Twitch
Twitch
Why did TimtheTatman and DrLupo leave Twitch for YouTube?
Steven Rondina
Many have been wondering why famous streamers Benjamin “DrLupo” Lupo and Timothy “TimTheTatman” Betar left Twitch for YouTube. It may ultimately have been a simpler choice than many assumed. Back in August, the duo announced that they were set to leave Twitch and move to YouTube Gaming after signing big-money deals with the video streaming platform. According to a report from the Washington Post, their move stems from the fact …
Twitch
Pokimane discusses her sexuality with fans on Twitch
Olivia Richman
Fans are once again wondering about Imane “Pokimane” Anys’ romantic relationships. Pokimane’s sexuality, relationship status, and even if she would date a fan are all questions that have constantly come up during Pokimane’s streams. Now, Pokimane has decided to address a fan wondering about her sexual orientation. During a recent Valorant stream, a viewer asked Pokimane what her sexuality was, stating that she didn’t have to answer if she wasn’t …
Twitch
Former RollPlay streamer Kaitlyn says itmeJP sent her porn
Olivia Richman
Former RollPlay member Kaitlyn is once again calling out StarCraft content creator John Paul “itmeJP” McDaniel for sending unsolicited pornography to her. In 2020, Kaitlyn took to Twitter to accuse itmeJP of assaulting and abusing her. At the time, Kaitlyn claimed that itmeJP had a cease and desist oder on her that would not allow her to discuss her experiences with RollPlay on Twitch. itmeJP responded with a long blog …
Twitch
Trainwrecks bashes Twitch streamers for gambling
Olivia Richman
Twitch streamer Tyler “Trainwrecks” Niknam has had enough of content creators who gamble and allegedly scam their audiences. In a since-deleted tweet, Trainwrecks called out gambling streamers earlier this week. He felt that an abundance of gambling streamers were actually scammers. “I don’t give a f— who comes after me or who puts me in their sights. If you win every day, you’re a fake and a fraud,” Trainwrecks said. …
Jake Paul claims Floyd Mayweather wanted to have him killed over hat
Steven Rondina
Twitch
The Jake Paul vs. Floyd Mayweather beef isn’t over. The YouTuber-turned-boxer appeared on the FULL SEND podcast on Wednesday to discuss a variety of topics related to combat sports. Among them was his scuffle with Mayweather earlier this year. Though Paul didn’t discuss it in depth and didn’t even seem certain himself, he stated that the 50-0 boxer was looking to arrange his death in the spring. “He was trying …
Pokimane explains why she’s scared of doing IRL streams
Olivia Richman
Twitch
Imane “Pokimane” Anys recently admitted that she’s not comfortable doing IRL streams. IRL (in real life) streams are when content creators live stream from different locations, showing their activities at a gym, store, beach, or any other public place. This has often led to a lot of drama, including Herschel “Dr Disrespect” Beahm being suspended from Twitch for streaming from a bathroom at E3, or streamer JoeyKaotyk facing racist comments …
Valkyrae breaks down crying on stream after Twitter drama
Olivia Richman
Twitch
A recent tweet caused so much drama for 100 Thieves co-owner and content creator Rachell “Valkyrae” Hofstetter that she was brought to crying during a recent live stream. Earlier this week, Valkyrae saw a tweet from a Thomas “Sykkuno” fan that said they didn’t want to see Valkyrae’s ex-boyfriend, Sonii, on stream again. Valkyrae responded that she was “canceling the stream.” According to Valkyrae, the opinion had hurt her so …
Pokimane extends Twitch break due to burnout
Olivia Richman
Twitch
Imane “Pokimane” Anys is taking another extended break from streaming on Twitch. Pokimane recently revealed that she was feeling burnout more than at any time in the past. This has led Pokimane to extend her break from the streaming platform. Pokimane was last seen on Twitch on August 22. At that time, the Valorant player told her fans that she was taking a much-needed break from her busy work life. …
xQc calls out Felicia Day over “wrong” tweet on streamers
Olivia Richman
Twitch
