The Twitch streamer Lily “LilyPichu” Ki (30) is switching from Twitch to competitor YouTube Gaming after 10 years on the platform. This means Twitch is losing one of its few established gaming female streamers: The American had one of the 100 channels with the most followers on the platform and was one of the few successful women entertaining viewers with gaming.
This is LilyPichu on Twitch:
- The 30-year-old American has roots in South Korea. With 2.5 million followers, she owns one of the top 100 channels on Twitch. She is one of the few successful women on Twitch who show a lot of gaming. Other women are successful on Twitch with chatting formats, as a cosplayer, or DJ.
- The streamer LilyPichu was the “most-watched streamer on Twitch” in 2020, especially with content related to League of Legends, Minecraft, and Valorant – in addition, she makes music on the keyboard and collaborates with members of her group “OfflineTV” such as Pokimane and Disguised Toast. She also voices the character “Sayu” in Genshin Impact.
- LilyPichu has been on Twitch since 2012 – now her time is ending: She is switching to YouTube Gaming.
The subscription “Amazon Prime” is behind the financial success of many Twitch streamers:
LilyPichu no longer on Twitch from July 8 – Exclusively on YouTube
This is how she announces her switch: LilyPichu released a video in which she apparently cannot decide between two options:
- The purple button stands for Twitch, her main platform
- The red button stands for YouTube Gaming, the competing offer
In the video, ultimately her dogs, Temmie and DaViinky, decide for her and eat from the red food bowl, thus choosing YouTube. From July 8, she will switch there and stream exclusively for YouTube Gaming.
To earn good money on YouTube, you have to be nice (and have a big channel)
This is what it’s about: One can assume that LilyPichu is sweetly wrapping up that she, like many others, has followed the call of money. It is known from other switches that YouTube simply lures with much more money than Twitch is willing to pay.
YouTube continues its strategy with the engagement of LilyPichu, especially to engage “advertiser-friendly streamers” who are already big on YouTube.
LilyPichu has, like many Twitch streamers, built a second pillar on YouTube and has 3 million subscribers there; she will now also fuel the channel with live streaming and no longer just with “video on demand”.
For years, Twitch was considered “unparalleled” when it comes to live streaming – but YouTube has been catching up for years by consistently poaching established streamers from Twitch:
- YouTube seems to be exclusively bringing in “nice, friendly streamers”, preferably women or people with a comedic touch.
- The typical flaming hardcore gamers like Tyler1, Tfue, or xQc are left quiet on Twitch.
- While they do have “DrDisrespect”, which is also a core gamer on the team – YouTube got him for “free” after his Twitch ban.
Twitch is likely hurting that after Valkyrae, they are now losing the next big gaming streamer. Twitch still had many successful female gaming streamers in their lineup, and now they are losing one of the few who had built a name for herself in 10 years and who had fought her way into the top 100 largest channels.
YouTube started its poaching spree in January 2020: Back then, they recruited Valkyrae, an up-and-coming streamer on Twitch. Shortly thereafter, she became a star on YouTube:
YouTube steals a 28-year-old from Twitch and makes her the “largest streamer in the world”
