The Real Reason Why Sykkuno Thinks Streamers Are Leaving Twitch
Twitch is slowly but surely losing its monopoly on internet livestreaming. Each day more and more viewers are tuning in to its competitor, YouTube Gaming. Youtube Gaming's popularity can mainly be attributed to the dozens of already established streamers who switched to the site and brought their respective audiences. For example, big-name streamers such as Ludwig and TimTheTatman have paved the way for others to make the transition. More recently, popular streamer Sykkuno joined this constantly expanding list of Twitch refugees.
Following the move, Sykkuno has caused a stir in the livestreaming community because he has been unapologetically outspoken about how he feels about Twitch. He previously weny on record to say that he didn't feel respected by Twitch, explaining that the counteroffer Twitch sent in response to YouTube's was incredibly low. Additionally, he humorously added that the last straw was Twitch misspelling his name in a letter. Now, during a recent podcast, Sykkuno gave some insight into what he believes is the reason streamers are leaving Twitch.
Sykkuno feels big streamers are replaceable
During a May 5th episode of the Banter podcast featuring Sykkuno and his friends, the topic of Youtube Gaming versus Twitch came up organically. Fellow content creator, Sapnap began the discussion with, "I feel like Twitch is dropping the ball a little bit, no? Like it doesn't seem like they really care when their top creators, just like, dip." Sykkuno responded, "I think they're treating it like creators are just replaceable... it makes more sense to take deals like that because if I'm replaceable, I'm never going to get it again, you know?" It's hard to blame Sykkuno for making the move to YouTube Gaming. Even if his viewer count sees a dip, it beats feeling replaceable amidst a sea of content creators.
However, it might not be the last viewers see of Sykkuno on Twitch. Sykkuno explained, "If I'm not replaceable, then they might learn their lesson and they'll hopefully value it more highly next time." Maybe Twitch will start to understand how having its most popular streamers leave the site has impacted the community and fight harder for these streamers when their YouTube contracts are up. And as Disguised Toast recently announced, more streamers are moving to YouTube, so Twitch may need to make some significant changes before their top earners jump ship.