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Ever since the OGs of livestreaming, Shroud and Ninja, switched over to Twitch from Mixer, it has been the go-to platform for all streamers. The Amazon-owned platform has been facing tough times since some of its most popular faces have dropped out in favor of YouTube or Facebook Gaming.
Read on to find out what is prompting streamers to jump ship and what this means for the platform.
5 reasons streamers are leaving Twitch to join rivals include DMCA strikes, hate raids and more
1) DMCA strikes
DMCA, or the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, is the legal basis for all copyright strikes made by organizations and platforms against creators. The frequency of these bans has greatly increased and DMCA strikes are also responsible for giants like DrDisRespect permanently losing their entire Twitch account.
This is definitely a factor prompting creators to move to other platforms that do not have similar restrictions. Streamers can largely stream most of the content on YouTube when they are streaming on the same platform, and Facebook has a much lighter DMCA protocol overall.
2) Hate raids
Fans have often requested measures to make Twitch more inclusive of diverse cultures, but some of their additions are proving counterproductive. The feature to add tags to one's stream was added for creators to identify parts of themselves like race, sexuality, pronouns, etc. for their viewers but this resulted in trolls targeting streamers.
The Black Hokage, an African-American streamer, was one of the most recent movers to YouTube gaming after being subjected to many hate raids for identifying his race on Twitch over the past year.
3) Wider viewership
While Twitch is the go-to platform for livestreaming, its overall user base is very narrow when compared to Facebook or YouTube. According to a Washington Post article on Septermber 14, 2021, the other two platforms then boasted 2-3 billion unique users every month in comparison to Twitch's 140 million.
A big reason for this is that a large majority of Twitch's viewership is concentrated between North America and Europe, while the other two rake in giant numbers from Asia and Africa as well.
What this means for streamers is that they will be catering to a wider audience when streaming on YouTube or Facebook Gaming rather than Twitch. This is particularly beneficial for streamers of minority ethnicities who can connect with a wider audience who they share a culture with or streamers who have not become very well-known yet.
4) First mover advantage
Many of the movers have said that joining a new platform meant that they would be the frontrunners on that platform going forward.
There are about 8 million streamers on Twitch out of which only a few define the platform. By shifting to relatively newer platforms, Facebook Gaming in particular, creators have the opportunity to make a name for themselves before the platform gets saturated at the top.
5) Lucrative contracts
Needless to say, a big factor behind the move of some of the biggest Twitch names to other platforms are the massive sums of money being offered to them to make the switch. In her interview with Twitch VTuber CodeMiko, 100 Thieves' co-owner Valkyrae explained:
“When I switched over obviously I signed a contract so I was like ‘Ok, this is for stability. I can do what I want and not have to worry about numbers and stuff, if I have one viewer I’ll be fine.”
The exact sum of money offered to creators is not public knowledge yet. This essentially means that streamers are able to make as much money as they do via Twitch donations as a baseline salary or lumpsum amount as part of the contracts they sign with these platforms.
The stability of income that such contracts provide is presumably the primary reason big names like DrLupo, TimTheTatman, Ludwig and Valkyrae have left Twitch.
Note: This article reflects the views of the author.
