Calling out creators
xQc is one of the biggest live streamers in the world today, having amassed millions of followers across Twitch and Kick.
The 29-year-old gambling streamer took to X over the weekend with some interesting findings regarding viewbotting on Twitch. The stats show the impact of a scourge on viewbotting completed by Twitch over the previous few days:
xQc pointed out that streamers who are part of organizations or groups appear to have been hurt more through the viewbotting scourge than many solo channels.
told his X followers that they can do their own research about specific content creators
He told his X followers that they can do their own research about specific content creators, telling them to compare their performance from August 21 through August 23 versus their typical audience numbers. They can then see how much those streamers relied on bots to bump their viewer numbers.
Deep analysis
xQc explained that he thinks organizations are more likely to viewbot. He claimed that talent agencies earn commission from ad streams and that by securing their clients bigger audiences, they can sell larger ad packages and as a result make more money. This, as xQc put it, amounts to fraud.
While he acknowledged that the average viewer doesn’t really care about the viewbotting, he believes the trend is silently killing the industry. It lowers the discoverability for smaller streamers and cuts their income, the Canadian stated.
During his research, he found some streamers who went from around 100 daily viewers to more than 5,000 overnight.
xQc doesn’t think anything will really change
Despite highlighting the matter and getting over five million views on his original X post, xQc doesn’t think anything will really change. He said that he’d be mad at himself if he didn’t “try to raise some form of awareness” about the matter “before it’s too late.”
Money is the root
One person went even deeper on this issue. In response to xQc’s post, Devin Nash posted his own analysis:
He claimed that many creators started viewbotting themselves and were then signed by agencies that had to turn a blind eye once they learned what was happening.
incentivizes streamers to viewbot as they can make more money by doing so
Nash also explained how sponsorship rates are often based on concurrent viewers per hour. This incentivizes streamers to viewbot as they can make more money by doing so.
He believes that advertisers are aware of this issue and are cutting down the budget they allocate to Twitch, which hurts the platform’s credibility and the opportunity for creators to make a living.
