Twitch now has a new 'Pools, Hot Tubs, and Beaches' category for certain videos, giving controversial hot tub streams a new home on the streaming service. This move comes after months of debate about whether this type of content belongs on Twitch, with the company hoping it offers a better experience for both viewers and brands.
The past few months have seen a rise in hot tub streams on Twitch. These typically feature women and female-presenting streamers gaming, chatting with fans, and doing all sorts of other activities — all while wearing bathing suits in a hot tub or other body of water. While Twitch doesn't allow full or partial nudity, its policies say that streamers may wear swimwear in "contextually appropriate situations" — thus resulting in hot tub streams being an outlet for certain streamers to express themselves with more suggestive clothing. These types of streams have proven incredibly popular, though not all of the attention being drawn to them has been positive. Not only have people online complained that the content is overly sexual in nature, but there have also been instances in which certain hot tub streamers saw their advertising features taken away without warning. Looking to keep streamers, viewers, and brands as happy as possible, Twitch is now introduced the Pools, Hot Tubs, and Beaches category mentioned above.
In a recent blog post, Twitch says that the new category should be used by streamers wearing swimwear in appropriate situations (in a hot tub, near a pool, at the beach, etc.). The new category is available in the Twitch app right now for users to view. Open the Twitch website/app, go to the Browse section, and click/tap the Pools, Hot Tubs, and Beaches icon. Many streamers are already using the new category, with Twitch noting it's reaching out to them with additional details on how they can create content with it.
Pros & Cons Of Twitch's Hot Tub Category
This is a big move for one of Twitch's most popular niches, and as such, it comes with some interesting pros and cons. For viewers that enjoy hot tub streams, finding them is much easier than before. Comparatively, viewers that don't want to watch these types of streams will no longer see them scattered throughout the Just Chatting category that they previously lived in.
What could be a potential issue, however, is the impact on advertising for hot tub streams. Companies can choose to exclude certain Twitch categories from their advertising campaigns, and now that there's a dedicated area for hot tub streams, it just got a lot easier for brands to exclude these creators if they wish. That's not to say this is something all advertisers will do, but the option is now there. If enough advertisers start omitting Pools, Hot Tubs, and Beaches from their campaigns, that could force some hot tub streamers to create other content instead.
As for whether or not this was the right move, that remains to be seen. Twitch says that the hot tubs category "is not intended to be our long-term solution" for improving advertising targeting to recommending streams to users, suggesting that bigger changes could be coming down the road. Those additional changes could potentially be even worse for the existence of hot tub streams on Twitch, meaning the drama over this situation is likely far from over.
Source: Twitch (1), (2)