As Twitch’s new gambling policy is now in place, Stake and other fake money crypto streamers have been forced to find a new home. Stepping in to take advantage of the situation is streaming platform DLive, which is welcoming all of the Twitch refugees with open arms and promoting the gambling meta widely on social media.
Although viewership numbers were always heavily inflated on Twitch due to the crypto streamers’ tactic of utilising viewer bots, the slots meta rose up to become one of the most dominant categories on the platform. However, the aggressive marketing is also what ultimately led to the demise of the crypto streamers, as some of Twitch’s biggest stars began to speak up about their worries about the potential dangers of promoting gambling.
Twitch themselves have made attempts to mitigate harm by prohibiting direct links and affiliate codes on streams. However, it was not until the scandal surrounding streamer ItsSliker that Twitch was forced to take more drastic measures, quickly leading to the implementation of stricter policies. The new Prohibited Gambling content policy, which came into effect on October 18, has had an instant effect on the slots meta on Twitch with viewership falling from its peak of around 80k on October 17 to no higher than 25k in the days following the update.
There is no doubt about the fact that the slots meta has been on a significant downwards trend since Twitch announced its policy changes, leaving gambling streamers time to find a new home on another platform known as DLive.
DLive brands itself as a “value sharing live streaming platform that empowers creators and viewers through a revolutionary rewards system.”. This includes using so-called blockchain technology and cryptocurrency which viewers can earn on the platform to support content creators. DLive also promotes a 75/25 revenue share split, which has become a contentious point in the community of streamers following Twitch’s defiant business decision to stick to its 50/50 subs revenue split policy.
Over the last few weeks, since the first rumours of an impending Twitch gambling ban, DLive has increasingly promoted slot streamers on their main page and across social media. Their stance has been clear with their slogan #YourStreamYourRules in the face of increasing censorship and regulation, not just on Twitch, but Youtube, TikTok, Instagram, and Facebook as well.
At the time of writing, the slots meta is by far the most popular category on DLive, with thousands of viewers compared to just hundreds in just about any other category. Whilst stars like TrainwrecksTV or xQC have not swapped platforms just to stream slots, most crypto streamers have made the move to DLive.
'AussieSlots', who boasted nearly 50k followers (although this number could be heavily inflated by bots) on Twitch before being prohibited from streaming his usual crypto casinos, is now one of the top streamers on DLive. Streamer XzosT', with his 50k followers, also made the move in the aftermath of the policy update.
Many of the former Twitch crypto streamers are actively and systematically using their Twitch accounts to direct viewers to DLive by going live on Twitch with their new stream links. This is a similar tactic being employed by 'Xposed' with his 500,000+ followers, except he is keeping audio on without any visuals whatsoever on Twitch. However, this could be risky business, and it remains to be seen whether or not this tactic will be tolerated by Twitch.
Only time will tell whether or not these gambling streamers can sustain full-time content creation on DLive. The platform is significantly smaller than Twitch - the biggest channels get a couple of thousand peak viewers at most - and without being able to attract audiences outside of the slots meta, the future of DLive is shaky. If not even Microsoft with its Mixer platform had the ability to challenge Twitch, chances are DLive won't either in the long run.
Gambling on Twitch is far from dead, however. It is still allowed on the platform with hundreds of active channels at any one time, though the slots meta has fallen out of the top 10 most-watched categories of the site for the first time in years. As many streamers still stick it out past the policy update with bonuses and codes promoted in chat, it remains to be seen if Twitch will take further action.
We have reached out to DLive for an interview, but are yet to hear back from them.
