Streaming expert and businessman Devin Nash explains why the streaming service Twitch is heading towards a catastrophic situation. The platform has become increasingly unattractive for advertising partners since Twitch is no longer a primary gaming platform but instead offers a stage for political activists, including extremists. Nash demands that Twitch must ban all extremists and political content, not just those from one direction, like Asmongold recently.
This is Devin Nash’s analysis: Nash says (via
YouTube was in a similar situation in 2017 when advertisers realized that their commercials were being played in front of extremist content. YouTube would then have worked for two years to improve its advertising system. YouTube now has the world’s most sophisticated system for broadcasting advertising. Twitch failed to work on its systems and is now paying a high price for it.
For Nash it is clear: There is only one brutal, simple and effective solution: Twitch must ban all political, controversial and extremist content from the platform and go back to its beginnings and concentrate on gaming again.
Asmongold is a streamer who used to only show gaming and now attracts attention almost exclusively with controversial content. He was recently banned from Twitch:
Asmongold’s career and life in 3 minutes – what defines him?
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Twitch has wasted tens of millions of dollars
These were Twitch’s mistakes: Nash explains that Twitch made a lot of bad decisions and wasted money. In his opinion, it would have been right to find a sensible system to display advertising well. Instead, Twitch focused on content and gambled away millions of US dollars:
Nash analyses: None of it did much good.
Meanwhile, the ad system that Twitch primarily uses to make money has stalled. If you want to buy advertising on Twitch, you have to pay a high minimum amount (e.g. $100,000 and up) and talk to someone locally. The ads have limited or no targeting at all. The ads appear throughout the site, often to irrelevant or controversial streamers. With ads everywhere, Twitch is only as good as its worst streamer.
Advertising on Twitch is not targeted
He sees this as a consequence: Nash says major advertisers are telling Twitch that their advertising system isn’t okay.
This is also the case: the advertising system ensures that viewers are shown up to 8 advertising clips when they join a stream. This would cause viewers to leave:
Twitch has always operated out of fear. They were afraid that other sites would cannibalize their audience (Mixer), so they bought Streamer. They thought YouTube was taking viewers away from them, so they bought broadcast rights (LCS, OWL). They thought the music industry would sue them, so they spent millions building libraries and licensing rights. All the while, YouTube was building systems to solve these problems long-term and was willing to fail for years because YouTube knew a better future was possible.
Nash demands: Twitch must ban politics and go back to gaming
Nash calls for this solution: Nash says Twitch was in a much better situation when they focused on gaming. As a “platform for everything,” Twitch cannot function without good systems. This train would have left anyway, YouTube and TikTok would have an unassailable lead here.
Twitch must forego all controversial content and return to gaming, music and crafts. This way you can bring advertisers and viewers back.
Only with extreme measures can the extreme problems of the platform be solved.
Conflict over the war in Gaza escalates on Twitch
This is what lies behind it: In the USA, the discussion about the conflict in Gaza is politically even more heated than here in Germany. Twitch banned Asmongold for commenting on the conflict in a misanthropic manner. Asmongold is seen in public as someone who has taken a pro-Israel position.
There is just as much excitement in the USA about statements from other Twitch streamers like Frogan or HasanAbi, who have also taken a clear position. They are accused of making anti-human and anti-Semitic statements.
Twitch is therefore also criticized for its ban policy for punishing Asmongold, while other streamers were not punished for similarly blatant statements that were unpatriotic in the eyes of many Americans. However, Frogan has now also received a ban.
Nash apparently believes that advertisers have no interest in advertising in front of such statements and in such an environment.
Can you trust the analysis? For many years, Devin Nash has been known as someone who coolly and precisely analyzes and identifies problems in streaming. As the former CEO of a major esports organization, he also has insight into the business side of gaming. So when he posts an analysis like that, it definitely has some weight.
In general, the streaming platform is having a tough time right now. A competitor of Twitch, the CEO of the Rumble platform, has also predicted an imminent end to Twitch: Will the streaming millionaires soon lose their income? Rumble CEO predicts the end of Twitch