Twitch viewership drops sharply after crackdown on viewbotting

Twitch

Twitch has rolled out an update targeting viewbotting, exposing how many streamers had been inflating their audience numbers artificially. The platform’s Support team confirmed that channels using viewbots would see their numbers corrected, and the results have been significant.

Since the update, thousands of creators have reported a steep decline in viewership, with average concurrent viewers, watch hours, and related engagement metrics falling noticeably. According to industry analyst Zach Bussey, the overall drop has ranged between 5 and 22 percent, affecting everyone from small streamers with fewer than 100 CCV to some of the top 500 creators on the platform.

The fallout has sparked wider criticism across the streaming community. Viewbotting, long dismissed as a background problem, has been shown to harm both advertisers and smaller creators. By inflating numbers, streamers and agencies made Twitch less reliable as an advertising platform while simultaneously limiting the discoverability of genuine creators who relied on organic growth.

Several high-profile names have spoken out on the issue. On August 23, xQc claimed on X that major talent agencies and streamer groups had engaged in widespread viewbotting, calling it “ad fraud.” He argued that these agencies manipulated advertisers and Twitch’s algorithm to benefit larger creators at the expense of smaller ones.

Supporting this, SteamCharts product manager Nazar Babenko revealed that more than 41,000 Twitch channels averaging over 50 viewers showed signs of potential viewbotting. On rival platform Kick, the situation appeared worse, with nearly one in six channels averaging over 50 viewers flagged for suspicious activity.

Other creators, including MoistCritical and QTCinderella, have discussed the controversy in videos, with Charlie praising Twitch’s move and QT urging further measures. Meanwhile, streamers such as YourRage and Lacy, who saw their viewership numbers collapse, have begun issuing statements addressing the decline.

Industry commentator Devin Nash added further context, stating that advertising agencies, including his own, unknowingly spent millions promoting products to artificially inflated audiences. He said this practice has been widespread for years and has led advertisers to abandon Twitch campaigns, stripping smaller creators of potential sponsorship opportunities.

This directly contradicts Twitch CEO Dan Clancy’s earlier remarks, in which he suggested that viewbotting was mainly a problem among smaller streamers. Data from Twitch’s latest crackdown, however, points to larger creators and organisations such as OTK, Asmongold, and Mizkif being equally affected.