Plus Program, Hype Train Emotes, TikTok x Universal, and Razer Zephyr Fallout

As we step into May, I'd love to hear your thoughts on something. Does it feel like time is going by faster or slower than last year? I'll share the results and my perspective next week, so stay tuned!

This is related, but last year, Twitch effectively stopped the bleeding. From March through December 2023, active viewership and watch time found a bottom (after dropping consistently from mid-2021 all through 2022) and even grew in the last three months of the year. But 2024, so far, has not been kind to Twitch. April 2024 is looking to be the worst month since April 2020 (I forget what was going on then?) The reasons are likely multifaceted, including the South Korean shutdown, the increase in ads/heavy monetization focus, seasonal trends, competition (Kick has grown their hours watched by ~15% since January), and maybe-just-maybe multi-streaming is giving audiences options. It's a trend I'm keeping a close eye on and should probably turn into a YouTube video.

But with that said, let's get into this week's news!

Twitch News

• Clips and VODs have a new engagement bar with buttons for following, Gifting a Subscription, Subscribing, and Watching Live.
• There are 30 new Hype Train emotes by SharpBalloons, Goblintengu, ABritoArt, LumpyTouch, ArtbyNoir, and Symon_Redd.
• ChewyYAY is a new global emote launched for Star Wars Day.
• Twitch issued a written notice of upcoming changes to the Monetized Streamer Agreement (MSA), specifically Sections 2.1 and 3.2.
• May marks the first month creators have been eligible for the new Plus Program. Creators received notification on-site and via email if they unlocked it. They also launched a new dashboard to track their progress better.
• A small change to the Content Classification Labels now allows appealing locked labels if they have been applied for more than seven days.
• A research report states that Twitch is a new frontier for digital journalism.
• Twitchcon San Diego tickets will be going on sale later this month.

Streaming Industry News

• Discord is now posting monthly Patch Notes blogs where they share a complete list of updates they have made to the service. They also shared how they are improving the Go Live function on AMD GPUs.
• After an SEO change, Dexerto lost 76.75% of its organic top-ten rankings on Google Search. The changes also impacted many other outlets.
• YouTube is testing a GenAI Content Inspiration tool with a small number of channels to offer insight into the kind of content you may want to make.
• Amazon made $11.8B in ad revenue in Q1 2024.
• TikTok announced a licensing agreement with Universal Music, bringing artists' music back to the platform for the first time since February 1st.
• Instagram is testing subscriber-only broadcasts.
• Dreamhack had to issue a statement after multiple Kick streamers reportedly disrupted the experience for those in attendance. This comes at the same time as the Sydney Morning Herald called Kick 'a playground for degenerates.'
• Men are using fake livestream apps with AI audiences to hit on women.
• Due to false advertising, Razer was fined $100K and required to pay back over $1M in sales of the Razer Zephyr mask.