A Twitch streamer recently lashed out at their own streaming audience for watching their content without paying. Twitch, like YouTube, is a place where content is primarily offered free, although there are various monetization methods creators can employ to help fund and support the content they create.
There’s a number of ways Twitch streamers can make money with sponsorship, selling merchandise, and affiliate marketing being a few prime examples. Although one of the most common ways is through subscriptions. Viewers are able to directly subscribe to a channel and can choose from various price tiers with the cheapest subscription starting at $5. As these are monthly subscriptions, building them up is an ideal way of guaranteeing a level of income each month. However, subscriptions and other viewer-paying contributions are optional and something creators appreciate, not demand from their audience.
BadBunny is the Twitch streamer in question here. During a live stream, BadBunny went on a verbal tirade attacking those watching the channel for not financially supporting the channel. This was not just a one-way tirade either as whenever a viewer reached out with a comment, BadBunny would specifically highlight the comment and attack the audience even more. For example, when one viewer commented that maybe January is not the best month for people financially, BadBunny responded with comments like “people are lying” if they say they can’t afford a $5 a month sub or that not paying is a sign that viewers “don’t respect” BadBunny as a content creator.
Bad Twitch Form Or A Sign Of Things To Come?
No matter what, begging in a stream like this is not a great look for the creator, the channel, or platforms like Twitch in general. Since the stream went live, many people (including other creators), have taken to Twitter (the BadBunny Twitter account has now been set to private), YouTube and elsewhere to wade in with their option. Most of which seem to be in sync on how this is not a good thing for creators to do and a sign of creator entitlement. The last point is one to note as almost no content creators immediately start making money from content, and plenty of them continue to provide content on a full-time basis without making money from it – or as much as they would like. Platforms like these are based around the concept that content is free with the option to support if the viewer wants. Therefore, while a content creator is entitled to be unhappy if they don’t feel they are being paid what they think they deserve, it is the terms of the deal they agreed to when signing up. Many creators in the same position as BadBunny would simply be happy enough that they do have an actual (and growing) audience.
Of course, if you’ve never heard of the BadBunny Twitch channel then stunts like this are a great way to attract more views as now you have heard of the channel. Likewise, the act itself seems to be working considering BadBunny put out a shorter clip a little later entitled “Begging works.” The clip not only highlights that BadBunny sees nothing wrong with the begging approach, but also that guilt-tripping viewers into paying works. Then again, BadBunny is hardly the only content creator who has acted like this in the past, and is just the Twitch streamer who’s currently drawing attention to the issue.
Source: BadBunny / Twitch