to previous tweets made in the past, including one in which he posted a picture of him with a Jelly Belly jelly bean statue in which he wrote: “With the bf.”

Ranboo tweeted: “Yo just wanted to say thanks for all the support with everything and tonight lol have been wanting to do that for a while tonight just lined up well.

“And for those confused basically I guess I am technically unlabelled as the way I have kinda always gone around life just being attracted to whoever I am attracted to it just so happens that most of them line up with a “certain type” you could say lol am okay with the gay label :)”

The tweet that cemented Ranboo’s coming out as legitimate and not a joke was his tweet that simple said: “/srs”

What does ‘/srs’ mean?

Because it can be difficult to convey tone in writing, like in tweets for example, the internet has developed a number of tone indicators to help readers understand how a message is meant to be interpreted.

For example, “/jk”, stands for “joking” or “just kidding”. So if you saw a tweet that ended with “/jk”, you can infer that the writer was just joking or being sarcastic about whatever they were talking about.

On the other side of the coin is “/srs” which stands for “serious” - meaning that whatever the person was writing about, you know that they are being sincere.

When Ranboo tweeted “/srs”, it was his way of communicating to his fans and followers that he wasn’t just joking around about being gay, he was in fact being serious.

What has the reaction been like?

Reaction to Ranboo’s coming out has been overwhelmingly positive, with many of his fellow YouTubers and streamers congratulating him, as well as his fans and followers - so much so that Ranboo’s name started trending on Twitter.