For years, Pokimane has been best-known as one of Twitch’s top female streamers (often going up against Amouranth), but she’s just announced that her two-year contract with the site has come to an end. This follows a pattern of her OfflineTV colleague and friend Disguised Toast, who left Facebook Gaming for Twitch after his own recent contract ending. Toast had teased his new contract ahead of its announcement, and likewise, Pokimane says that the “next chapter” will be revealed on February 8, hinting that she’s likely leaving Twitch rather than re-signing the contract. After all, she’s called it the “next chapter,” but this would actively continue to push YouTube against Twitch in the fight for the biggest audience.
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Twitch Is Possibly Losing Pokimane
Currently, it’s unclear why Pokimane would want to stop streaming on Twitch, though she will likely explain whatever announcement is coming in the future. Her reasoning could be similar to Ludwig’s, who stated that he felt like YouTube cared more about him, especially during the contract negotiations. He said Twitch did little to acknowledge him during this process but felt more confident that YouTube would put more of an effort into their professional relationship. The Doc, as well, received little to no acknowledgment from Twitch when he was infamously and mysteriously banned from the platform out of nowhere.
Twitch is also a hotspot for controversies, especially when it comes to women and minorities. Both viewers and content creators have argued that, especially in the wake of outlandish waves of hate raids, the platform did little to protect POC, women, and the other disparaged groups often made targets. At least in Pokimane’s case when it came to JiDion’s hate raid, Twitch rightfully responded by permanently banning JiDion for sending targeted harassment her way. Twitch either had Pokimane’s back or wanted to send a message about targeted harassment on its site, but perhaps Pokimane has both personal and professional reasons why she’d be a better fit or more comfortable elsewhere.
If Pokimane does leave Twitch, the platform will be losing one of the only two leading streamers that are also women, currently ranking ninth in terms of followers after a list of men. Though it may not be Twitch’s decisions where its streamers decide to go off to, having an active hand in offers paired with an already male-dominated streamer base wouldn’t send a positive message about its values.
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