Twitch staff “exodus” company over focus on money over streamers: Report

A new report revealed that Twitch has had a mass exodus of employees, including three higher-ups in the company, who detailed that even more staff members could soon be out the door.

Twitch has come a long way as a streaming platform since it launched back in June 2011.

The company has been rivaled by YouTube and Facebook Gaming over the years in the streaming space, but Twitch is still king by a comfortable margin.

Although the site’s viewership and community are still solid, according to a new report, inner turmoil at the company has led to the loss of key executives and tons of staff.

Twitch exodus fueled by company direction

A new report from Bloomberg detailed that the company lost over 300 employees in 2021, and are on pace to lose many more in 2022.

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Twitch also lost key staff members, like head of creator development Marcus “DJ Wheat” Graham, COO Sarah Clemens, and CCO Michael Aragon. DJ Wheat told Bloomberg that Twitch began hiring workers from Silicon Valley who were “unwilling to learn what this community was, why it was special.”

The shift towards workers without knowledge of Twitch’s connection to its huge and unique audience could spell an identity crisis for the Amazon-owned streaming site.

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The report also revealed that former employees were worried about the attempts to monetize streamers’ growth with new programs like Twitch boost, which allowed streamers to pay to promote their channels for extra exposure. The program was immediately slammed by streamers like Ludwig, who at the time called it “predatory.”

While Twitch isn’t going anywhere any time soon, former employees like DJ Wheat have rung the alarm that Twitch could be heading down the wrong path.