2026 Streamer Award Nominees, YouTube + X Video Bonus + Twitchcon 2026 Events

Good day and welcome back!

We are entering Streamer Awards season as QTCinderella revealed the nominees for the annual awards show. There are always questions about how the nominees are selected, but my understanding is this: The public submits nominations, and the total numbers determine MOST of the nominees. One nominee in each category comes from a panel of industry professionals. With 4 or 5 nominees in each category, that means between 75-80% of nominees are fan-selected.

And looking at some of the nominees, it explains a lot. If QT and Crew had more centralized control, I think there would be far fewer... umm... brand risks in the final nominee list. But alas, perhaps that shows the system is fair and working as intended, and that motion is rather important when it comes to success in this industry. Voting is open, with the public vote counting for 70% of the outcome and the industry panel adding the remaining 30%. They are all listed below!

My Twitchcon San Diego 2026 Parties, Events, and Opportunities list is now available for Premium Subscribers! The list currently has 18 events, and I'm waiting on details for about a dozen more. Ultimately, I expect the list to rapidly grow in November.

It will be free for newsletter subscribers next week, but if you simply cannot wait, here's 40% off your first month of Premium, just $3 for the month.

Now let's jump into last week's news!

🟪 TWITCH

• Twitch will soon be launching a new Chat Noise Reduction feature for creators.
• Twitch's Sponsorship AI is now fully deployed and warning creators for speaking on Politics, Alcohol, Drugs, and more.
• Badge farming channels forced a game to pause its Badge drop campaign, as over 70% of the top 100 channels were this type of account. Twitch suspended ~10 channels for a day or less and warned others. These accounts harm creators, game makers, and Twitch by strip-mining the value of these campaigns. Hopefully, Twitch takes a stronger stance against them soon.
• Spendable Balance now has 5% (or more) cashback, in the form of a new Reward Balance wallet.
• Amazon is reportedly in talks to acquire the live AI generation tool Decart.
• Twitchcon released the Sponsors and Exhibitors at Twitchcon San Diego 2026.
• UC Berkeley now has an on-campus content studio to turn athletes into Twitch streamers.
• New Paid Badges: Apple TV, Castlevania, Edgerunners, League of Legends, Pokemon, Pokemon 2.
• New Free Badges: Enshrouded, The Streamer Awards.

🟥 YOUTUBE

• YouTube is testing a new homepage layout that displays Like, Comment, and Save buttons.
• YouTube might be adding new mobile icons.
• YouTube is introducing a new Shorts bonus program.
• YouTube ads now require 10 seconds watched to count as engagement. Previously, it was 5. This may directly affect creator earnings.
• YouTube advertisers can now opt out of having their ads on AI slop.
• GIF support is slowly rolling out to all users.
• YouTube Music has added a label for AI-generated music.
• YouTube is betting on brand deals, and affiliates will be big business for the platform in the years ahead.

🟦 OTHER PLATFORMS

• Instagram Live has begun deploying Media over QUIC (MoQ) to power its livestreaming video.
• Kick has launched an events hub on its platform.
• Florida is reportedly investigating Kick as part of a wider investigation into Stake.