The Austrian jessirocks is one of the biggest German-speaking streamers for Diablo 4. Now he is being unfaithful to the ARPG – the new flame? Path of Exile 2.
What kind of streamer is he? The Austrian jessirocks specializes in hack and slays. He streamed Diablo 3 for almost 4,500 hours on Twitch, and for Diablo 4, it’s another 1,500 hours – in Path of Exile, the streamer has streamed “only” 830 hours.
With the release of Diablo 4, jessirocks rose to the top of German Twitch, and in 2024 he remained almost constantly the most-watched streamer for Blizzard’s ARPG (via SullyGnome). However, in November he barely showed the game anymore – now he announces his switch to the competition.
Streamer announces switch to Path of Exile 2
This is what the streamer says: In a video from December 4, 2024, jessirocks says: “The rumors are true – I was poached and bought by Path of Exile.” It’s simply time to let his “contract” with Blizzard expire.
Just a few moments later, however, jessirocks clarifies the joke: As most viewers can probably guess, the announcement is not entirely accurate.
While the video is thoroughly humorous, there is genuine discontent from some viewers. Some accuse the streamer in the YouTube comments of being a “fair-weather fan.”
The criticism does not seem to come from people who have a problem with Path of Exile, but rather from those who view Diablo 4 critically. They feel jessirocks has praised Blizzard’s ARPG too positively in the past and is now just wanting to ride the hype around Path of Exile.
Overall, however, the announcement is received positively. On one hand, by people who no longer want to play Diablo 4 and are looking forward to Path of Exile, and on the other by those who are simply happy for the streamer and enjoy watching him regardless of the game.
Fans particularly praise that jessirocks is transparent and advocates for smaller streamers. He encouraged viewers to keep the paid subscriptions that are necessary to receive the coolest Twitch drops at release with smaller streamers who have been showcasing Path of Exile for a long time.
Competition invigorates business
Is this unusual? Not really, it’s quite normal for streamers to at least take a look at the release of a new game in their preferred genre. By the start of Season 7 in January, many will likely return to Diablo 4.
From this point on, experience shows that switching between games occurs depending on where there are exciting new contents. jessirocks admits that Diablo 4 is currently in a “downtime,” as there are no new contents, and some quality features are also still pending. Blizzard will definitely have that fixed in half a year.
In a stream about Path of Exile, the streamer emphasized a week earlier that despite everything, Diablo 4 is still a great game. Nonetheless, he praises that with Path of Exile 2 a new competitor is entering the field that could “give Blizzard a little wake-up call.”
Finally, PoE is no longer a niche game developed by “5 guys in a basement,” but has a powerful company like Tencent backing it and the necessary funding.
Even fans of the ARPG seem to believe that a little more competition could do the market leader good. Some think Blizzard has become too cocky: Manager at Blizzard thinks Diablo is so great that the genre should be named after it, receives a lot of backlash
