Kevin “Papaplatte” Teller (26) is one of the biggest streamers on German Twitch and has been streaming for 10 years. However, a current phenomenon is bothering him: the Just Chatting category has taken over.
What bothers Papaplatte on Twitch? In a recent stream, Papaplatte spoke about how Reactions and the “Just Chatting” category on Twitch have taken over. The streamer does not exclude himself in this regard, as he would also regularly show this content.
Papaplatte emphasizes that he does not want to criticize his streaming colleagues: they are indeed good content and yes, that is what people want to see. In his opinion, however, the ratio between Just Chatting and gaming content is currently unbalanced.
Papaplatte says he has to force himself to play games
What is the problem with Just Chatting? The category originated in late 2018 from the IRL category and has been consistently the most-watched “game” on Twitch since 2020, even though it is occasionally displaced by current releases and events.
The chatting category allows streamers to interact with their viewers without having to play games. Since many fans are interested in being close to their favorite Twitch streamers, the category is very popular. Some streamers are almost exclusively in Just Chatting, while others start their streams with it before switching to a game.
However, many viewers see Just Chatting as a departure from the gaming focus that Twitch originally had. In particular, reaction streams that fall under this category are often criticized for being perceived as “lazy” and streamers enriching themselves on the content of others.
Why do streamers show Just Chatting? There are certainly various reasons for the popularity of the category among Twitch streamers. According to Papaplatte, many content creators in his environment are downright afraid to leave the category: because then they would immediately lose viewers. Hardly anyone would be interested in gaming anymore.
The streamer regrets this, although he says he can understand it, especially for smaller streamers: “If you’re dropping from 3,000 to 1,000 instead of from 19,000 to 15,000, [then] it suddenly matters whether you can pay your rent.”
We have embedded a recap of the stream for you here:
For Papaplatte, there is no proper explanation for the phenomenon. He rejects the comment of a viewer that simply no good games have been released for a long time by referring to the recently released Soulslike Lies of P.
However, the Twitch streamer admits that it would also cost him effort to leave the “Just Chatting” category, even though he actually feels like playing games more. He has to force himself a little, says Papaplatte.
What do the “Just Chatting” streamers think? Still in the stream, Papaplatte receives a call from the friendly streamer Stegi, who is actually known for Minecraft. However, in the last 30 days, he has predominantly been in Just Chatting. Stegi’s statistics on the analysis site TwitchTracker had actually prompted Papaplatte to bring up the topic.
The streamer denies that he shows Just Chatting only “for the numbers”; he simply enjoys it the most. However, Papaplatte counters: Maybe he only enjoys it because it is the most successful.
Not all streamers, however, benefit from Just Chatting. MontanaBlack, the former number 1 in German Twitch, has lost almost half of his viewers since shifting his focus away from gaming: German Twitch streamer MontanaBlack loses 43% of his viewers in 180 days
