Related Articles
The streaming platform said in a blog post that the leak was caused by an error in a Twitch server configuration change, which was then accessed by a malicious third party.
Streamers, this leak exacerbates existing tensions over pay transparency in streaming and safety on Twitch.
These leaks follow a rocky few months for the Amazon-owned platform, which as of earlier this year of live video game streaming viewership, remaining dominant over platforms like Facebook Gaming and YouTube Gaming. After marginalized creators were repeatedly targeted by hateful bot attacks, some streamers rallied the community to boycott the platform on September. Which caused the platform’s peak concurrent viewership to drop 1 million viewers below average. Though Twitch has added new safety features since, tensions remain high in the community.
I think it was only a matter of time that something like this would happen,” said Lucia Everblack, a transgender streamer who was one of the organizers. It’s been kind of apparent that safety and security was never at the forefront of what Twitch was doing to begin with.
The leak included data like source code, proprietary software development kits (SDKs) and an unreleased Steam competitor from Amazon Game Studios. But Everblack, a software engineer by day, thinks that the leak of creator payout data only affirms her feeling that Twitch’s priority is to cater to the streamers that bring in the most money.
They’re basing all of their features solely on that, but the rest of the platform can’t really grow,” she told TechCrunch. “It’s just such a huge deterrent for anyone else, especially those who are BIPOC, LGBTQI+ or disabled.
Scott Hellyer, a Twitch Partner who has streamed as tehMorag for over nine years, also feels that Twitch prioritizes its top-earning users. Across Twitch as a whole, discovery has always been an issue.
YouTube has a really cool algorithm, they help find a way to get you connected with people that want to watch your content, and on Twitch, they’ve been trying, but it doesn’t feel like they’re trying enough. Now, people are like, ‘Oh, no wonder they don’t want to improve discovery, they just shove people into the top streams, because they’re already making the money that they need for Twitch.’ It’s a good return on investment, which is understandable.
Per the leak, the majority of the top streamers are white men, reflecting a larger lack of diversity in the gaming industry.
The highest paid woman streamer on the list, Pokimane, is only 39th. But more discoverability features could help Twitch amplify more diverse creators. Everblack and other marginalized streamers pushed for Twitch to add identity-based tags to streams so that users could seek out diverse creators to support. Twitch added these tags in May, and before.
Some users worry that these tags helped bad actors find targets for hate raids, but Everblack said that she’s seen huge growth from the tags. In the meantime, it’s on Twitch to protect these users from the potential for targeted attacks, which so far, it has done by adding phone-The Inner cage 2021 chat features.
But even once a streamer builds an audience, it’s a challenge to make substantial income on Twitch, despite what the top earners might receive. When a streamer gets popular enough, they might apply to join the Twitch Partner program, which offers creators more tools and monetization options. But multiple streamers TechCrunch spoke to consider it an open Marilyn ha gli occhi neri 2021 that not all Twitch Partners have Lo sono babbo natale 2021, Insider Medium 2021 that “Partners receive a split on subscription revenues depending on how popular they are.
Though it’s standard for Twitch Partners to split their subscription earnings Twitch, some streamers claim that nowadays, big-name creators have managed to negotiate more beneficial payouts, which matches up-and-coming YouTube Gaming’s default payout. Some popular Una preghiera per giuda 2021 streamers like CouRage, DrLupo, and Valkyrae have even left Twitch to take exclusive deals with YouTube.
