Devin@DevinNash
Twitch is making the rounds again for incompetent decision making and If you've ever wondered "why isn't Twitch fixing this!?" this thread is for you. Let's clear up some misconceptions and have an honest conversation about where the company is at.
The biggest reason you see Twitch in this state is simply that the company is a ghost of its former self. Twitch is run as a demo product for IVS - the Twitch architecture they sell to companies like Kick that want to build their own streaming service.
In 2022 when most of you knew Twitch at its height, it had roughly 2500 employees. When it became apparent that the site was not sustainable, they had a 400 person layoff (March 2023) then another 400 in late 2023, then ANOTHER 500 in January 2024.
Today Twitch is a shadow of what it was and is generously valued at about $46 billion. But Amazon is a 2.27 TRILLION dollar company. That means that best case, and $46b really is best case, Twitch is about 2% of Amazon's total portfolio. This was from a Needham analyst and I think the real number is much less, but let's assume that's true.
Twitch is only mentioned a handful of times in earnings calls and financial disclosures, and never on its own. In 10 years Twitch has come up in Amazon public reports 4 times. 3 were in the Q1 earnings call in 2021, and the Q1 earnings call in 2024. They both were one sentence, and referred to Twitch as part of Amazon's advertising package. The 4th mention was a Q1 2025 Earnings Call, and was an Amazon executive mentioning Twitch as part of a "non-profitable sector." It has never had its own financial specifics listed publicly in a 10-K, meaning it's not material enough for Amazon to give it separate reporting.
In late 2024 Dan Clancy (current CEO of Twitch) said Twitch is "not profitable at this point" and that revenue was at a five-year low. This is 9 years into the companies lifecycle.
When I got into brand advertising I started with Twitch and thought I was running hot because I was doing $20,000-$50,000 influencer activations for gaming sponsorships for streamers on the platform.
Then I expanded my agencies client base, 10x'd those deal values, and realized absolutely no one cares about Twitch. It's simply too weird, too parasocial, too extreme because of dominant political streamers and drama farmers for most advertisers to look at. If you are a non-gaming brand it is a joke to advertise on Twitch, and it's because of Twitch's direct choices to platform the types of streamers it does that this is so.
And these days warring streamer communities will literally crawl email addresses of VPs of Marketing and warn them about advertising there. This happened to more than one of my clients when we focused budget there. It's unhinged and all just too much trouble to bother.
Even in the world of livestreaming Twitch has lost out to Youtube and Tiktok Live. So it's not even a primary choice for advertisers who want that inventory. Youtube Live is 50% of the market, with 13.26 billion watched hours. Tiktok Live comes next at 9.23 billion, or 14.9% of the market. Twitch is half of that at 4.35 billion, representing only 6.3% of the market. For perspective, 8 years ago Twitch was over 75% of the market. That's how far it's fallen.
So if you wonder why Twitch appears so incompetent and the laughing stock of Twitter, it's just not a relevant platform. Most of the truly great minds that worked there have left and the few that remain are marginalized and mired in corporate nonsense where any idea gets sunk into endless bureaucracy and never implemented. Most of the people left are enjoying the free meals at Twitch HQ and 6 figure salaries in San Francisco, and hoping AI doesn't clean them out of a job.
Amazon doesn't need or care to fix it. It gives them advertising exposure to gaming and 16-36 year old male demos and is a great sales pitch for IVS web services. They do not care about the content or the creators. Amazon is a consumer-goods brand, not an ad network like Google is. That is why you see Youtube as such a priority for Google - because it's ad network is integral to its success. That is also why Youtube generates tons of profit, because of all of Google's business model can feed into it. But Amazon has a much weaker ad network, and it's directed towards selling its products on Amazon. It was never, and will never be, a content brand. They just don't care about that.
If this post feels like I'm dooming on Twitch, I'm not. I actually think Twitch is pretty AI-resistant and a great platform to create on if you have a solid top-level discovery funnel that doesn't depend on it. You should never ever expect new viewers from Twitch. I also think it is not so great a loss leader for Amazon that it won't die and instead just remain a rudderless ship, with features gradually being stripped so it doesn't bleed Amazon's pockets too much. That could change in a long-term recession, but it's unlikely.
I still love the platform and watch it everyday - mostly the OG gaming creators like Lirik and CohhCarnage who I think are the lifeblood of it.
I just wish it was honest with itself and did what it does best, be a community-driven gaming platform. It's sad to see it lose its way. I don't see that improving without an extreme visionary CEO taking it on and convincing Amazon it needs serious change.
I miss what Twitch was, and I'm still adamant that banning all political content is the first step to getting it back there. I'm grateful though that there's still a lot of authentic creators and I hope they still make careers on the platform, albeit they are wise enough to diversify.
But if you've ever wondered why nothing seems to change and they make mistake after mistake, this is why. It's sometimes funny to witness how hilariously bad they mess stuff up but it's unfortunate in that it negatively impacts a lot of lives, both creators and users. I hope it changes, but I wouldn't hold your breath.
