Summary
- Twitch repeatedly banning PewDiePie's channel for unknown reasons, leaving fans puzzled.
- PewDiePie's Twitch account, now running reruns, has faced several short bans, creating confusion.
- Other streamers like Lirik and Shroud are experiencing similar short bans on their rerun channels.
Twitch has repeatedly hit PewDiePie's official channel with bans, with each ban being removed shortly thereafter, for reasons that seemingly no one is able to figure out. The popular streaming platform has banned the famous Swedish influencer's Twitch account for the third time in the past two weeks for less than 30 minutes at a time, leaving many fans and Twitch users to ponder what exactly is going on with the account.
PewDiePie - who's real name is Felix Kjellberg - is easily one of the most recognizable faces in the world of online content creation and streaming. Rising to prominence in the early 2010s, PewDiePie first made a name for himself with "Let's Play" videos featuring his boisterous and humorous reactions. At one point the world's most-subscribed and most-viewed YouTube channel, the streamer gradually expanded his content scope to include more diversified content. After PewDiePie made a big return to YouTube last summer, he has largely downshifted his content output, primarily focusing on his new family.
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Although PewDiePie technically hasn't streamed on Twitch since 2020 after signing an exclusivity agreement with YouTube, the rights to his Twitch channel were sold to CoPilotMedia in March 2023. The account has since amassed nearly 2 million followers with an average of roughly 200 viewers. Rather than livestreaming, the channel plays old PewDiePie content on a continuous loop. While the innovative use of PewDiePie's Twitch channel has managed to retain a sizable following, the multiple short-term bans - a 15-minute ban October 3 and 12, and multiple bans on October 14 - are leaving viewers confused as to what the issue is.
PewDiePie's Twitch channel isn't the only one being affected by the mysterious short bans, as several other rerun channels of prominent streamers have been suffering the same fate. According to Dexerto, Lirik, the famous webcam-less Twitch streamer, has had the Lirik_247 rerun account banned at the same time as PewDiePie. Popular Twitch streamer Shroud has also had content of his affected, with a similar rerun channel called Shrood being banned and unbanned repeatedly as well.
Twitch's New Rules Seem...Twitchy
The rash of bans on the derivative channels comes shortly after Twitch's big changes to strikes and bans were rolled out, leading some to theorize it could be the culprit. In addition to altering its strike system, the new changes purportedly aim to make the reasoning for bans more transparent for everyone. While the strike and ban update includes new impersonation rules, which may have something to do with it, the exact reason as to why these Twitch channels keep getting banned remains unclear.