The equation underlying Sophia “Djarii” White’s Twitch stream is really pretty simple. She loves video games, art, and makeup, so she combines those things to express herself, resulting in intricate paintings where her body is the canvas. White’s talent is immediately clear, and yet, she has courted no small amount of controversy for simply doing…
While it’s possible to split hairs all day over which metrics definitively determine whether someone is the top streamer on Twitch, there’s no denying that Michael “Shroud” Grzesiek is one of the platform’s biggest stars. Or, he was. Now he’s moving to Mixer. Grzesiek has a Twitch follower count of over seven million and a…
Last year during E3, streaming megastar Tyler “Ninja” Blevins took two days off from his regular schedule. A blip on the radar in the grand scheme of things. It cost him 40,000 paying subscribers. This seemed to issue a grim warning to other streamers: Take time off at your own peril. Recently, though, it’s begun…
Donald Trump got a Twitch channel, from which he’s currently livestreaming a rally in Minneapolis. This is how we live now. As of this writing, Trump’s channel has almost 9,000 followers, and about 8,700 are watching his rally in Minnesota. The chat is moving rapidly, but there are walls of “IMPEACH,” as well as a…
Today, an armed gunman in Halle, Germany attacked people outside of a synagogue on Yom Kippur, one of the holiest days on the Jewish calendar, killing two and injuring at least two others in the process. He livestreamed his attack on Twitch, during which he referred to himself as “Anon” (likely referencing 4chan or 8chan)…
Transgender nonprofit Trans Lifeline is running a streaming fundraiser this month. This week, in tandem with several events relevant to LGBTQ rights, the lineup will consist entirely of trans streamers. Trans Lifeline runs two programs: a crisis line serving and staffed by trans people and a program offering guidance and financial assistance for trans people…
These days, Twitch streaming is an avalanche that drowns potential viewers in a daily rush of new names and faces. No matter how much you watch Twitch, you’ll never be able to keep up with even a fraction of the tens of thousands of partners and their daily streams, which generally last multiple hours. As…
The sun is bright. Blinding, almost. It is late afternoon on the last day of TwitchCon, and I have been waiting in line for 40 minutes. I’m not in the convention center, but rather, about half a mile away, outside a San Diego pizza restaurant called Ciro’s. The line wraps around the building. Well over…
“You can ruffle your feathers at people. It’s fucking great. I love that game! Who plays Goose Game?” Blink 182 bassist and vocalist Mark Hoppus bellowed to a cheering crowd at last night’s TwitchCon party. The band headlined the party, which was open to all attendees and took place in a stadium in San Diego.…
Tucked away in the furthest back corner of TwitchCon, there’s a Blockbuster booth. Yes that Blockbuster: the mostly-defunct video rental store. What is this ode to entertainment’s now-distant past doing at a convention dedicated to the cutting edge of its present? Advertising an officially-licensed Blockbuster board game, it turns out. It’s a ‘90s-stolgia party game…
Twitch, like so many other platforms on the “free” internet, runs on ads. These ads are annoying as hell. They also represent a raw deal for the majority of streamers. Soon, however, both those things are going to change. As part of today’s TwitchCon opening ceremony, the company announced a slew of upcoming changes, including…
“There’s no reason why they shouldn’t have an accessibility tag, or an “a11y” tag—Twitter speak for accessibility. If Twitch is listening, please give us that tag. We’ve been asking for over a year now,” said streamer AccessibleGamer during TwitchCon’s “Streaming With Disabilities” panel. He added that most Twitch tags describe streams themselves—not streamers—but there are…
Twitchcon’s show floor is notably lacking in video games. This makes sense; game makers have far less to gain from being at a show where most people are here to see streamers, not play games. In previous years, that didn’t stop a fair number of video game companies from having presences. This year, however, it’s…
Earlier this week, Twitch suspended a streamer named Quqco for wearing a cosplay of Street Fighter heroine Chun-Li on stream, deeming her outfit “sexually suggestive.” This took Quqco—and many others—by surprise, given that the outfit was not overtly risqué. But this was not an isolated incident. In the past few days, Twitch has been cracking…
Popular Twitch streamer Turner “Tfue” Tenney seemingly used a racial slur while streaming Minecraft earlier this week. Twitch has yet to take action, but if it does, this will be Tfue’s third violation of Twitch’s policies, which is grounds for being permanently banned from the service. As reported by The Verge, the Minecraft clip isn’t…
In the wake of widespread outcry over yesterday’s changes to building, Fortnite developer Epic Games has done a 180 on its decision. A lot of Fortnite’s success comes from its building mechanic. Apex Legends and PUBG might also strand competitors in an inescapable death arena with tens of other people, but only Fortnite lets players…
After two years of anticipation, WoW Classic is finally live. Top streamers from every corner of Twitch are streaming it right now, resulting in an audience of over one million concurrent viewers—and some seriously congested starter areas. As of this writing, the slavering horde of Horde (and Alliance) fans topped out at 1.1 million people.…
During a Twitch stream earlier this week, popular leftist streamer Hasan Piker made a statement that would, by pretty much any measure, be considered incendiary. “America deserved 9/11, dude,” he said. “Fuck it, I’m saying it.” Today, Twitch suspended Piker for one week. Emotions had been running high in the leadup to the statement on…
Last week, Tyler “Ninja” Blevins, much like his namesake, crept out of the figurative building—flanked on all sides by fanfare, cascading grey-blue mountains of Red Bull, and ill-considered jokes. Soon, he made his presence known under a different roof: Mixer, Microsoft’s competitor to Twitch. Blevins has left behind a void. The question is, who will…
After multiple threats were sent to Twitch’s offices in San Francisco, California, the company has asked employees to work from home for the day. Police are investigating. Business Insider first reported on the situation earlier today. Twitch confirmed the publication’s report in an email to Kotaku “We were made aware of a threat against our…
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