Twitch star Felix ‘xQc’ Lengyel discussed the rise of streamers jumping ship to rival YouTube Gaming and explained why he believes some creators lose their motivation to produce content.
The rivalry between Twitch and YouTube Gaming has become quite intense as more and more top streamers join YouTube after being offered big deals that they can’t turn down.
With Ludwig, DrLupo, TimTheTatman and most recently, Sykkuno switching to YouTube, the Amazon-owned site has lost a big chunk of its talent and it seems like even more streamers are en route to join them.
On May 2, xQc explained the issue many big Twitch stars face when they start streaming on YouTube and how they end up retiring their creativity, because of how their new platform functions.
xQc explains why you can’t “sacrifice” viewers
While watching a video by Ludwig addressing switching to YouTube, xQc began a passionate rant where he disagreed with the former Twitch star.
“So, he says ‘would you sacrifice viewers for capital?’ You can’t sacrifice viewers, because viewers aren’t a thing. You cannot hold that. You can’t hold a stat. It’s impossible,” the French Canadian began. “The only thing you do is hold content.”
According to xQc, if streamers swap, they can lose motivation to create content and then lose even more stats as a byproduct.
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“The main product is the f**king content! The problem is, people swap platforms and they retire! They retire in their pockets. They retire in there,” he roared, pointing to his head. “And once you retire in there, the content is retired. People watch it, because it’s content, but if it’s washed up, it doesn’t matter.”
xQc compares Twitch to an arena
Lengyel went on to mention how on Twitch, streamers fight for the top spots and for visibility, but that’s not possible on YouTube.
“There isn’t even a directory to fight in! You have nobody to fight against. The directory doesn’t even make you find anybody. You’re on your own. You go from a gladiator arena full of f**king fighters to being on a one-man island yelling ‘hello’ at the f**king ocean,” the former Overwatch League pro visualized.
“Sometimes, some creators, what happens? They get lost. They get lost because there’s nobody around them doing better. They’re just on their own… they lose the scale of it.”
As YouTube continues to make strides to compete with Twitch, addressing some of xQc’s biggest complaints could be key to attracting even more talent, especially if some of its new creators end up sharing similar concerns.