Sadly, I would suspect that many of those added viewers are watching with the thought: "Goody, a new chance for me to have some fun writing nasty comments about some stranger doing something or other, snicker snicker!" It being figure skating is immaterial to them. It just gives them another random target. The "popularity" for them lies in competing with other under-a-rock lowlife forms in their comments.I saw someone suggesting on the figure skating Reddit page that having the live chat open increases viewing numbers/interaction which in turn boosts the popularity of the videos.
I used to compete in quite a few different activities, long before such performances were being recorded for public viewing or listening. Judges in some fields would give written comments, and my teacher or coach (when did we stop calling skating teachers "pros" and adopt the term "coaches"?) would read them. I never bothered. I wouldn't nowadays either, being one of those competitors whose own opinion of myself mattered more than those of others. If I was pleased with what I'd done, that was good. If I wasn't, it didn't matter even if I'd won. Just a personal quirk. But I knew kids who really cared what others thought, and would have been devastated if they'd read such comments about themselves. In general I don't agree with my contemporaries who insist "things were better in our day", but in this case, they're right.