Ive heard this over and over, but it’s bullshit.

I watch half a dozen streamers on twitch. 4 apex legends streamers and 2 developers(all dudes because that seems somewhat relevant). I don’t browse random streams and I don’t click on anything.

Occasionally, I’ll end up watching other streamers if my guys raid someone as they sign off. But never are they raiding “boobi” streams. It’s usually other apex streamers or other devs.

The other day, home page was filled with tits and scantally clad ladies. The recommended feeds were almost all that.

So I’m not clicking on it. I’m not seeking it out. I’m not even hovering over it. But it was pushing that content hard.

Just not true. I don’t have a twitch account and visited to see what it’s all about and it’s all over. Even if you peek inside the just chatting category it’s a huge majority of the top content

Of anything, what you state is the result of content filtering for yourself and not for everyone at large.

This might be a repost of an older meme when it was stíl true

I’d like to think that, but I just went to twitch to see what was up and i’ve got one “18+ 🥵🥵” in my recommends despite the only things i’ve really watched on twitch being like 24 hours of marvel snap to collect rewards in that game (i left it in a tab running in the background because why the fuck would i watch other people play something I can just play? but i wanted the in game rewards), some classic TNA (which despite the name is just wrestling) and the first iteration of watch forever (the ai generated Seinfeld).

So they’re definitely advertising it outside people explicitly looking for it.

That said i have no problem with it, if this is how people are making their bag in our capitalist hellscape, get that bag…

Yeah, OP has “why do these homosexuals keep sucking my cock?” energy.

A stream is a very different format for content, but that doesn’t necessarily make it worse - only different.

1. As streams are live, anything could happen, so there’s the possibility for unexpected excitement and being a part of that as it happens
2. Live chat can make a stream feel social and connected with other viewers
3. Streams give you the ability to speak to the streamer and change the outcome of the stream

I think that the way people consume content has also changed. A lot of people watch streams “in the background” just as noise while they do other things, not in a way where they are giving the stream their 100% focus in the way you would with a short and well-edited video.

15 minutes of good content in several hours? You might not be watching the best streams ngl.

From my view, I enjoy watching Twitch for two main reasons:

1. For the same reason I like watching live sports rather than a 15 minute cut of highlights - the feeling of experiencing events in real time, the payoff of seeing a big play unfold after all the anticipation leading up to it, watching strategies and counter-strategies unfold in real time, that kind of stuff.

2. For the same reason I like watching video essays, stand-up comedy, interview shows, podcasts, or other media where one particular person is the focus - that person is entertaining to me. They have a personality I vibe with, they’re funny, they have an interesting perspective, etc.

To a lesser extent, it’s also nice background noise. I can throw a stream on at the beginning of my workday and not have to fiddle with it until I’m done with work, because it’s a constant, reliable source of background noise.

As a genXer I don’t get it either. The model at the moment referenced here makes much more sense to me at least. Not understanding twitch is a real marker of shifts in generational mindsets. I think I understand tech, but I wouldnt invest in tech sectors as I clearly don’t have the instinct for it anymore.

What makes sense is two things:

1. You can ask questions about the game and get a direct answer, often including someone showing you exactly the thing in the game you asked about.

2. Some streams are genuinely entertaining, such as GTA RP streams. These people mostly aren’t slobbering fat guys (though some are) but are actually working and acting the entire time.

Seems like a lot of them aren’t greasy men in tank tops.

Watching someone play video games is straight up younger sibling energy. I don’t get it at all, but I was the older brother.

Smaller streams make more sense to me. It’s like a virtual social setting, an old school chatroom, but with a focus of attention, and a guy kind of structuring the whole thing, and a guy who can be engaged with. Occasionally, the streamer can be cool, most of the time they’re kind of a goblin, though, so the good streams are few and far between.

Larger streams don’t make much sense unless you kind of view them as being like, the same appeal as talk radio, or something, because the chat scrolls way too fast and most of it is emotes, so most messages will never get read, and never have anything good to say in the first place. There’s not much of an advantage for any of it to be live content, it just sort of is a relic of the format. Sometimes you get higher production stuff, most of the time it’s just some bald asshole ranting about the prices of things in costco and doing other bad stand up bits.

