Scaled Live Rewards, Fortnite x Discord, Bluesky 38M + Creators Cashing in on Events
Hello, and welcome to the recap! A slew of updates this week, including the outcome of the Sentiment Survey. I'm also keeping a close eye on Twitch's efforts to address viewbotting. So far, the impact has been minimal across the board, but some users have definitely been affected, with their viewership down 70-80%. I'll provide some insight and commentary, likely in early September, once we have a month of data to review. But with that, let's jump into the news!
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🟪 TWITCH
- Twitch deprecated the ad-free Channel Switcher.
- A study found that large raids tend to have a detrimental impact on community engagement.
- The BopBop emote was briefly brought back to celebrate the 1st anniversary of the DJ Program.
- According to CommanderRoot, 6991 accounts were 'onboarded' in the USA as of August 4th, 2025. Onboarded are the new monetized accounts without payouts, which are currently only available in the USA.
- Non-Secure WebSocket connections to Twitch IRC are being decommissioned this month.
🟥 YOUTUBE
- YouTube is testing a "Netflix" style layout for some channels.
⬛ TIKTOK
- TikTok's Tomorrowland Live stream broke its record by hitting 74 million unique viewers across two weekends.
- TikTok's Live Scaled Rewards program has now launched for all creators.
- You can now see your "Top Live Viewer" in TikTok Studio.
- TikTok Bios can now be 160 characters (up from 80).
- Footnotes are now available for all US users.
🟦 DISCORD & TWITTER X
- Discord is partnering with Fortnite to launch a new 30-minute trial version.
- Discord has released its monthly Patch Notes, which include updates to Android, Media Embeds, Thread Search, and an increase in pinned messages.
🔲 OTHERS
- Noice may be coming back, not as a streaming platform but as a service using the tech it built.
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