Why Pirate Software Has Lost Over 90% Of His Views In A Matter Of Months

For a time, Jason "Thor" Hall, also known as Pirate Software, was one of the most popular game developers on Twitch. Hall has a long history in the industry and has worked with some major companies like Blizzard, but for years he's been working as an indie dev and building a streaming audience. In 2024 Pirate Software's Twitch channel exploded, going from 13,000 subscribers to nearly two million in just six months.

Pirate Software didn't dominate Twitch in 2024 like Sketch, but over the course of the year he became a undeniably successful streamer. At the peak of his popularity, Pirate Software's videos were getting 200 million views a month, and the larger Twitch following also brought more attention to Pirate Software's longterm game development project, "Heartbound."

Since that peak, Pirate Software has lost 90% of his views, and his channel likely lost a sizable amount of its revenue. Pirate Software's troubles have a lot to do with his comments on a petition initiative called Stop Killing Games, but it'd be wrong to place all the blame there. The truth is, a handful of controversies have snowballed and caused Pirate Software to lose most of his views in a matter of months.

Pirate Software first started getting pushback from his viewers in August 2024, when he criticized the Stop Killing Games initiative, an attempt to petition the European Union to make laws preventing video game publishers from pulling access to games that people have already purchased. Remember when "Concord" absolutely bombed, and Sony deleted it from existence? The SKG initiative wants to require publishers to leave abandoned games in a playable state for people who have already purchased them.

In Pirate Software's first Stop Killing Games video, he argued that the petition is worded too vaguely, and he said it would be impossible for publishers to leave every game in a playable state. Commenters weren't happy with what he had to say: The video got 1.3 million views, and Pirate Software pinned an F.A.Q. comment to address common complaints from angry viewers. 

In "Stop Killing Games 2," Pirate Software doubled down on his original claims. He said that SKG wouldn't help preserve old games and argued that some live service games will inevitably disappear. He suggested his own solution, saying that publishers just need to make it clear that, for some titles, gamers are buying licenses to play, not purchasing the games outright. "That makes a lot more sense to me than force [sic] all developers to leave the game in a playable state," Pirate Software said. Commenters continued to push back on Pirate Software's points, and that video planted the seed for an even bigger controversy down the road.

Pirate Software saw a massive drop in viewership after a disastrous "World of Warcraft" livestream. Playing on a hardcore, permadeath server, he tackled a dangerous raid with his party. But in the midst of the battle, Pirate Software ran away from the fight, and two of his teammates died. The players who lost their characters blamed Pirate Software, but he insisted the whole situation was their fault.

Viewers mostly agreed with Pirate Software's teammates. One YouTube commenter wrote, "Everyone played poorly but Pirate Software was the only person who did it intentionally, then lied about it, then lashed out at everyone." Pirate Software's "World of Warcraft" guild, OnlyFangs, removed him as a member after the raid, which led him to address the situation in a post on X. "Each person in this group made mistakes including myself," Pirate Software wrote. "I have never once said I was perfect in my play nor that I was a god gamer. I'm just an ex-Blizzard employee that has played mage for a long time." In the post he also called out people online for piling hateful comments onto his videos and livestreams.

Savix, another "World of Warcraft" player and OnlyFangs member, commented on Pirate Software's statement. He said that Pirate Software's response to the entire situation had caused more problems than the raid itself. "People are upset because of the way you closed things out, as well as being a complete a******," he wrote on X. After this whole ordeal, Pirate Software's viewership fell off a cliff, taking months to recover.

In the midst of all the scrutiny Pirate Software received after his messy "World of Warcraft" raid, viewers started a new rumor based on their observations of his streams. Some people started accusing Pirate Software of cheating his way through puzzle games like "The Outer Wilds" because of how easily he solved endgame puzzles that are designed to be next-to-impossible. The rumors began spreading on Reddit, where some people pushed back, with one Redditor writing, "I don't think he looked up a guide, he just played like a professional playtester would (which makes sense given his career)."

The rumors would likely have stayed within the circle of people who'd already begun to turn on Pirate Software, but the fact that it sprang up the same month as the "World of Warcraft" fiasco meant that it got more attention. Streamers with big audiences like Summit1g and Destiny started reacting to the rumors and Pirate Software's "Outer Wilds" playthrough on their own streams. Unlike the raid controversy, Pirate Software didn't face widespread backlash from the puzzle game gossip, but combined, the scandals started to give him a reputation for being egotistical and unwilling to admit when he's wrong.

