Twitch No Longer Making Big Deals With Streamers Following Kick Rivalry

Twitch is moving away from making big deals with streamers. Over the last few years, we have seen a massive rise in streaming. It has become easier than ever to broadcast what you're doing so long as you have a phone or even just something to play video games on. Xbox and PlayStation both have dedicated Twitch apps that allow you to broadcast to their platform with ease. Creators with larger followings have used the platforms to do things like host elaborate events and make large scale productions, giving the platform even more variety than people who play video games or react to content online. It has also allowed these creators the chance to secure massive, financially lucrative deals with platforms like Twitch and YouTube as well.

Both Twitch and YouTube have been competing with each other for years in a sort of streamer arms race. Ludwig ended up leaving Twitch to go to YouTube after getting a juicy offer from the platform. TimTheTatman also made the jump, allowing him to be able to play with Dr Disrespect again who was banned from Twitch. Now, this year has seen the rise of Kick which has made major deals with the likes of Nickmercs and xQc while still allowing them the opportunity to stream on Twitch from time to time. As these contracts become bigger and bigger, Twitch is realizing it is unsustainable and is going to be leaving them behind. Twitch CEO Dan Clancy told Bloomberg (via Dexerto) that these deals "created this bidding war, and I don't think that's a sustainable business." While some creators have these deals in place still, they plan to "significantly" reduce them with a plan of instating standard terms with some exceptions for a few massive names.

Bloomberg also reported that sources claimed YouTube plans to do something similar. Whether or not Kick will swoop in to try and secure more people looking for big payouts now remains to be seen. Either way, it's a pretty surprising move given YouTube is backed by Google and Twitch is backed by Amazon and they're two of some of the biggest platforms on the internet.