YouTube star Valkyrae came to fellow influencer Sykkuno’s defense after he caught backlash over his alleged earnings amid Twitch’s recent data breach.
For those out of the loop, Twitch — one of the world’s most popular broadcasting websites — was the victim of a massive data breach on October 6 that leaked such important details as streamers’ passwords, upcoming projects from Amazon, and even streamers’ earnings.
This last detail has drawn major attention across social media, with netizens speaking out in outrage over the sheer amount of money some of the site’s top broadcasters have been earning by streaming.
However, many content creators have claimed that the figures we’ve seen aren’t totally accurate and don’t factor in things like sponsorship deals, donations, merchandise sales, and other such ventures.
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Sykkuno faces backlash over leaked Twitch earnings
This has only further fueled the fire of outrage against Twitch’s top earners, prompting names like Hasan to trend across Twitter over the matter — but he’s far from the only one getting flak right now.
Sykkuno is also facing some backlash amid the information leak, but good friend and fellow broadcaster Valkyrae (who signed an exclusive streaming deal with YouTube last year) quickly came to his defense in a recent stream.
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Valkyrae comes to Sykkuno’s defense after streamer gets hate over his earnings
In her stream, Valkyrae called out users who were hating on Sykkuno due to a popular meme in his community. The meme stems from a childhood story where a leak accidentally ran his family’s water bill up to an exorbitant amount, prompting him to joke about needing to stream in order to pay it off.
That’s not all; Sykkuno also spoke about his income during a broadcast, where he notably stated that he was making “ten times less money” than he was at the height of Among Us’s heyday when his popularity was at its peak.
“I don’t think I’m poor, but super unstable how much you make,” he said. “So that’s why I feel like streaming is difficult. Because I made ten times as much, back then. I don’t think I’m poor at all, but that’s just how it is when you stream. Streamers aren’t poor, but you don’t know how long it’s gonna last.”
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Valkyrae wasn’t amused by the internet’s response to Sykkuno’s comments and the backlash around his community’s popular meme.
“I just want to say, if you are genuinely hating Sykkuno right now for the water bill meme, that’s on you, alright?” she clapped back. “Isn’t it obvious that he was trolling? He was trolling. There’s actually people, he’s trending right now, and people actually believe he’s poor baiting.”
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The leaked information claims that Sykkuno earned around $113,896 in September 2021 alone — although, again, this doesn’t factor in other revenue sources. For now, it’s unclear exactly how much any of these broadcasters are making… but it is clear that it’s causing a ruckus, either way.