Twitch
Twitch
Dream finally reveals his face to Minecraft community
Olivia Richman
The Dream face reveal has come sooner than fans originally thought. Dream has been teasing a possible face reveal for the past year, even showing his face to a handful of streamers the past few days. With cryptic tweet after cryptic tweet, fans were starting to feel that the face reveal was coming soon. But when? After Dream tweeted on October 1 that he was going to reveal his face, …
Twitch
Amouranth lashes out at Twitter, claims censorship
Olivia Richman
Kaitlyn “Amouranth” Siragusa is no stranger to social media. She has millions of followers all over each platform and rakes in $150K a month from her adoring fans on OnlyFans. But Amouranth has also recently become frustrated with Twitter for censoring tweets. Amouranth took issue with the fact that Twitter will censor content for being inappropriate, explaining that certain creators were getting banned and suspended. https://twitter.com/wildkait/status/1575670053038862338?s=20&t=5UBweNKsU-TItqg-XzXNdg A social media user …
Twitch
Pokimane reacts to Try Guys scandal, calls Ned Fulmer “selfish”
Olivia Richman
The Try Guys drama has been taking the internet by storm, with Ned Fulmer’s cheating scandal overshadowing the ongoing issues over on Twitch. Imane “Pokimane” Anys has decided to talk about the issue on her own live broadcast, calling former Try Guy Ned Fulmer “selfish.” After weeks of fan speculation, including images captured of Fulmer and the other woman at events around Los Angeles, the Try Guys officially announced on …
Twitch
Will xQc be able to attend both Juiced and Twitch Rivals today?
Olivia Richman
Felix “xQc” Lengyel is the star of the live show Juiced, powered by Ludwig’s new creative agency Offbrand. But a double-booking has raised questions about xQc’s availability for the highly-anticipated show. Streamer Ludwig recently revealed the Offbrand creative agency, which is aimed at helping content creators produce larger than life events, tournaments, and series. To celebrate the new endeavor, Offbrand announced a game show called Juiced, starring its first-ever client …
Twitch
xQc doubles down on Twitch gambling, “never cared it was wrong”
Olivia Richman
As Twitch plans to prohibit gambling, Felix “xQc” Lengyel has made it known he’s not sorry for having been the main streamer driving the popularity of the controversial category. As big-name streamers started coming forward to condemn Twitch for supporting gambling, even contemplating a strike, the streaming platform finally cracked. It announced last week that it would no longer allow gambling on unlicensed sites, which was seen as a big …
Twitch
Maya Higa makes final CrazySlick statement, to go offline
Olivia Richman
The drama surrounding Matthew “Mizkif” Rinaudo and Maya Higa hasn’t slowed down, causing Maya to announce an indefinite break from social media. After Adriannah Lee accused CrazySlick of groping her at a party while she was blacked out, Tyler “Trainwreck” Niknam informed the streaming community that Mizkif and Maya had allegedly attempted to cover up the sexual assault due to their friendship with CrazySlick. Maya expressed that she wished she …
Twitch
Cenat is now second most-subbed streamer on Twitch, beating xQc
Olivia Richman
Streamer Kai Cenat has reached another milestone, this time beating Felix “xQc” Lengyel to take the spot of second most-subbed streamer on Twitch. Cenat has exploded on Twitch recently. He first made headlines in August after reaching 60,000 subscribers. This shocked a lot of people who felt they had never even heard of the content creator before this. But this was due to two reasons. The first was Cenat started …
Twitch
Trainwreck blasts “corrupt” Pokimane, shoots down collabs
Olivia Richman
Imane “Pokimane” Anys often comes off as a wholesome content creator but Tyler “Trainwreck” Niknam thinks there’s a different side to her that people should know. In a Discord call streamed on Twitch, Trainwreck accused Pokimane of being one of the most “corrupt” figures on Twitch. While speaking with to Asmongold, Mitch Jones, Felix “xQc” Lengyel, and Matthew “Mizkif” Rinaudo, Trainwreck discussed how he’s been treated by other prominent streamers. …
Alinity responds to H3H3, Hasan drama over Trainwreck allegations
Olivia Richman
Twitch
Natalia “Alinity Divine” Mogollon has asked to be alone after drama erupted over leaked screenshots of Tyler “Trainwreck” Niknam harassing her a few years ago. Alinity accused Trainwreck of threatening her in 2018, claiming it was the reason she won’t stream with him anymore. Trainwreck allegedly told Alinity he would rape her in a Twitch chat, leading Alinity to say to her viewers that it’s “not cool” and she never …
Pokimane and Corinna Kopf clash over Twitch gambling ban
Olivia Richman
Twitch
Imane “Pokimane” Anys has responded to allegations from Corinna Kopf that she promoted gambling in the past. The Twitch community is full of drama at the moment due to ongoing concerns over the ever-growing gambling category. Pokimane and other big content creators recently discussed a possible strike in an attempt to get Twitch to take action, something it later did on Twitter. Pokimane has been very outspokenly against gambling streams, …
Did Adam Levine flirt with Amouranth on OnlyFans?
