Pirate Software claims Twitch has no ad revenue problems and that streamer incomes are consistent with last year

By Richik "anarkiddie" Bhattacharya

Modified Nov 20, 2024 03:02 GMT

Streamer and game developer Pirate Software has refuted claims that Twitch is facing advertising problems, asserting that content creators' ad revenue remains consistent with last year's figures. To support his claim, he shared a meme graph showing his monthly income from broadcasts over the past 12 months.

The community has been buzzing about a Twitch "adpocalypse" after some streamers reported that their ad revenue had significantly decreased. In a post on X dated November 19, 2024, Pirate Software explained that the perceived revenue loss for some streamers is due to the Amazon-owned platform's time-consuming process of calculating ad income. He wrote:

"The reason people are seeing no ad revenue for the "last two days" is because none of us ever have. Twitch calculates ad revenue for a stream 3-4 days later which has always been the case. It shows as no ad revenue until that calculation is done."

TheStockGuyTV, one of the streamers who initially reported a drop in ad revenue, revealed that his income returned to normal after he removed the political 'Election' tag from his broadcasts.

Pirate Software echoed this sentiment, stating that streamers with Political and Sexual Themes tags on their broadcasts are experiencing reduced income.

"The reason some streamers were seeing reduced ad-fill rates was because of their content and tags. If you had a tag with sexual or political themes of any kind you stopped getting ad-fill. This is also normal on any other platform but now enforced by Twitch haphazardly through the tagging system."

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"There is no Twitch adpocalypse": Pirate Software states that streamer incomes are the same, shares last year's numbers as proof

In October 2024, Devin Nash, the CEO of CLG, posted on X that advertisers might be leaving Twitch due to perceived extremist content on the platform.

The streaming website has been criticized for allegedly amplifying anti-Semitic voices. This sparked discussions about a potential Twitch "adpocalypse," with many streamers claiming their ad revenues had decreased in November.

Pirate Software strongly refuted these claims, beginning his X post by stating that there is no such phenomenon:

"There is no Twitch adpocalypse."

Pirate Software then argued that for it to be termed an advertising apocalypse, all streamers on Twitch would need to be affected, which is not the case. He further explained that only content creators using certain political tags have received lower ad revenue.

"An adpocalypse would denote that this is happening to everyone on the platform. It's not. Our income is exactly the same for this time of year as it ever has been. Don't have political or sexual content on your stream, category, or tags and nothing changes."

Pirate Software also said people are exaggerating rumors about the adpocalypse.

"There are a lot of people blowing this up to be something massive when legit nothing is going on. In all of the cases provided it's either normal behavior or misused or mistargeted tags. It's also a lot of people suddenly discovering how ad revenue works on the platform."

To provide further context, Pirate Software shared an Excel sheet titled the Burrito Index, which breaks down monthly income based on how many burritos can be bought from each broadcast's revenue.

The infographic indicates that there has been no decrease in his income from last year. He also denied claims that advertisers have left Twitch since the start of the month, asserting that the alleged report is based on "unverifiable sources."

Pirate Software is not alone in denying the existence of a Twitch adpocalypse. Popular streamer xQc also refuted the claims while reacting to the news a few days ago.