Bad press for Twitch
Until October last year, the outlook appeared rosy for Amazon-owned streaming platform Twitch. Boasting around 140 million active users, it was dominating the streaming space and capitalizing on an ever-growing army of high-profile content creators.
the platforms have battled for users and partnerships with the most famous streamers
Fast forward to this year, however, and Twitch is in a much different position. Its ban on unregulated casino gaming content last year prompted Stake to create its own platform, Kick. That sparked a marketing war in which the platforms have battled for users and partnerships with the most famous streamers.
Trainwreck, Roshtein, Xposed, and Adin Ross have all already shifted to Kick, and Twitch has just made the situation a whole lot worse. The site has announced new rules that have come under intense scrutiny, prompting some of its biggest names to voice their discontent and others to leave the site altogether.
Amid the chaos, even Elon Musk has thrown his hat into the ring.
Streamers speak up
On Tuesday, Twitch announced rules that would leave a sour taste in the mouth of many. The guidelines restricted the type of ads used by streamers on the platform, substantially reducing the income they could generate. At the same time, they also banned its creators from streaming elsewhere, such as on Kick and YouTube.
for many, the damage was already done
A severe backlash from content creators prompted Twitch to go back on these new rules, but for many, the damage was already done. Mr Beast, one of YouTube’s biggest stars, had this to say on Twitter following the announcement:
Meanwhile, Asmongold, a Twitch streamer with 3.4 million followers, urged new streamers to “pick Kick” over Twitch. Asmongold didn’t elaborate on his opinion but admitted that he would choose Kick if he was in a position to do so. In the past, the streamer has praised Kick due to its more favorable revenue split.
In response to the ban on multi-platform streaming, Ninja, who has a staggering 18.5 million Twitch followers, implied that it would make the decision to leave Twitch easy:
The last straw
Even though Twitch has tried to rectify the issue by retracting its new rules, the announcement has prompted some streamers to leave the platform regardless. Pro esports gamer Errah was one such creator to leave the platform, announcing his move to Kick on Twitter:
CasinoDadddy also indicated via Twitter that it might leave Twitch to stream on other platforms if it kept its anti-multi-platform policy:
Speaking with the BBC this week, UK streamer Stallion said the update had given him the push he needed to get off the platform. He said: “This has been something that’s been in my mind for the last two years… the problem with Twitch is it has next to no discoverability – it’s one of those platforms where if you’re not already at the top, you’re not going to be.”
Trainwreck has consistently pushed Kick as the optimum platform
In contrast, Trainwreck has consistently pushed Kick as the optimum platform for small to mid-sized content creators. Posting to Twitter on Wednesday, the Arizona-born streamer and part Kick owner took aim at Twitch once more:
Musk weighs in
As if things weren’t bad enough for Twitch this week, now billionaire Twitter owner Elon Musk has thrown his hat into the ring. Musk has often affirmed that he aims to create a more broadcasting-friendly experience on Twitter, already changing Twitter spaces and video upload length rules to permit this.
Following the announcement of Twitch’s new rules, Musk responded to a post calling for “Twitter streaming for gamers.” The billionaire indicated that this is something he hopes to work on:
In a further Tweet explaining what his platform would provide for streamers, Musk said it would “provide email addresses of subscribers (who opt in) to content creators, so that creators are able to leave this platform easily & take their subscribers with them if they want.”