Edit: Also a big appeal is how brainrotted people are. The focus (I’m generalizing now across all internet platforms) is less on some specific information, and is more on “personality” and appeals like that, because that’s the most sustainable way to pump out a metric ton of content at all times, and algorithms tend to reward when you pump out a ton of content. And so you get a lot of parasocial relationships and non-content, and viewers, frankly, just watch whatever’s in front of them. There’s not a lot of control these platforms, increasingly, give you over what you’re watching anyways, and people aren’t going to keep pulling that skinner’s box lever unless they get a hit at some point. Most of the content ends up being dogshit, so you get a kind of selection for people who enjoy dogshit, and a lack of other options, so people just acclimate to their lack of alternative and become kind of complacent in their environment.

For twitch more specifically, you also basically just get shit that’s meant to only reward people’s dopamine centers, when they get their message read by the streamer, and then they keep pulling the lever on the slot machine over and over multiple times per stream. Either that, right, or you’re getting a lot of people who just don’t have many social relationships, and just want to feel like they’re part of a larger organization, or being, even if it’s totally mindless and meaningless. People who want to “turn off” and just kind of mindlessly be part of the flow of the chat, or what have you. That last part is the brainrot, basically.

But if you give the greasy man $50 he will say your name!!!

A buddy from college is a somewhat famous twitch streamer. I remember seeing him a few years after college and asking what he was up to, and couldn’t believe he was making any money just streaming himself playing League. My brain couldn’t comprehend who would want to watch that. That was like 10 years ago, and dude is still doing it, and hasn’t worked a real job in a decade. I’m low key jealous AF.

Right? The 15 minutes of watching someone else play would even be a challenge for me if I’m actually trying to pay attention. That is the kind of content I barely can do as background noise.

Never understood concert goers.

So you’re telling me that instead of listening to 4 minutes of edited music you can watch an old fart on stage for four hours?

(Not even a twitch head by the way)

For me it’s that twitch is a lot more personal, at least it used to be.

I met some of my best friends hanging out in smaller streams. That was 8 years ago. We still hang out daily in discord or on twitch when one of them streams.

I’ll never understand how Twitch became as big as a thing as it is.

You already answered that in your comment.

You want to watch videos, not livestreams. Of course a video will be better at being, you know, a video (nicely edited, in short format, etc). A livestream is different for many reasons, none of which interests you apparently.

Nothing wrong with that tbh. It’s just not for you.

I much prefer to watch gameplay on twitch. It’s a much more natural way of consuming content vs the super energetic, loud, pushy YouTube videos.

Edited game content provides very little entertainment value to me, while I mostly have streams turned on as background noise and check in occasionally to see what happens.

I mainly watch speedruns and esports live because if you’re watching a video you already know if a runner has PBed or which team won (in the case if esports)

If you click “I want to watch mature content” on any profanity stream such as Soda or Summit your feed magically starts filling up with titty streamers.

The notion that you need to seek them out first is false.

It’s the internet post-2014. If you have simply never heard of someone’s particular flavour of BDSM kink before, they take it like you’re attacking them.

Maybe growing up in a warm, costal area makes it more common, but young women just wear similar outfits to most feminine streamers where I’m from. They usually aren’t making a statement about it, it’s just hot outside and they don’t mind showing off. It’s normal.

Some streamers do embody the meme. Some focus cameras on their ass. However, feminine streamers aren’t the majority, and most of them aren’t even that sexual. On a whole, men have more viewers, with almost every top streamer being male.

Part of why the discourse around sexual streamers seems so prudish is that they don’t dominate on twitch. There are a few popular ones, but women don’t even dominate the site; there’s just more of them than in the past. Most feminine streamers aren’t sexual. People see what they want to see.

The only male streamer ever suspended for showing his bare chest was crossdresser. Masculinity is normalized, so femininity is othered.

You know how people watch videos of master carpenters or cobblers or whatever the fuck do their jobs expertly? This is like that but with videogames instead of building shit.

Alternatively, you know how people watch dumbasses with endearing personalities do whatever the fuck? This is like that. Exactly like that.

