The Texan Zack aka “Asmongold” is one of the most well-known streamers on Twitch. He is especially known in connection with WoW, but also ARPGs like Path of Exile and Diablo 4. Despite his success, he refrains from monetizing his Twitch channel – much to the chagrin of the CEO.
Why is Asmongold expensive for Twitch? Asmongold, who has recently only been streaming on his second channel zackrawrr, belongs to the most-watched streamers on Twitch. Nevertheless, he seems to do everything to avoid making money with Twitch:
- Asmongold streams indefinitely only on his second channel, which is not monetized – meaning there is no way to subscribe to him.
- The streamer also does not run ads himself and regularly criticizes the advertising policies of the platform.
- In addition, Asmongold has disabled donations for his channel.
This is associated with many costs for Twitch: After all, the streams must be made available to thousands of viewers and the VoDs must be stored. However, there is a lack of the compensation that Twitch would otherwise receive through their share of the revenue from subs, ads, and donations.
The streaming platform is not profitable anyway, as Twitch CEO Dan Clancy admitted after the recent mass layoffs. Streamers like Asmongold could be quite painful in that regard. Dan Clancy is aware of the situation, as he recently revealed in a conversation with the streamer Mizkif.
Twitch CEO says: The streams cost a lot of money
What does the Twitch CEO say about Asmongold? Dan Clancy explained in the stream with Mizkif that he has been wanting to talk to Asmongold for a while to understand his motives. While the situation does not keep him awake at night, it should not get any bigger. After all, it costs a lot of money to keep these streams running.
In a conversation, the Twitch CEO said, one might find out if Asmongold wants to deactivate commercial features like subs and donations but would be willing to run a minimum amount of ads. However, he does not want to force the streamer.
Mizkif explains to Clancy at this point that Asmongold simply does not care about the money: he has enough, and running ads would only harm his channel.
The Twitch CEO notes that there has been a change in mindset in recent years; the aversion to ads has decreased. Many more streamers are now running ads – now it seems that he only needs to convince the wayward son Asmongold.
What does Asmongold himself say? In a reaction, Asmongold addresses his reasons for not monetizing his channel. In fact, he feels bad when viewers give him larger sums; he does not need the money.
The streamer thinks one step further: with a donation often comes a certain expectation. However, he simply wants an honest and relaxed relationship with his community; money only makes it weird.
Other content creators also sometimes struggle with accepting money from their viewers. This makes them all the more likeable in the eyes of their fans. Gronkh is now an old hand on Twitch, but his very first donation threw him off guard:
