Twitch streamers tried to find a real needle in a haystack — and here's how long it took

Streamers come up with the craziest ideas to entertain their viewers. Twitch streamers Eric Robbins (@erobb) and Emily (@ExtraEmily) decided to put the phrase "needle in a haystack" to the test. The two streamers went live from Emily's backyard on March 24, trying to find a needle in a pile of seven blocks of hay. The challenge started in the morning, and both Emily and Erobb were knee deep in the hay, looking for that one needle under the 84-degree (28°C) sun. 

Less than three minutes into the livestream, Erobb asked Emily how committed she was to completing the challenge, just in case they couldn't find it by midnight. She assured him she was not going to stop till she had the needle in her hands, and she stuck by her word. To make it more interesting for the viewers, Emily and Erobb had to spin a wheel every time they got 10 subscriptions. Erobb was the first to spin, and he had to eat a sour pickle ball.

On the other hand, Emily had to wear beer goggles while sifting through the hay, which made it extremely difficult because she could barely see with the dark tint. At the beginning, Emily was hopeful the experiment would not last too long, even saying that it would probably take them three hours to find it, but boy, was she wrong. 

The duo spent 8 hours and 21 minutes in the backyard looking for the needle. By the time they found it, the sun had already set, and they had to wear headlamps to see in the dark. When Emily spotted the needle, you could hear the disbelief in her voice, repeatedly yelling, "Oh my God!" Eric looked over to check if she got it, and confirmed that it was a needle. He told Emily that he loved her, "but not in a weird way." They held the needle up close to the phone's flashlight to check, and Emily excitedly showed the needle to the camera, saying, "Oh my God! I found it right here on the ground! It was just right here, on the ground!"

Twitch has gotten a lot more famous as a streaming platform in recent years, with people streaming different kinds of content on the platform, such as gaming streams, IRL (In Real Life), e-sports, creative, music, just chatting, and more.

Statista reported that "Just Chatting" is one of the top-ranked categories in the platform. In March 2025, the category had 275 million hours of monthly watch time. ExtraEmily's "needle in a haystack" challenge also falls under the same category, and had 347K views.

ExtraEmily shared a shorter video of her broadcast on her YouTube channel. Many were interested in her challenge and left their thoughts in the comments. @CBBCC830 wrote, "I love her max utilization of free will." @8u88letea shared a few ideas in the comment section while praising her. They wrote, "Next up, Emily: barks up the wrong tree while jumping on a bandwagon, biting on a hand that feeds her, and adding fuel to a fire at the same time. I don't know how this girl comes up with video ideas, but it amazes me every time."

You can follow Emily (@ExtraEmily) and Eric Robbins (@Erobb) on Twitch for more gaming and Just Chatting content.

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