Streamer Félix “xQc” Lengyel was, according to a leak, the absolute top earner on Twitch and is considered the highest-paid gaming streamer. But that came at a price. As he now says, Twitch forced him to participate in a therapy session in 2020 to be able to remain on the platform.
How do we know that xQc was the top earner on Twitch?
- In 2021, hackers stole 125 GB of data from Twitch, including the earnings of streamers. Twitch confirmed this attack.
- The hacker released the data, revealing that streamer xQc earned $648,000 in September 2021. This was by far the highest amount anyone received directly from Twitch at the time – other top earners like summit1g didn’t even reach half of that.
- xQc solidified his reputation as the top earner in the industry when he signed a non-exclusive contract with Kick in June 2023, reportedly guaranteeing him $100 million. No contract before or after has ever been this high. A few months later, Twitch announced: The era of “big deals” is over.
Here’s what he says now: xQc was in a conversation with the banned Twitch streamer Adin Ross. He asked what he needed to do to be allowed to stream on Twitch again – maybe a therapy session?
But even though Ross meant it as a joke, xQc confirmed: Twitch actually forced him to complete a therapy session.
xQc had to attend “Streamer Therapy”
What does he say about the therapy? He says, it was due to the “Gorilla Incident” at the time. xQc had clicked on a link in 2020, leading to a moment in his stream where two monkeys were seen mating. The ban lasted 24 hours at that time.
Previously, xQc had been banned several times for clicking on links with sexual connotations without thinking.
The therapy consisted of a conversation with a Twitch employee.
How did that go? xQc already reported on the therapy in 2021. He said the session lasted about 90 minutes. He was asked things like:
- “Do you know why you received the ban?”
- “Why is it bad to do Thing X, which is why you were banned?”
Are there similar incidents known? In 2020, 16-year-old Fortnite pro Dubs was banned, because he made a racist outburst. Sensitivity training was mandated by his organization.
The German streamer MontanaBlack once stated that he received a harsh warning from Twitch after he dramatically reenacted a sexual act on the platform. He was threatened, as the biggest German streamer, with being banned from Twitch if it happened again.
This is something that MontanaBlack has never fully forgiven Twitch for. Since that ban, he views Twitch differently, as he mentioned in 2023:
Kick hires scandalous streamers for a lot of money – MontanaBlack says what he wants to leave Twitch
