Twitch Viewership Sharply Declined As Streamers Protested Against Recent Hate Raids
On September 1st, streamers took a day-long break from Twitch, protesting against the persistent hate raids that had erupted on the video live streaming service in recent weeks.
More specifically, the walkout was orchestrated to stand against online harassment disproportionately targeted towards marginalised groups on Twitch, urging the company to put protective measures in place.
Whilst skeptics doubted the walkout participants would be influential enough to leave a dent in traffic changes, recent data compiled by Gamesite – a gaming analytics company – suggests otherwise. 
As the graph above shows, the number of active (live) channels and hours watched at 12PM PT dropped on September 1st, the hours decreasing by 1 million and live channels by 14,000 from the Wednesday prior.
This mass break from Twitch became a sort of mini-movement, the hashtag #ADayOffTwitch – which made it to the top 10 trending hashtags – coined in its name. The event also caught the attention of big-time streamers like Hasan Abi and press outlets like Forbes and USA Today.
“To see how much this has made an impact is amazing to me,” stated ShineyPen, the streamer who started #ADayOffTwitch.
“To see how much this has made an impact is amazing to me.” – ShineyPen
Whilst Twitch has not yet created solutions to the hate raid problem, this event will hopefully pave the way towards making the service a safer, more inclusive space.
Finally, for our previous #SocialShort, click here.
