Last June, as a 2002 New York magazine feature had reemerged in which an 11-year-old Zohran Mamdani said he was hoping to receive FIFA 2003 and SimCity 3000 as holiday gifts, I posed a tantalizing question: If then-mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani had been a preteen SimCity sicko, did that mean he could become New York City's first gamer mayor?
We are now almost six months into Mamdani's term as the 112th mayor of New York City following his November 2025 election victory over political dynast Andrew Cuomo, and it turns out: No. No, he isn't. During his inaugural Twitch stream this week (via Kotaku), Mamdani proved as much by demonstrating that he has essentially no idea what Minecraft is.