Personally, I enjoy watching people who are better than me play a game. One of my favorites is Insym, dude is just incredible at figuring out the mechanics behind gameplay and screwing around with the game engine. It’s really interesting to watch him figure stuff out and test his theories in real time.

On the opposite end of the scale it can also be hilarious to watch someone like Jerma walk around talking about food while ignoring the most obvious things in the game. It’s like a mobile ad that makes you want to play the game just to do it right.

There’s plenty of trash content on twitch but there are definitely creators that make watching them play a lot more about their personality than the game itself.

I sometimes watch it for games that I think I can learn/improve by watching. Like chess.

me too. honestly I don’t even watch video walk throughs it’s too uncomfortable

For me it’s nice to have someone playing the same game as I am while I’m playing, the streams are usually long so I don’t need to worry about stopping to find something new to put on and I learn stuff about the game I might have missed or just never knew. I live alone so, depending on the streamer, the conversation is also nice to have around.

I can’t say I’m one of those that only watches a stream though, I need to be doing something other than just watching lol

I can’t do it, either. The only way it’s tolerable is if I’m sitting next to them and can occasionally grab the controller (husband and I get through 1 player games this way, currently playing The Sinking City)

there are a few in very popular yet casual categories like Overwatch, but yes you have to go into hot tubs to see them and spend time in those streams to get recommended them

I mean yes, but this is still the Just Chatting section

Yes but the just chatting section as been this for years regardless of what we last unenforced rules twitch makes

For years, Twitch’s “Just Chatting” section has basically been podcasts, Reaction content where streamers play a youtube and go take a shit, and (generally female presenting) streamers in various states of undress. You may have heard of “the hot tub meta” which involved putting on a skimpy bikini.

This has resulted in some pretty awkward front pages where it can look like you are looking out the window in a beach town or left a PG-13 movie on. Because, you know, bikinis.

This came to a head semi-recently when “the topless meta” became a thing where (generally) female (presenting) streamers would put on a tube top, position the camera like they are doing a face stream in the early 2010s, and make people think they are actually topless. So obviously a bunch of the most generic white guys with man buns on the planet (and Kai “Trick guests and other streamers into being raped by my violent rapist buddy” Cenat) lost their shit and competed to go viral with their Reaction content to putting something tamer than what TBS shows on daytime television when they play Austin Powers on the screen.

So Twitch/Amazon actually made a good decision for the first time in years by allowing artistic nudity and sexualized content so long as streamers checked a box that would add content warnings and take them off the front page. Which led to a race to promote OF/Fansly content by the streamers interested in that and to show how sexualized content is destroying the white man by the usual suspects. And Twitch, rather than try to moderate this, rolled it back.

Because, as OP demonstrates, there is this completely asinine “theory” that bikini streamers are ruining and taking over twitch. And, while I am not a fan and wish we had the content warning policy, they really aren’t. The top 100 streamers by almost any metric are almost universally dudes (many in tanktops because they hit the gym and male nipples aren’t scary) with the few female streamers being people like Pokimane or QTCinderella who actively do not do this kind of content.

But just look at people like andrew tate and like half of kick. There is a lot of money in pushing incel content and hate.

They recently made a post saying sexual dancing would be allowed on the platform but then changed their minds after being roasted for it.

As a father who is a linux wizard and knows every single ip our BABIES go to

why are you using a VPN son 😢???

In some countries, porn is banned so they watch this.

Yeah, I do a similar thing with youtube and reddit. I am interested in communities of humans I like curating content and conversations. I am less interested in a robot doing so, even if it wasn’t a crap advertisement and engagement robot.

I am interested in the humans and I find it infuriating how often these websites try to shove what the robots want me to engage with down my throat while hiding access to the humans/communities I am interested in so I always have to click through to see it.

Not interested is very different from disinterested or disgusted.

This single image really rustled your jimmies huh?

You know, I don’t get offended or anything. But it’s impossible to mute / block streamers, and there are some particularly annoying offenders which I just don’t want to see when I open twitch. Just give me the option to filter that out and I won’t complain again.