Olivia Richman
Twitch
Maroon 5 lead singer Adam Levine has been the topic of tabloids everywhere after multiple women came forward with inappropriate DMs from the married father. This now allegedly includes Twitch star Kaitlyn “Amouranth” Siragusa as well, according to the popular adult content creator. Levine first entered headlines when he was exposed for having an affair with OnlyFans model Sumner Stroh, even asking the influencer if he could name his next …
Maya responds to accusations of covering up sexual assault
Fariha Bhatti
Twitch
Twitch Streamer Maya Higa has responded to Adrianah Lee and Trainwreck’s accusations of a sexual assault cover-up in 2020. The ItsSliker gambling scam has snowballed into a whole other controversy involving former partners Maya and Mizkif. The feud began when Zack “Asmongold,” among others, demanded that gambling be banned from Twitch in the light of the recent ItsSliker scam. Trainwreck responded that his friends, including Mizkif, were using the situation …
Twitch cracks down on gambling streams, bans unlicensed sites
Olivia Richman
Twitch
Twitch has finally responded to ongoing backlash regarding the ever-growing gambling category on the streaming platform. On Twitter, Twitch announced that gambling streams will be prohibited starting October 18. Streams with slots, roulette, and dice games on sites that aren’t licensed in the United States are not allowed on the site any longer. This includes Rollbit, Duelbits, Roobet, and Stake, among others Twitch will identify as time goes on. Sports …
xQc and Ludwig plan to pay back ItsSliker’s gambling debts
Olivia Richman
Twitch
A handful of prominent streamers claim they were scammed by ItsSliker, who recently admitted to having a gambling addiction. Now, Ludwig Ahgren and Felix “xQc” Lengyel have stated that they want to repay anyone who has lost money to ItsSliker, which has been met with frustration from some in the streaming community. ItsSliker currently owes around $300,000 to a variety of streamers and fans, including an alleged $100,000 to Tyler …
ItsSliker admits to scamming streamers for gambling money
Olivia Richman
Twitch
A Twitch streamer stated that he was scamming his followers to pay off his gambling debts. Multiple people in the streaming community, both content creators and viewers, have come forward to accuse ItsSliker of scamming them out of thousands of dollars. Even big names like Felix “xQc” Lengyell and Tyler “Trainwreck” Niknam have openly admitted to getting messages from ItsSliker asking for money with empty promises to pay them back. …
Why Adept called out xQc in emotional stream after breakup
Olivia Richman
Twitch
Felix “xQc” Lengyel and Sam “Adeptthebest” publicly announced their split on Sept. 16, with xQc stating it was the reason behind him ditching Shitcamp. Adept pushed back against xQc’s discussion of the matter. According to xQc, he felt forced to break things off with Adept since she didn’t get along with his brother. He had to choose between family and Adept, he claimed. Adept has now come forward to claim …
Who is TinaKitten, from Tetris to OfflineTV and Friends?
Olivia Richman
Twitch
Christina “Tina” Kenyon, also known by the name TinaKitten, rose in popularity when she played Among Us with members of Offline TV. But who is TinaKitten and how did she grow so quickly on Twitch? TinaKitten currently has 1.2 million followers on Twitch, where she plays a variety of games ranging from Valorant to Stray. She is also very talented at Tetris but it was her Among Us streams that …
“It was wrong,” Sodapoppin speaks on xQc ditching Shitcamp
Olivia Richman
Twitch
Thomas “Sodapoppin” Morris has decided to speak on Felix “xQc” Lengyel’s decision to skip Shitcamp at the last minute. xQc was at the center of a controversy in the streaming community when he ditched QTCinderella’s Shitcamp event when he heard Sodapoppin wasn’t going. He later clarified that he had some family issues going on, but his initial reasoning and the last-minute decision had many streamers perplexed. Sodapoppin himself has decided …
Who is Twitch star Alanzoka and what has made him so popular?
