I asked Twitch's chief monetization officer if he would give streamers 90% of revenue

Chevron protests, streamers on the election, and Israel-Palestine

This year’s Twitchcon took on more of a political bent with Hasan Piker hosting Debatelords, a three-hour live comedy special with streamers satirizing Hillary Clinton and George Bush. The show was peak camp, with Piker at one point joking that a cracker was ‘a man in Ohio.’ Onlookers were promised Piker would be permanently branded with a face tattoo if they hit a charity milestone; the tattoo turned out to be Mike Tyson-like temporary ink carefully placed on Piker’s beard by Twitch community manager Mary Kish.¹

It was that sort of kitschy, online vibe that pervaded the weekend.² But it was coupled with an amorphous sense of injustice and the need to take political action. Just outside of the San Diego Convention Center, a group of activists gathered on a Friday evening, protesting the convention’s sponsorship by Chevron, which operates in Israel. (Debatelords did make a few jabs at Chevron, to its credit.)

Several streamers, buoyed by Piker’s presence, have made a livelihood off of speaking about politics to viewers on Twitch in recent years. With the election looming overhead, how they plan to talk about current affairs to viewers has more impact than before. Last year, I interviewed Caroline Kwan, who did the aforementioned Clinton impression, about her foray into streaming and how covering politics on the platform has been.

Kwan noted that although she had only been streaming for just under a year at that point,³ she had received a lot of harassment in comparison to her partner, Will Neff, a popular streamer who was also featured on Debatelords.

“I have definitely faced a lot of harassment, a lot of threats. My partner who has been streaming for four years has never ever received the volume or intensity of harassment that I receive. And that of course, in large part is due to the fact that I do political content, and he's the funny guy on Twitch.”

Kwan is part of a growing movement of streamers who cover politics, including frogan and Denims.

“Hasan was the reason why I even got into streaming,” frogan said to me at last year’s Twitchcon. “I started watching his political content in 2016. I really wasn’t political before that.”

I asked frogan how she plans to cover the 2024 election:

Frogan described how she collaborates with other streamers to encourage others to go out to vote, and how she uses her background in public health to educate viewers. Being politically outspoken, however, has led to online harassment for all three streamers Updater spoke to.

“I’m going to be unapologetically Arab, unapologetically pro-Palestinian,” frogan said. “People have been threatening everything but I’m not going to let that deter me from my main message... I’m just going to cover it in a way that I feel is completely honest.”

Twitch and a 90-10 revenue split

Twitch has changed a lot in a few years. Executives are now out partying alongside streamers, and improvements have been made to the mobile app, where 70% of users flock to. While Twitch’s rival Kick was not present during the San Diego festivities (its cofounders told me they were in Melbourne), it still may have made its impact. Unlike years earlier, when former Faze Clan CEO Lee Trink was telling me that Twitch was running “the risk of being complacent” and streamers complained of arbitrarily enforced rules, the platform appeared a lot less willing to rest on its laurels this time around. Instead, it was eager to start an open dialogue. It did not comment on the Dr. Disrespect ban being lifted.

One of the highlights from some of my conversations I had two weekends ago involved asking whether Twitch would ever try to match the kind of 90-10 revenue split that Kick offers its streamers.

Updater: How feasible is it to get Twitch to give 90% of revenue to streamers and keep ten percent?

Twitch chief monetization officer Mike Minton: We've acknowledged that Twitch, for the service to work, we have to think long term, right? We want to make sure that we're here. Creators, when they see those things, they understand that it's not sustainable. In the short term, maybe it provides a bump. But when I think about Twitch, because of the combination of products we have, which do include Bits which have quite a preferential rev share to streamers, that we have a system that works for us and for them and will work long term.

Vice president of community products Jeremy Forrester: It depends a little bit on the type of content they're offering. There are some platforms that aren't live streaming that have higher rev shares, they have much lower tech costs. When it comes to live streaming, it is just an expensive business.

B-side: League of Legends strike

Last Tuesday, SAG-AFTRA announced that it was striking League of Legends. I briefly spoke to a SAG-AFTRA spokesperson about what that bold announcement actually means.

What does the action mean to League of Legends?

League of Legends has a sweeping presence in the video game industry and therefor the companies involved in its production employ many SAG-AFTRA members. Formosa, as a provider of VO services for League of Legends and the game's signatory, will no longer have access to the union talent they are contractually bound to use on this game. 

How can people help support the cause?

Community Members/Fans, voice your concern over this strike, encourage the video game industry to sign the Interactive Media Agreement, do this by directly contacting the companies being struck, start a conversation online via X, Reddit or other digital platforms. 

Industry, press the video game industry to do the right thing; sign the Interactive Media Agreement, this agreement is similar in scope to SAG-AFTRA’s TV / Theatrical agreement. Though this action against Formosa is not about AI, it is an action focusing on the respect and rules for union member actors.

What is the status of other studios and the strike?

We have over 90 games signed to our Interim or Tiered-Budget Interactive Agreements and we're fast approaching 100 games signed. The status?  The bargaining group that includes Formosa has yet to agree to a fair deal that includes critical A.I. protections. In the interim, what we are seeing and what we're hearing is that there are plenty of game devs and producers who want to work with our talent and are happy to agree to our terms. 

And what’s next

If you have been wondering why I’ve been fairly quiet recently, it’s because I have been heads down finishing up Black Myth: Wukong. 120 hours, and dozens of strangers harassing me later, I’ve finally beaten the game. I’ll be sure to share more soon.

In San Diego, I spoke to a Parkland shooting victim’s mother about a video game she helped create that lets you role-play as a student attempting to escape a school shooting. She and her team were showing the game off at Twitchcon, and I’ll have a story on Inverse later this week on this.

1. Who I didn’t expect to be present was Canadian rapper baby no money, also known as bbno$. Quipping that he can’t run for president anyway, bbno$ surprised the audience by being extremely adept at scooping pasta into his shirt and thoroughly cleaning a pudding cup. He kept on surprising Twitchcon attendees that weekend — by later staging a secret concert in a meeting room, playing part of an upcoming music video and performing “it boy” where he dubs himself the Gen Z version of Eminem. At the end of four days, dozens of people wore pink beanies and took home mini plushies of the man, thanks to his excellent marketing ploy.

2. I wouldn’t be surprised if 100 gecs found their way here another year.

3. This being back at 2023’s Twitchcon.