Pirate Software plays plenty of games on his Twitch channel, but he's also a game developer who spends a lot of his time talking about game design, occasionally giving viewers a peek behind the curtain of his own game, "Heartbound." A top-down RPG with puzzles, exploration, and combat mini-games, Pirate Software has ambitious plans for the game to include a sprawling story with multiple endings. Currently "Heartbound" is in early access, and it's been that way since its release in 2018. But "Heartbound" players started losing their patience in 2025, and the game's reviews on Steam dropped into overwhelmingly negative territory.

Most of the negative reviews call out the lack of content in the game, arguing that it's short even by the standards of an early access title. "It was crazy how little content there are in this game, with a grand total of 3 puzzles, 2 minigames and 1 boss fight, it only takes you around 100 minutes to beat the game," wrote one player on Steam. Some have begun losing hope that "Heartbound" will ever be completed, and players aren't shy about sharing their feelings in their reviews. "This entire game just feels like a kick-starter scam," another player said.

It's probably not a coincidence that a wave of negative reviews hit "Heartbound" after Pirate Software's "World of Warcraft" raid controversy, but many of the reviewers have valid critiques of the game. For now "Heartbound" is still in active development, and Pirate Software releases monthly patches for it.

When Pirate Software's Twitch channel was exploding in 2024, he set a notable record on the platform. The Hype Train is a feature that Twitch added in 2020, meant to help boost growing channels. If a channel gets a swell of subscribers or Bits, the Hype Train starts, and for a limited time views can contribute to the channel to boost the Hype Train level. During Pirate Software's 2024 Hype Train, he hit level 106 because his viewers gave him over 50,000 gifted subs and more than eight million Bits.

Pirate Software got a ton of recognition for setting that Hype Train record, and he held it until a streamer named Vedal hit a Hype Train level of 111 in January 2025. A few months after Pirate Software lost his record, new rumors claimed that he won it illegitimately in the first place. Discord screenshots shared on X revealed that one of Pirate Software's moderators called Khronos had contributed to the Hype Train, which led some to accuse Pirate Software of cheating the system by boosting his own channel.

"Khronos used his own money to do this and asked if it was ok to do so," Pirate Software wrote on X. "He wasn't paid for this or told to do it either." Khronos boosting the Hype Train didn't violate Twitch's Terms of Service, but learning that Pirate Software's own mods contributed to the 2024 record left a bad taste in some fans' mouths.

Pirate Software got some negative attention for his 2024 videos about the Stop Killing Games initiative, but the clips really came back to haunt him in 2025. A YouTuber called Accursed Farms was one of the main driving forces behind SKG, and in June 2025 he posted a video announcing the death of the movement. At that point, the petition was more than 500,000 signatures short of being recognized by the European Union, and Accursed Farms said he didn't see a way forward for the initiative.

More than half of Accursed Farms's video took aim at Pirate Software's criticism of the SKG initiative. Accursed Farms claimed that Pirate Software's first video about SKG did massive damage to the movement. "If your only exposure to Stop Killing Games has been [Pirate Software's] video, then you've been misinformed," Accursed Farms said. He went on to point out several instances in streams and videos where Pirate Software got information about the petition wrong. Gamers lying on stream is nothing new, but Twitch and YouTube viewers still got upset. Accursed Farms's video reignited Pirate Software's SKG controversy, but this time it didn't die away so easily.

When Pirate Software first commented on the Stop Killing Games petition, it caused a stir within his own community, but didn't spread much further than that. Accursed Farms's video about the situation, however, caught the attention of larger streamers. In particular, MoistCr1tikal took an interest in what was happening, and on June 24, 2025, he released a video called "Stop Killing Games" that recapped all the drama.

In his video, MoistCr1tikal said that as a United States citizen he couldn't sign the SKG petition but he supported its goals. Companies have removed games from stores in the past, but some modern digital games can completely disappear if a publisher decides to pull them down for any reason. He also heavily criticized Pirate Software for misrepresenting the petition's goals and not being more supportive of the overall aim of protecting games from being pulled away from consumers. 