Olivia Richman
Twitch
If you’re not from Brazil, you may not be familiar with Alan “Alanzoka” Ferreira but he is actually one of the most popular streamers on Twitch. While Alanzoka is one of the most-watched Brazilian streamers on the platform, he is becoming more and more prominent outside of the country as well. Alanzoka joined YouTube in 2011, where he currently has reached over 7 million subscribers. He started growing when he …
“I was so addicted” PewDiePie talks why he didn’t quit YouTube
Olivia Richman
Twitch
Iconic YouTuber Felix “PewDiePie” Kjellberg has apparently been retired for two years but he still posts to his YouTube channel, which has left some fans confused about the state of his career. PewDiePie is a legend in the YouTuber world for being the first single-user channel to reach over 111 million subscribers. After finding so much success as a YouTuber, PewDiePie has gone on to move to Japan with his …
Twitch is the largest of all the major livestreaming platforms in and around the gaming world, but it wasn’t always that way. Th platform’s history dates back over many years and to a form of the service that had little to do with gaming. So how did it arrive to the top of the gaming marketplace from those humble beginnings?
Twitch transcends justin.tv, is acquired by Amazon
Twitch was originally born out of justin.tv, an early livestreaming website that focus more on general lifestyle streaming than on any one particular niche, gaming included. justin.tv, named after co-founder Justin Kan, was launched in 2007 and went on to feature multiple categories of streaming options. Among these was gaming, a category which quickly outpaced the growth of platform’s other categories.
Responding to this growth, justin.tv spun out its gaming section in 2011 into a new service called Twitch.tv, and that is the true starting point of Twitch as it exists today.
It would still be some time before Twitch would resemble its modern-day operation. The biggest move towards that progression came in 2014, when the streaming platform was purchased for just shy of $1 billion in cash by services and technology giant Amazon. That move transitioned the company being a private operation largely funded by private investment and internal revenues to one of many arms of one of the world’s largest and richest companies.
Twitch dominates gaming livestreaming
The growth of Twitch largely coincided with the growth of livestreaming the world over, and gaming was a key driver of that growth as audiences flocked in droves to watch charismatic personalities play through their favorite games both new and old. Some of those personalities would become so popular that they would rival mainstream celebrities in notoriety with younger audiences, from Tyler “Ninja” Blevins to Imane “Pokimane” Anys.
Some of those personalities would be poached by rival streaming platforms that cropped up in response to the runaway popularity of Twitch. Microsoft’s Mixer and YouTube’s YouTube Gaming both signed streamers with massive audiences to exclusive streaming deals via big-money contracts. But Twitch proved resilient; no matter how popular the streamers were when they were signed away, someone else seemed prime to fill their spot. Twitch had become more than just a vehicle through which popular personalities could stream. It was itself a destination for its audience.
Twitch does still continue to compete with rival platforms. Kick is perhaps its biggest competition today, offering generous
subscription revenue splits
in an effort to sway streamers away from Twitch. But Amazon’s platform remains the most popular.
Twitch finds controversy over moderation, censorship
Given the nature of the Twitch platform, one that is entirely reliant on user-generated content, it should come as no surprise that moderation and censorship have long been hot topics of conversation. Consistency, or lack thereof, is often cited as Twitch’s biggest issue as its moderation team struggles to pass judgments across a litany of streamers producing a great variety of content.
Those content types have only grown over time. While Twitch found massive popularity by moving away from the greater variety of justin.tv and focusing specifically on gaming, the platform has ironically pushed back into other categories in more recent years, attempting to find additional growth by emphasizing the streaming of art, music, and its popular “just chatting” content that sees streamers talking directly to their audience without any particular activity driving their engagement.
But while Twitch is now a lightning rod for controversy and discussion given its great size and breadth, that controversy has shown no real risk to lessening its grip on the livestreaming industry. Twitch has become the dominant name in its category, and with its biggest streamers continuing to
set new records, all signs point to that dominance continuing for the foreseeable future.
