Twitch is the giant in live streaming. Microsoft learned this in 2020: It bought the two biggest stars from Twitch but went under ruthlessly with the competitor “Mixer”. In 2022, YouTube Gaming wants to challenge Twitch and is also acquiring stars from Twitch, but is much better at selection. Because they specifically target the streamers for whom Twitch cannot provide a replacement, believes MeinMMO author Schuhmann.
This is the situation:
- Twitch is the pioneer in live streaming in the West. The service is mainly focused on gaming. In the last years, however, other topics are gaining more traction – gaming is fading into the background.
- Twitch belongs to Amazon. But other tech giants also want to enter the lucrative live streaming arena, such as Facebook or Google via YouTube Gaming. In live streaming, they see an opportunity to broadcast advertising to the hard-to-reach young, tech-savvy target group.
- From 2016 to 2020, there was already an attack on Twitch by Microsoft’s service Mixer, which failed. Now YouTube is coming and specifically targets Twitch streamers with lucrative exclusive contracts. They promise: “So much money that it changes lives.”
A huge advantage of Twitch is still Prime Gaming:
Mixer simply bought the biggest stars away – completely failed
This was the attack from Mixer on Twitch: In late summer 2019, Mixer launched a major offensive against Twitch.
They recruited the then most famous and largest streamer, Tyler “Ninja” Blevins, for an outrageously high sum. At that time, Ninja had 14.5 million followers due to the success of Fortnite, but by the end of 2019, he was already past his peak.
Shortly thereafter, Mixer again poached Twitch and signed shroud, a veteran on Twitch with 7.1 million followers. shroud is a shooter player with a professional background.
Shortly thereafter, Mixer signed KingGothalion and Ewok, a 14-year-old deaf Twitch streamer, two more streamers from the shooter environment. Even these two signings were rather smaller – after that, the poaching offensive completely stalled.
This was the problem: Despite the high-profile signings, Mixer’s attack on Twitch completely fizzled out. Ninja and shroud had much fewer viewers on the new platform than before.
No pull effect was created, which would lead other streamers to follow shroud and Ninja and switch to Mixer as well.
Twitch did not lose many viewers; instead, the regular viewers of shroud and Ninja began watching other streamers on Twitch, like xQc or summit1g, who were vying in 2020 to be the new star on Twitch.
Even on Mixer, the acquisitions had no positive impact. On the contrary: the existing streamers on Mixer felt that they were less important to Microsoft than the new stars.
This is how the attack ended: Not even a year after Ninja’s signing, it was over: Microsoft closed Mixer in June 2020 and merged its service with Facebook.
The tactic of simply buying the biggest streamers from Twitch had failed.
YouTube specifically hires streamers for whom Twitch has no replacement
This is YouTube’s attack now: YouTube’s attack on Mixer is much more targeted and persistent than that of Mixer:
- Mixer simply recruited “the biggest names” and hoped that this would bring Twitch down.
- YouTube has been causing unrest at Twitch since 2020 with targeted hires. Instead of randomly picking the biggest streamers, YouTube has specifically targeted certain types of streamers.
These streamers YouTube is acquiring: YouTube has been specifically acquiring Twitch streamers for over 2 years with big offers who
- are considered “brand-friendly”, meaning they are nice and friendly – appear presentable and ensure a pleasant atmosphere in their streams
- have already built a large presence on YouTube – this makes them “relatively safe investments”. Many Twitch streamers use YouTube specifically for secondary distribution of their Twitch streams and have huge channels on YouTube with millions of subscribers, which they can also fuel with live streaming
- offer a special “personality”: YouTube targets people who somehow stand out from the broad mass of streamers and who can be seen – for whom Twitch cannot provide a clear replacement.
With Valkyrae, YouTube acquired a streamer at the beginning of her career in 2020, who within a year became the largest streamer in the world. The loss of Valkyrae hurt Twitch particularly because Twitch has hardly any major female gaming streamers. The biggest gaming streamer on Twitch, Pokimane, constantly has to deal with sexist accusations.
With TimTheTatman (32), DrLupo (35), and CouRage (28), YouTube recruited “more adult streamers” who cater to an audience around 30 or older and provide high entertainment value. These people are also quite rare on Twitch – there are only a few successful Twitch streamers over 30 who cater to this audience.
With Myth, they recently acquired one of the few Twitch streamers in the top 20 who breaks the mold: Myth is alongside tyler1 the only non-white streamer at the top of Twitch.
A special role also belongs to Ludwig, who has even earned the respect of long-time streamers like xQc on Twitch and is considered the most innovative and interesting Twitch streamer of recent years. He is someone who truly belonged to the soul and the innermost core of Twitch.
There is a further difference of YouTube compared to Mixer:
- Mixer had blown its load within a few months and did not sign any more streamers afterwards.
- YouTube has been deliberately poaching streamers from Twitch since early 2020 and has intensified its efforts even further in 2022.
YouTube avoids gambling and controversial streamers, only hires the nice ones
Which streamers is YouTube acquiring?
- “Established, veteran” players known primarily for their shooter skills like Ninja or shroud are explicitly not recruited by YouTube. Thus, summit1g remains on Twitch. There seems to be an oversupply of these streamers.
- Controversial streamers with high viewer numbers are also left on Twitch: tyler1, Tfue, Sodapoppin, Mizkif or Amouranth are unlikely to receive offers from YouTube.
- They also seem to carefully avoid the topic of “gambling”: Streamers like Trainwreck or ROSHTEIN are among the 15 most successful streamers on Twitch but are probably not suitable for YouTube.
- They also seem to be steering clear of interesting but controversial streamers like HasanAbi.
- Even “obvious recruits” like xQc are left on Twitch, likely also because of his gambling, and they are taking a very different approach with Ludwig while still wanting to appeal to his audience.
Who could Twitch lose next? The most interesting English-speaking streamers for YouTube are:
- Pokimane, the most famous woman on Twitch, known for being very friendly and scandal-free
- Asmongold, an MMORPG streamer who is already dominant on YouTube, but may cater too much to “nerd clichés”
- Josh Strife Hayes, another scandal-free streamer who has already made a big name for himself on YouTube with his deep analyses
- Nickmercs – a pretty scandal-free shooter streamer, would fall into the same pattern as TimTheTatman
Strong growth in Spain and South America helps Twitch
Is it getting tight for Twitch? No, not at the moment. Twitch has now recovered after some weak months due to the “pandemic lockdown” in traffic and has slightly increased.
But this is misleading: Because Twitch is currently getting stronger especially in non-English speaking countries. Entertainers from Spain or South America are rapidly rising and achieving extremely high viewer numbers with event-driven content.
In the coming years, it may not be so clear that Twitch will retain its monopoly in live streaming as in recent years.
Now it depends on which stones YouTube will remove from the Jenga tower until it wobbles.
While Twitch could easily cope with Microsoft randomly pulling some stones from the top for which there were enough replacements, YouTube is now strategically acquiring streamers from Twitch who occupy their own niches and for whom there is no equivalent replacement on Twitch.
Also in Germany, the balance of power in streaming is shifting:
After 4 years, Germany has a new biggest Twitch streamer – Berliner finally overtakes MontanaBlack
