What an unusual week for celebrity crossovers in the streaming space! Twitch went down the deep end of Charli XCX's Brat Summer in early Fall. Kai Cenat pulled John Cena on stream to promote McDonald's. Then it was reported that Tim Walz was going to stream World of Warcraft (which ended up just being someone else streaming while a vertical video of a Walz rally played on the side).
These strange, disconnected one-offs indicate that the streaming industry remains a playground for experimentation rather than an established creator space. That's not ideal for establishing a profitable business today (sorry, Twitch), but it does fuel my feeling that streaming's best days remain ahead!
And with that, let's jump into the recap!
Twitch News
- Twitch Support has launched a new "Enforcement Notes" system to provide context on how existing rules impact the evolving nature of live content metas. It's important to know that there are no new rules, just more straightforward examples of existing ones. I'm linking all my tweets of these new enforcement notes, but you can read them all in the Community Guidelines.
- Twitch has launched a new global searchable mental health resource tool in 11 languages.
- The Ads Scheduler timer is now more accurate.
- Twitch continues to push Gifted Sub discounts with a new chat popover, using Subtember as a crossover connection.
- A new global emote, BratChat, was launched as part of a promotion for a Charli XCX stream.
- A new global emote, OnlyYou, was launched as part of Smokey Bear's 80th anniversary.
- A Tim Walz rally was streamed alongside a creator playing World of Warcraft. Tim Walz did not play WoW.
- The Creator Clubs now have Twitch Teams: DJ, IRL, Coworking. Expect them to be open on launch for Music, Vtuber, and Artists.
- A 7-day trial of Turbo is once again being communicated to viewers.
- Twitchcon San Diego 2024 official attendance was 22,788.
Streaming Industry News
- YouTube Premium members can claim 3 months of Discord Nitro. Tons of conditions apply.
- The Russian government blocked access to 7TV for Russian users because the platform failed to delete LGBTQIA emotes within 24 hours.
- Discord was banned in both Turkey and Russia.
- Twitter/X has changed how it pays out Creator Revenue to be no longer passed on ads but instead based on engagement from other Premium users.
- Twitter/X was unblocked in Brazil.
- Kick is now moving to weekly payouts for Verified creators.
- Kick continues to court negative publicity, including its creators incentivizing dangerous Hurricane streams.
- The Humble Bundle Partner Program was shut down and replaced by a managed affiliate program through Impact (at a lower rate.)
- Hindenburg Research released a report on Roblox (while taking out a short position on its stock). Hindenburg's existence is primarily based on finding 'bad' companies with overvalued stocks.
- Noice experienced a layoff that impacted over a dozen people.
- Cutlabs appears to be shutting down. They attended Twitchcon and hosted an event, and then last week announced the "Free" plan would be discontinued and the price would increase from $9 to $20.
- Oooh, a group chat app marketed often through streaming has shut down.
- TikTok is laying off people in content moderation and leaning more towards AI.
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