Why the Hype House no longer deserves its reputation

Since its inception at the end of 2019, The Hype House has become known as the blueprint for the TikTok creator mansion. Just over a year later, it no longer has the ‘hype’ that it used to.

In 2019, The Hype House was formed by members including Daisy Keech and Thomas Petrou and joined by some of TikTok’s biggest stars including Addison Rae, Avani Gregg, Chase Hudson, and even Charli and Dixie D’Amelio.

They took after content houses formed by YouTubers and Vine Stars before them, including the Clout House and Jake Paul’s Team 10 – they even moved into the former Clout House location. Despite this, the Hype House was lauded as one of the first of its kind, with creators collaborating as a way to build up their following.

They started their journey as one of the most innovative groups on social media, picking up some of the fastest-growing creators and helping them reach superstardom far quicker than if they’d ventured out on their own. Fans were eager to see them dancing in the same room, or getting together as couples. The excitement around Charli D’Amelio and Chase Hudson’s potential relationship, for example, rapidly helped to grow both of their accounts in the time that the rumors were flying.

Hype House members expertly rose to the top of all the latest trends and dances and quickly brought out a range of colorful merchandise captured in beautiful grainy candids by influencer photographer Bryant. Subsequently, other photos taken by Bryant for the group became prime Instagram content, further pushing them to the top of everyone’s radar.

Top TikTokers have left

After such a rapid rise, the most popular members appear to have grown out of the need for a collective almost as quickly as they joined in the first place. The D’Amelio sisters promptly left the collective in May 2020 and worked on building up their own individual brands separate from the others. Without the Hype House, the D’Amelio sisters have their own podcast, their own makeup line, a huge partnership with Hollister, and even their own reality show in the works, among other things.

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Other members of the group, while technically keeping their house membership, distanced themselves from the original group. Addison Rae has become great friends with the Vlog Squad and even the Kardashians. She appears less and less in vlogs from the likes of Thomas Petrou and Alex Warren, instead showing up most frequently in vlogs from Bryce Hall, her boyfriend, and a Sway boy.

In October 2020, Tayler Holder branched out and founded the Triller compound where members including Nate Wyatt, Olivia Ponton, and Kelliane Stankus also moved. And while they maintain they’re still a part of the Hype House collective, the label is tentative at best.

Daisy Keech, one of the original founders, left the Hype House as soon as March 2020 and began her own collection of content houses; Clubhouse BH, Clubhouse Europe, and NotAContentHouse. The brand even created its own offshoot called Clubhouse Explore and appears to be expanding every day.

Alongside the Hype House’s rise to fame, Sway house has typically followed closely behind and includes a group of the hottest male TikTokers in Los Angeles. In the past few months, those members have grown to surpass some of the core Hype House’s remaining members in followers, on TikTok and beyond. House manager Thomas Petrou’s TikTok has 8.1 million followers, while Sway boy Bryce Hall has 18.6 million.

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Sway house has branched out to other platforms since TikTok fame, finding new avenues for revenue including investment in products, podcasts, and YouTube where Bryce Hall has 3.4 million subscribers, whereas Alex Warren has 2.7 million.

The Hype House does still have clout. Chase ‘lilhuddy’ Hudson is still a member, and has amazingly gone on to appear as the protagonist in Downfalls High by Machine Gun Kelly, and brought out his own single called ‘21st Century Vampire.’ Meanwhile, they’re still gaining new members, as Vinnie Hacker joined the collective in January 2021.

Yet, fans believe they need to up their game again. When the Hype House celebrated its year anniversary on Instagram on December 19, most of the top comments were from those saying they miss the “old Hype House.” With the Sway house threatening to steal all the hype, this house might need to try harder.