Félix “xQc” Lengyel and Kai Cenat are the biggest streamers in English-speaking Twitch. Tens of thousands of viewers regularly watch them. To cater to these masses, they need moderators who maintain order in the chat or take on other tasks. However, the streamers do not want to pay their mods.
Who are the streamers?
- The Franco-Canadian xQc is considered the largest streamer in the English-speaking world. Over 11.3 million people follow the former Overwatch professional on Twitch, and last year he averaged nearly 75,000 viewers while playing shooters, gambling, or reacting to content on social media (via sullygnome).
- Kai Cenat is currently the shooting star of Twitch. He has only been streaming since January 2021 and surpassed xQc already in the most paid subscriptions on the platform. While he had “only” 11,000 viewers on average last year, his streams reached an average of 65,000 viewers in October 2022 (via sullygnome).
Who were the streamers that paved the way for people like xQc and Kai Cenat? You can find out in our video.
Why pay when there are volunteers?
Why doesn’t Kai Cenat pay his mods? The 20-year-old sparked a discussion on the topic on October 23 when he admitted in a stream that he does not pay his mods (via reddit.com). He later brought it up again in a stream with xQc.
Kai Cenat explained that his mods asked him to ask xQc if he pays his mods. When xQc denied this, Kai Cenat referred to his own mods as “stupid idiots” and stated: “You are doing this crap for free voluntarily.”
Apparently, Kai Cenat sees no need to pay his mods as long as there are enough volunteers eager to take on the job.
xQc wants mods with passion
What did xQc reply? xQc cited “creative reasons” why he does not pay his mods. He admits, however, that it would not be a financial setback for him to compensate the mods. Mostly, he seems to fear that payment could change the dynamics and make everything feel strange.
I don’t want it to get weird. What if they don’t like my channel anymore? They don’t like moderating, they don’t like me, but they do it for the money? Then it gets kind of strange because I’m trying to create something, but then they hate it and that contradicts the essence of it all.
xQc
Clearly, xQc wants passionate viewers as mods who genuinely support his channel and content. Moreover, it’s not that much work for an individual if there are many mods, according to the streamer.
Viewers have mixed opinions
What do the viewers say? Just like the initial statement from Kai Cenat, the joint clip with xQc spread on reddit and is being discussed there. However, sympathy for the unpaid mods is limited.
While some commentators believe that the work of mods should be compensated, they apparently cannot understand why they volunteer for the effort. Only when mods refuse to provide their services for free would they be able to expect payment.
However, some point out that streamers do depend on their mods. They ensure that the streamers don’t get in trouble with Twitch for things they see or messages that appear in the chat.
Without mods, streamers would have long been banned, according to a comment.
It is also interesting to question when exactly a service deserves to be paid. Some reddit users explain that many mods do not do much, while others have a lot of responsibility. They should only be paid when they take on additional tasks.
The perception of mod activities seems to differ from other work around the streamers. For instance, xQc is said to share advertising revenue with his video editor. Why the latter should not do the job out of passion is unknown.
That it can be done differently is shown by the example of some larger streamers who actually pay their mods, including YouTuber Ludwig Ahgren. During his record Subathon in 2021, Ludwig is said to have paid his mods up to $5,000 daily (via This Online World).
Why do streamers need mods? Mods are short for moderators. They manage a streamer’s chat and remove unwanted content and spam. While smaller channels may get by without mods, Twitch recommends one mod per 600 viewers for larger streamers (via twitch).
According to an analysis from July 2022, up to 700 messages per minute are said to appear in xQc’s chat (via streamcharts). At this speed, it is extremely difficult for a streamer to keep an eye on their chat themselves.
Mods can also take additional work off the streamers’ hands. For example, they change the category and stream title when the streamer switches games, host polls, or help organize events or giveaways.
What do they get for it? As a reward, there’s a fancy green sword symbol that appears in the chat and the honor of working for the favorite streamer.
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