DreamCon 2026, Discord Enshittification, Twitch Drops & Breaks the Affiliate Program

Hello! I hope you had a good week!

I spent much of the weekend watching Summer Game Fest and added more games than usual to my wishlist! It's not my normal thing - I'm pretty passive on games until they release, and I catch someone playing them on a stream. Perhaps I need a vacation and am looking for a digital escape? In any case, I'm curious, if you watched any of the events this weekend, how many games did you add to your wishlist? There is a comment section on posts on site! I don't mention it often, but there are occasionally some fun chats there! Now with that said, this is a pretty jam-packed newsletter, so we'll get into it right after this!

This newsletter is sponsored by Streamloots! You know them for their card-based monetization, but their browser extension makes it even better - more on that below! And now, let's jump right into the updates!

🟪 TWITCH

• Twitch is testing Post-Ad Ads, which encourage subscribing or buying Turbo after an ad plays.
• The lower requirements to unlock Affiliate launched this week. A bit sloppy, but the change informed most existing Partners and Affiliates that they were now Affiliates, again.
• The above change also seemed to break the Affiliate system, with no current timeline for a resolution.
• The Leaderboard is getting larger text for the top three. Unfortunately, it breaks some of the functionality.
• Stream Summary charts are now Line Charts instead of Bar Charts.
• Twitch Legal has brought back the Search function to the legal documents.
• Dan Clancy's SXSW London presentation took a weird turn.
• Vans Warped Tour will stream on Amazon's Twitch channel.
• IGDB now allows anyone to contribute artwork and supports Game Logos.

🟥 YOUTUBE

• YouTube is adding blurred thumbnails for search queries that often return sexual themes.
• Google is testing AI experts called Portraits, who are trained in collaboration with the experts. The first Portrait is of Kim Scott.
• YouTube shared a quick guide on how artists can get new listeners.

⬛ TIKTOK

• TikTok is giving users much more control over their For You page.
• Trump plans to extend the TikTok deadline again.
• TikTok has added the ability to link YouTube Music and Amazon Music.

🟦 DISCORD & TWITTER X

• Discord's CTO says he constantly bringing up enshittification in meetings.
• Discord's May Patch Notes are now available.
• Twitter X's mobile apps have once again added "Formerly Twitter" to the app's name.

🔲 OTHERS

• Kick is now charging taxes on subscription purchases based on jurisdiction.
• Kick added a global emote: asmonSmash.
• Noice is shutting down on June 9, 2025.

Creator Industry News

• StreamElements had another layoff.
• Streamloots' Browser Extension just got a big update that makes it even easier for your community to interact (and support) your stream! You can now activate cards or subscribe directly from a button beside Twitch Chat. And as always, you get an 80% split! If you haven't already, go check out Streamloots.com! [ad]
• OBS Studio 31.1 Beta is now available for those who like to test beta products.
• AI streaming in Indonesia is receiving some pushback from users.
• DreamCon has been confirmed for 2026, from July 10 to 12.
• OnlyFans is possibly the most 'revenue efficient' company in the world. A measure of the amount of revenue generated PER staff. Twitch might sit somewhere around $1.2M, so slightly better than OpenAI.
• Amazon Ads has signed a 3-year collaboration deal with Saudi Arabia's Esports World Cup. You're going to see a lot of this on Twitch.
• Threads is making posts with links appear better in the ranking.
• 1/3 of Gen Z feel pressure to become social media creators.
• Evolve shared a report on Regional Pricing.