Twitch announced they are releasing subscriber only streams to select streamers and several big names have reacted to this news including Ben ‘DrLupo‘ Lupo, Jaryd ‘Summit1g‘ Lazar and Felix ‘xQc‘ Lengyel.
It flew a bit under the radar but Twitch was already testing subscriber-only streams, but now they are officially out in beta.
This means that if a Twitch affiliate or partner has no community strikes, they will be free to slap a subscriber-only option on not only their chat but the stream itself.
It’s still completely up to the streamer on whether they want to use the new feature or not, but the fact that it exists is worrying many viewers.
However, a lot of the streamers have put those worries to rest as subscriber-only streams would likely not work out too well as it’d alienate many viewers.
Big streamers give their take on sub-only streams
Summit jokingly said the new feature was “disgusting” but he was still going to become a subscriber-only streamer.
In all honesty, he said he’d like to see someone test it out and see what impact it had on a stream. In all likelihood, you won’t be seeing any gigantic streamers taking a chance on this.
I know everyone is up in arms about these sub only stream capabilities. It disgusts me.
Also I’m going to be a sub only streamer now. Later.
— summit1g (@summit1g) June 26, 2019
I actually want to see someone try doing it everyday just to experiment.
— summit1g (@summit1g) June 26, 2019
Lupo explained how he could have used when his father passed away to prevent people from monetizing his reaction along with using it as a chance to prevent stream snipers from getting into his matches.
“Doing so in a sub-only stream would have prevented the number of videos that were produced to profit off of my reaction to his passing,” he tweeted. “Would have prevented the amount of “lol yur dad died” from non-subs in the following weeks, too, I think.
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Doing so in a sub-only stream would have prevented the number of videos that were produced to profit off of my reaction to his passing. Would have prevented the amount of "lol yur dad died" from non-subs in the following weeks, too, I think.
— DrLupo (@DrLupo) June 26, 2019
xQc, who has an opinion on practically everything, said that he has some reservations about the new feature.
“Sub-only streams, dude I have my concerns, I have a lot of concerns with it,” he said without going into too much more detail.
Esports personality Rod ‘Slasher’ Breslau says we don’t have to worry about Twitch ever turning into a cam-girl website since the “Just Chatting” section has already done that.
don't worry about sub streams turning Twitch into a cam site, Just Chatting already did that
— Rod Breslau (@Slasher) June 26, 2019
It sounds like a lot of streamers agree with Slasher’s sentiment, with TSM member Daequan Loco saying he was going to take advantage of this by watching some sub-only twerk streams.
Time to watch some sub only twerk streams with the boys. No snitchin on em okay, this is a game of trust. https://t.co/wjalPGeEa6
— Daequan (@TSM_Daequan) June 26, 2019
The main concern from viewers is that streamers will lock away their content but many would agree that would result in a quick death of their channel.
It sounds like we’ll just have to wait and see what impact this has in the Twitch world if it does pick up steam among streamers.