Summary
- Twitch has a massive audience of 140 million active users per month, but not all the statistics seen on the platform are genuine.
- View botting, the act of artificially inflating viewing numbers on a channel, has been a recurring problem on Twitch and can distort engagement statistics.
- Asmongold and other streamers have called out content creators they believe are using view bots, and Twitch has been criticized for not taking enough action to address the issue.
Since Twitch, an Amazon-owned streaming platform, started becoming a mainstream source of entertainment, it's garnered a massive audience. According to Twitch Tracker, Twitch has 140 million active users a month which is not a small achievement. Unfortunately, while the site is popular, not every statistic people see is genuine.
There have been plenty of controversies on Twitch since it launched in 2011 which includes debates over gambling, hot tub streams, and view botting. The latter has been a recurring problem since social media was created, though it can be difficult to prove. As such, over the years Asmongold has been adamantly calling out content creators he believes are partaking in these actions.
The Issue With View Bots on Twitch
For those unfamiliar, view botting is a method that some use to artificially inflate viewing numbers on a channel. Variations of this can include boosting follower counts, or "likes" on platforms such as Instagram, Twitter, YouTube, etc. Recently, Kick has been criticized for view bots being added to gambling streams.
View botting may seem harmless to some but in the past, internet trolls have bombarded Twitch with fake viewers. Though they're likely trying to make a channel seem more popular or attract other viewers, it actually skews the stream's engagement statistics. This can be worse for those unaware it's happening and are hoping to grow organically.
Some streamers purposefully use web services to appear as if more people are watching, whereas some may be unaware that others are sending bots to their channels. Separate programs will have different behaviors, but typically view bots won't write in chat. If they do, the messages they send don't usually feel authentic. But while view botting is against terms of service for Twitch and Kick, it can be difficult to detect.
Accusing someone of using bots can be a heavy claim to make. This can be even more devastating if that person turns out to be wrong. In spite of this, Asmongold hasn't shied away from pointing fingers at people he thinks are abusing the system, going so far as to allege that Blizzard was botting its World of Warcraft: Dragonflight trailer in November. Trainwreckstv, a co-founder of Kick, has also been at the forefront of the campaign against view botters, though so far it doesn't seem Twitch is doing enough to satisfy either streamer.
Of course, there are people that are quite obvious with their disingenuous actions. For example, the now-banned Twitch channel GunsAndGlitch grew in 2019 to 10,000 viewers a broadcast and 3,000 followers in just a week. However, Reddit's communities were quick to notice the lack of messages in the chat, and though GunsAndGlitch initially called everything a marketing strategy, he later claimed someone else was view-botting them.
Recently, on August 26, Asmongold decided to share his opinion on the situation surrounding another Twitch channel, FextraLife. FextraLife is known for writing gaming guides, news, and reviews, but also maintains a prominent Twitch presence. In 2021, YouTuber Ludwig Aghren claimed the company was clearly "stealing views" because it had an inactive chat even though 60,000 viewers were supposedly watching.
Now, it seems the way Fextralife is unethically inflating its viewer count is by embedding the stream into its website. After looking into the controversy, Asmongold accused Fextralife of being "an obvious view-botter" and then blamed Twitch for failing to take action. During the stream, he said, "It's a disgrace. The fact that Twitch hasn't done anything about this is a joke".
He went on to state that it was clear Twitch didn't care, so the blame couldn't really be put on FextraLife. Instead, he believes the Amazon-owned streaming platform is at fault for not making its guidelines stricter. Unfortunately for the streamer, Twitch has yet to address the issue.
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