Amouranth explains why xQc, Mizkif and Hasan’s Twitch value just skyrocketed
Blizzard Entertainment/Instagram/Amouranth/MizkifTwitch icon Kaitlyn ‘Amouranth’ Siragusa believes that fellow streamer Ludwig leaving the Amazon-owned platform for YouTube has made others, such as xQc, far more valuable in the process.
On November 29, former Twitch star Ludwig left the site to stream exclusively on YouTube as the rival streaming service continues to poach top talent. With TimTheTatman, Dr Disrespect, Dr Lupo, and now Ludwig jumping ship, YouTube has emerged as a legitimate competitor in the broadcasting space.
According to Amouranth, the more big Twitch stars that switch platforms, the better it will be for those looking to get a better deal going forward.
In particular, the 7-Eleven owner believes that this really helps the likes of Felix ‘xQc’ Lengyel, Mizkif, and Hasan Piker.
Twitch internally prob has a different perspective. They probably think the platform is where the lion share or value resides, to continue with the musical chairs analogy, the value accrues to the seats rather than the person sitting in it.
Netflix is an analog. Netflix shows
— Kaitlyn (@wildkait) November 30, 2021
Amouranth talks Twitch vs YouTube
In a series of posts on Twitter, Siragusa compared the situation with creators leaving Twitch for YouTube as a game of musical chairs with big names gaining more “negotiating leverage.”
“[Twitch] probably think the platform is where the lion’s share or value resides. To continue with the musical chairs analogy, the value accrues to the seats rather than the person sitting in it,” she explained. “Netflix shows that they can license super popular content (Friends, The Office, etc.), distribute it to their viewers, then drop that content when it comes time to negotiate.”
I’m not so sure, but regardless this is interesting to see play out. YouTube feels like thanos here, inevitable. It’s strange to see twitch not paying up for biggest creators and slow pace of feature innovation given twitch’s parent company Amazon is no Stranger to pic.twitter.com/Y7GDRWnmAo
— Kaitlyn (@wildkait) November 30, 2021
After suggesting that Twitch fans are even more hardcore than Netflix users, she pondered on if the loyalty is really to the platform or to the site’s creators, themselves.
“YouTube feels like Thanos here, inevitable. It’s strange to see Twitch not paying up for the biggest creators and slow pace of feature innovation, given Twitch’s parent company Amazon is no stranger to enduring ‘accounting losses’ while they invest in new adjacencies,” she added.
the value and thus loyalty accrues to in terms of viewers having to choose between fidelity to their favorite creator or to the platform (ui, features, community familiarity)? We’re all gonna find out 😐 pic.twitter.com/A03rKt15nn
— Kaitlyn (@wildkait) November 30, 2021
If Twitch starts to see a decline because certain creators have switched to YouTube, then it will be interesting to see if they start to pony up and outbid its rivals to keep top talent… especially if no one can rise up and fill the void.
Whether or not Twitch is worried, however, remains to be seen, especially as they didn’t counter-offer YouTube to keep Ludwig. Needless to say, the streamer wars are just heating up heading into 2022.