Twitch’s fight against viewer bots has hit the platform’s most popular streamers. With the deactivation of bot services, the live viewer counts of major names like Asmongold, XQC, and Mizkif plummeted. This brought the long-standing issue of bot use back into the spotlight.

Twitch Declares War on Bots

Twitch CEO Dan Clancy had previously announced that they would fight bots. These bots either automatically play videos in a browser or impersonate real viewers through fake accounts. Although bot use is against Twitch’s Terms of Service, streamers generally went unpunished due to a lack of concrete evidence. However, increasing criticism prompted Twitch to take action.

The platform modified its source code to better detect bots. Immediately following these changes, the viewer counts of the most popular streamers dropped significantly. For example, Asmongold’s other account, “zackrawrr,” and XQC experienced noticeable drops in their viewership. This supports some followers’ claims that these streamers have been canceling or avoiding broadcasts in recent days.

By using bots, streamers climb the viewing rankings and thus reach new viewers more easily. Furthermore, high viewer numbers enable streamers to secure more lucrative sponsorship deals from companies. While Twitch continues its efforts to clean up the platform, bot services are also trying to overcome these changes. The outcome of this conflict is currently uncertain.

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