"I don't know why Pirate Software would be so harsh on Stop Killing Games," MoistCr1tikal said, adding, "It just doesn't compute. It really is a video that did significant damage to an actually positive initiative that aimed to help consumers in the video game space." MoistCr1tikal's video exposed the SKG initiative to over 3.5 million viewers and helped get the petition over the finish line with 1.4 million signatures. The video helped SKG push forward, but it also sent some angry gamers charging in Pirate Software's direction. 

In the wake of MoistCr1tikal's "Stop Killing Games" video, Pirate Software started receiving a ton of criticism from gamers upset with his attacks on the petition. While streamers sometimes take months to admit they were wrong about something, Pirate Software refused to even back down from his position. In a lengthy post on X, he wrote, "For those that will scream HE'S DOUBLING DOWN. Yes I damn well am." He followed up that post with a comment in which he went into more detail about why he thinks it's unfeasible for game developers to leave all of their games in a playable state.

People weren't satisfied with Pirate Software maintaining his stance, and many vehemently disagreed with his opinion about the SKG initiative. "From one dev to another, you lack the intellectual octane to maneuver this space," wrote a commenter on X. Others argued with his position on the technical challenge of leaving abandoned games playable, while some still called him out for misrepresenting aspects of the SKG initiative.

MoistCr1tikal released another video called "PirateSoftware Situation" where he said that he spoke with Pirate Software via DMs for about two hours. According to him, the conversation went nowhere. "I truly cannot wrap my head around why he fights tooth and nail, coming for throats, for anyone that tries to mention that there was misrepresentation in his coverage of the Stop Killing Games initiative," he said. That video received more than 4.5 million views and helped solidify the internet's shifting attitude toward Jason "Thor" Hall. 

Near the end of 2024, Pirate Software's channel hit an all-time viewership high. The numbers were always going to come down from there, but Pirate Software's various 2025 controversies did some real damage. His viewership cratered in the aftermath of the "World of Warcraft" uproar, but Pirate Software managed to bring back many of his viewers over the course of several months. Then the Stop Killing Games commotion hit. When fans feel betrayed by their favorite streamers, they leave in droves, and that's what happened to Pirate Software. 

Accursed Farms released his video about SKG and Pirate Software on June 23. Within the next several days, all the drama between Pirate Software, Accursed Farms, and MoistCr1tikal played out, and Pirate Software's viewership took another heavy blow. From June 23 to June 30, his YouTube channel saw a 50% drop in viewership. By July 2025, Pirate Software's viewership was at its lowest point in years. Unlike the "World of Warcraft" situation, Pirate Software may not be able to bounce back from this controversy in a mere matter of months.

As the air was still clearing from the Stop Killing Games fiasco, Pirate Software made a surprising announcement on X. He said that he was leaving Offbrand Games, the company where he'd been working as Director of Strategy. According to Pirate Software, he felt it was necessary to leave the company because people were attacking it after everything that had happened with SKG. "People were attacking all of the games we were publishing and trying to mass review bomb them," Pirate Software wrote, adding, "You can dislike the things I say but this kind of behavior is unhinged."

Pirate Software's post earned a community note that stated Offbrand Games' titles weren't getting review bombed. According to the note, it was just Pirate Software's own personal game, "Heartbound," that had seen an uptick in negative reviews. In a follow-up post on X, Pirate Software wrote, "For those trying to say this is now somehow a lie. The abuse was across socials, people on discord, twitter, reddit, and some reviews on steam ... Overall sentiment was to bash the games and the developers working on them to try to get back at me."

A few commenters expressed some sympathy for Pirate Software, but many didn't. People called the streamer out, accusing him of once again misrepresenting a situation to make himself look better. Others said that Pirate Software's own behavior had invited all the excess criticism coming his way.

Pirate Software's channel has come down a long way from its peak engagement. In the span of about 10 months, the channel lost 90% of its viewership. The steady drip feed of controversies throughout 2025 definitely did damage to Pirate Software's platform, but the Stop Killing Games drama was a particularly deadly blow. In the two weeks following Accursed Farms's video about Pirate Software's impact on the movement, Pirate Software's YouTube channel lost 100,000 subscribers.

Pirate Software still has over two million subscribers on YouTube and another one million on Twitch, but this drop in viewership has probably still hurt his bottom line. A YouTuber named Konukaame estimated that Pirate Software's channel was making about $8,000 a month less after the SKG drama than it had been in April 2025. There's no denying that the SKG backlash has had a massive effect on Pirate Software's channel, but it's also clear at this point that he's dead-set in his opposition to the initiative.