Felix “xQc” Lengyel was not afraid to speak up when he saw a tweet he didn’t agree with from author and actress Felicia Day. In a since-deleted tweet, Day accused the “most popular streamer” of using derogatory slurs towards women and people of color. xQc responded that Day was “wrong on all counts” and demanded that she show proof. Day responded that she “wasn’t even talking” about xQc and that …
Ludwig predicts many streamers will move from Twitch to YouTube
Olivia Richman
Twitch
Twitch streamer Ludwig Anders Ahgren made some interesting claims on his last episode of The Yard. Benjamin “DrLupo” Lupo and Timothy “TimTheTatman” Betar left for YouTube earlier this week. Then FPS veteran Nicholas “NICKMERCS” Kolcheff hinted at a big deal coming up. And now, during the latest episode of his podcast, Ludwig hinted that even more Twitch streamers would be leaving the streaming platform for exclusive contracts over on YouTube …
NICKMERCS hint at possible move from Twitch to YouTube Gaming
Olivia Richman
Twitch
More big-name streamers may be leaving Twitch soon. Earlier this week, Benjamin “DrLupo” Lupo and Timothy “TimTheTatman” Betar announced that they were leaving Twitch to stream exclusively on YouTube Gaming. They will be joining streaming stars Valkyrae, CouRage, and Dr Disrespect on Twitch’s biggest rival platform. And now it looks like Nick “NICKMERCS” Kolcheff may not be far behind. During a recent stream, NICKMERCS told fans that he had just …
Twitch-based NFT scam site shuts down after Mizkif interview
Steven Rondina
Twitch
A controversial Twitch NFT site has shut itself down. MyClips.tv became embroiled in an enormous controversy on Tuesday after an awkward interview between the owner of the site and streamer Matthew “Mizkif” Rinaudo. The owner of the site admitted to several glaring issues as well as some questionable business practices. While many are possibly too quick to label NFTs as a scam under any circumstances, the owner of MyClips did …
TimTheTatman joins DrLupo, CouRage on YouTube Gaming
Olivia Richman
Twitch
“I’m TimTheTatman and I have a huge announcement.” Those words led to the reveal that Tim “TimTheTatman” Betar is moving to YouTube Gaming. The variety streamer announced he was leaving Twitch on Wednesday, two days after Ben “DrLupo” Lupo also announced that he was leaving the platform for YouTube. In a video formally announcing the move, Jack “CouRage” Dunlop invited TimTheTatman to join him on YouTube. The popular streamer appeared …
Pokimane reveals her biggest obstacle in ranking up in Valorant as a woman
Fariha Bhatti
Valorant
Popular streamer Imane “Pokimane” Anys has opened up about the biggest obstacle in her way to becoming an Immortal in Valorant. Twitch streamer Pokimane is one of the prominent names in Valorant content creation. Despite her dedication to the ranked grind, the streamer has failed to hit the Radiant rank. It has a lot to do with the in-game harassment and bullying, Pokimane has revealed. https://twitter.com/imane/status/1431353998863446023 The problem of toxicity …
Trihex asks Twitch to address racist, homophobic hate raids
Olivia Richman
Twitch
If you’ve ever seen the TriHard emote on Twitch, you’ve seen streamer Mychal “Trihex” Jefferson’s face. The popular content creator has recently become the target of “hate raids,” causing Trihex to call on Twitch to take action. Over the past few weeks, hate raids have become more prevalent on Twitch. This is when an army of bots targets a specific streamer, spamming their chat with racist, homophobic, or sexist abuse. …
This is how much money Amouranth makes every month
Olivia Richman
Twitch
Content creator Kaitlyn “Amouranth” Siragusa recently revealed that she makes $1.3 million every month. The popular streamer broke down the exact details of her income, and the results have been surprising to many. Amouranth has been a controversial figure on Twitch due to her sexually explicit content and her consistent advertisement of her OnlyFans account on the streaming platform. She was one of the “hot tub meta” pioneers and has …
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.
Twitch
Twitch
Twitch
Twitch
