On Wednesday, streamers around the world united under the banner #ADayOffTwitch, and chose not to broadcast their usual content on Amazon's platform to protest against its laxity in combating the hate raids — raids launched with the aim of harming a content creator.
Accompanied in their efforts by their followers and subscribers, who refrained from consuming Twitch on September 1, they caused a sharp drop in the site's traffic rate, reports Gamesight.
Read also:
PlayStation Plus: Hitman 2, Overcooked and Predator on the program in September
14 strikers (in the USA) according to a count
Questioned by Axios, the analysis firm Gamesight observes that only 172 channels were online Wednesday at noon (US West Coast time), against 000 at the same time a week earlier. Of course, this only counts broadcasters in this time zone, but the figure nevertheless shows a trend.
On the user side, #ADayOffTwitch would also have found a respondent. Also according to Gamesight, the total number of hours of content content viewed by Internet users this Wednesday, September 1st plummeted to 3,5 million hours cumulatively against more than 4,5 million hours the day before and the following days.
According to analyst Zach Bussey, who publishes his observations on Creator Hype, this would represent the third lowest day of the year for Twitch in terms of attendance. The first being New Year's Day and the second June 28 (a date on which specialists are debating what caused such a decline: the heat wave experienced by the United States, or the banishment of IndieFoxx streamer?).
Several factors complicate the analysis
Presented like this, everything suggests that the #ADayOffTwitch campaign has been a great success. Zach Bussey estimates that its impact on platform traffic ranges from 5 to 15%. But he also explains that the circumstances surrounding the event do not help to get a precise idea of ​​the data attributable to this strike.
First, the analyst recalls that, a few days earlier, ultra-popular streamers DrLupo and Timthetatman recently left Twitch to establish themselves on YouTube, logically exporting part of their audience with them. In general, the Wednesday broadcasts of the first interest around 9 viewers at most, against 354 for its competitor. So many people who, perhaps, were therefore connected to YouTube this Wednesday to follow their favorite streamer.
Another element, and not the least, is to be taken into account. Back to school — quite simply. Data published on Creator Hype suggests that this period is generally conducive to a drop in Twitch traffic. But the range is wide: between 1,8 and 6% in recent years. It is therefore difficult to form a precise opinion on the importance of the slingshot carried out earlier in the week.
Read also:PS5: Sony will present new features on September 9 during a showcase
Twitch needs to do better
#ADayOffTwitch is just a drop in the bucket that broke an overfull vase. This isn't the first time that content creators, mostly from marginalized communities, have sounded the alarm over the waves of harassment they face daily on Twitch. At issue: the introduction of new tags last May, which notably allows LGBTQIA+, racialized or disabled people to build an audience that looks like them. But at the same time, it also hooks a target behind their backs that makes it easier for malicious users to organize hate raids.
Raids, which allow broadcasters to send their audience to another stream when they are about to go on air, are indeed sometimes diverted to conduct massive harassment campaigns. And the conditions of use of Twitch being to date particularly lax, everyone is free to create dozens or hundreds of accounts, in particular by configuring bots, to further accentuate the effects of these toxic raids.
Created by streamer RekItRaven, the hashtag #TwitchDoBetter (Twitch must do better) lists some of the demands of regular users of the Amazon platform. They and they ask in particular for the organization of round tables, and the implementation of more complete tools to allow them to protect themselves from these waves of hatred (like the possibility of refusing a raid before it is launched).
Inevitably alerted by the event, Twitch has not yet commented on the strike or announced new measures to protect those who make it successful. The platform nevertheless launched this morning the “Subtember”: a month of reduction, allowing to subscribe to its favorite strammers for 20% cheaper the first month. As a reminder, Twitch grants itself between 30 and 50% of the revenue generated by subscriptions to a videographer.
SourceSources : Creator Hype, Axios
