Gambling stream was heavily popular on Twitch before the platform eventually banned it. Prominent streamers such as Trainwreckstv and xQc used to stream their Stake.com, a crypto-gambling site that is now a co-founder of Kick, gambling session on Twitch. However, just recently, Twitch reported that gambling stream viewership dropped by 75%.
Changes in policy affected the viewership
Because of the criticisms that Twitch received for not regulating gambling streams and exposing its community to potential harm, it updated its policy back in October 2022. It prohibited the streaming of gambling sites such as Stake.com, Duelbits.com and Roobet.com. Twitch also prohibited sharing of links or referral codes that include slots, roulette and dice games.
According to their post on X (Twitter), “This meant the change had an immediate impact, and that our community has been better protected from scams and related harms.” Twitch added, “Since then, we’ve observed some new trends and are updating our list of prohibited sites to better protect our community. It’s important that the policy continues to meaningfully prevent harm.”
Twitch is expanding its ban on gambling on stream
Twitch said that it’s banning two more gambling sites — Blaze and Gamdom. The company didn’t specify why those two sites are banned. The post adds, “Our goal now, as it was last fall, is to protect our community, address predatory behavior, and make Twitch safer.”
The gambling meta was the top category on Twitch for months. Aside from the change in policy, the 75% drop in viewership might also be due to streamers’ departure from Twitch. Kick, a vying competitor of Twitch, presented itself as a better alternative to Twitch with less regulation on gambling streams and other content. However, Kick also announced that it’s removing “unnecessary” exposure to gambling-related content from its site.
