Reactions have been extremely popular on Twitch for several years. For streamers, they are a convenient way to earn money, but on YouTube, this content causes problems. A content creator demands that the system changes.
What is the situation on Twitch? There have been two developments on the streaming platform in recent years:
- Reactions dominate the “meta” – these are streams where content creators watch a video together with their audience and contribute their comments.
- At the same time, many content creators do not produce their own videos for YouTube anymore, but stream on Twitch. Clips from these streams then end up being reused on YouTube.
Some Twitch streamers even have dedicated reaction channels on YouTube, which they run alongside channels for gaming content. Viewers can conveniently consume the original video through the reaction on YouTube, while the original creator goes empty-handed.
This approach has repeatedly been subject to criticism, especially when streamers contribute little of their own thoughts or even leave their place and simply let the foreign content play on. A YouTuber demands to get a piece of the pie.
Asmongold went viral in 2022 with his reactions to the trial between Johnny Depp and Amber Heard.
Reaction gets 1 million views, YouTuber ends up empty-handed
The specific case: YouTuber Zackary Smigel published a video on September 11, 2024, about rising fast food prices. The video quickly gathered 300,000 views, but then the clicks stagnated. What happened?
Twitch streamer Asmongold reacted to the video in a stream and then uploaded the reaction to YouTube, where it received almost 1 million views. Smigel summarized this in a post on X:
The YouTuber emphasizes: He has nothing against other creators reacting to his content. His problem is not with the “player,” but with the “game” – in this case, with YouTube’s system, which does not provide for participation for the original creators of the videos.
What does the solution look like? For Zackary Smigel, the solution is obvious: YouTube should introduce a kickback system to involve content creators in the revenue generated by their videos through reactions. He believes the necessary technology already exists.
In the meantime, the YouTuber asks other content creators to wait at least 10 days before uploading their reactions to YouTube. Live reactions on Twitch are not a problem. However, he and other YouTubers have found that reaction videos on YouTube would siphon views from the original – especially when they had the same title.
In an update post on X, he further explained that he had privately exchanged views with Asmongold. His editor had initially set the reaction to private. The Twitch streamer’s reaction can still be seen on Twitch, while the original can be found on YouTube.
The idea that YouTubers should somehow share in the revenue from reactions to their videos is not entirely new. A German YouTuber also complained that others earn 16 times as much as him with his content: Twitch streamers make money by reacting to good content from others – A YouTuber demands his share
