The #ADayOffTwitch protest that took place yesterday (September 1) saw a sizable concurrent viewer drop on the platform.
Over the last seven days, TwitchTracker illustrates that Twitch’s concurrent viewer number has peaked around 4.5million, while on September 1 the peak was 3.5million, showcasing a significant drop-off. As of writing (September 2) the viewer count sits at around 3.5million, but it looks like it will continue to increase past yesterday’s peak.
Since early 2020 the number of average viewers on Twitch has been over 4million, showing that the #ADayOffTwitch protests have impacted the numbers.
The movement started due to Twitch’s lack of a substantial response to the problem of hate raids on the platform. A hate raid uses the Twitch raid mechanic, where one channel can send its viewers to another when its stream is over, to flood an unsuspecting streamer with harmful language and abuse.
Hate raids attack marginalised streamers with messages that spam their chats pertaining to transphobic and homophobic slurs, and sometimes even the streamers personal details.
So… y'all still fighting with me?
Let me see those hands.
We are not done yet, babies. Not at all!— Rek It, Raven!
(@RekItRaven) September 2, 2021
Originally the #TwitchDoBetter hashtag from streamer RekItRaven was used to highlight the problem, with Twitch then releasing a statement. Twitch said on Twitter that it was “able to identify a vulnerability in our proactive filters,” and that it had “rolled out an update to close this gap and better detect hate speech in chat,” adding that channel-level ban evasion and account verification would be coming later this year.
Many thought this wasn’t enough, though, so the #ADayOffTwitch protest was organised for September 1, hoping that Twitch would promise more decisive action. It was organised by Rekt It Raven, ShineyPen, and Lucia Everblack.
The protest demands aimed towards Twitch can be seen in the image above. Twitch has not issued a response to the protest on September 1 as of writing.
In other news, TimTheTatMan has joined DrLupo as another content creator to leave Twitch for an exclusive YouTube Gaming deal.
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