Zach Bussey 🇨🇦

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[Zach Bussey 🇨🇦 @zachbussey]

The Today Off Stream newsletter went out this morning!
📝 TikTok Creator Media Kits
😔 Patreon 20% Layoff
📱 YouTube Short Thumbnails
🥊 Ibai's Event 7.9M CCV, but Fails to Break Record
+ Game Keys, $ Opps, Industy Job Post + much more!

https://t.co/GUjzgIwWSj

[Zach Bussey 🇨🇦 @zachbussey]

You can see more of the changes here: https://t.co/jgn7R6O3yG

Join my newsletter to never miss an update! https://t.co/OnhoMqMxL4

[Zach Bussey 🇨🇦 @zachbussey]

Discord has changed the mobile UI so that People are Circles and Things are Squircles (rounded squares).

They've also added new appearance customization options.

[Zach Bussey 🇨🇦 @zachbussey]

TikTok is adding playlists for VODs of your livestreams.

[Zach Bussey 🇨🇦 @zachbussey]

@stevenspohn Just FYI, not an internal memo - it's an interview about project management. I linked it in the replies!

[Zach Bussey 🇨🇦 @zachbussey]

I agree - I don't think Twitch has done anything to innovate an ad experience to match the content. That's a huge flaw and ignores the real value of live content. And unfortunately, the ad experience they've opted for, they also don't have the targeting capacity to match - so people can get infinitely better results for the same budget on YouTube.

[Zach Bussey 🇨🇦 @zachbussey]

Twitch's Former Chief Product Officer says the Discovery and Ads teams were once at war over Feed impressions (solved), and that Twitch streams with fewer than 1000 viewers are dead weight (since entertainment economics runs on ad rates).

Very interesting historical insight!

[Zach Bussey 🇨🇦 @zachbussey]

@509Kingofkings @PapaBeFun I agree, but I also think it's unlikely their social feed drives any new viewers. (Largely because they have a very disconnected following and often don't link to the creators directly.)

But yeah, it's unlikely to move the needle on discovery.

[Zach Bussey 🇨🇦 @zachbussey]

@PapaBeFun They have no effective way of doing that.

[Zach Bussey 🇨🇦 @zachbussey]

@ambershee https://t.co/fBltuIEgRQ

[Zach Bussey 🇨🇦 @zachbussey]

Some additional context... Twitch was originally all-in on ads as the primary driver of its revenue. So, it's understandable why everyone under 1000 CCV would be considered 'dead weight'; the advertising economics were practically non-existent for anyone small. (Even today, ad revenue for most creators is peanuts compared to their potential to earn from fan funding).

However, advertising on Twitch hasn't been the greatest experience for advertisers, so it makes sense that Twitch has pivoted to focus on broader monetization metrics (Customer Lifetime Value aka CLV) over the last few years.

It's why every single feature release is either about getting viewers to spend money (sub discounts, spendable balance, Power Ups, Hype Trains, Sponsorships, Paid Badges, Combos, etc) OR has an ad format planned/built in (Vertical Feed, Clips/Stories, etc). Even features like Watch Streaks are less about the community and more about getting people to come back and watch ads or spend money. Every feature is about increasing the money spent per user.

I don't see that changing any time soon - nor should it be surprising. But it's always interesting to see it discussed by people who are no longer on the inside.

[Zach Bussey 🇨🇦 @zachbussey]

Some additional context... Twitch was originally all-in on ads as the primary driver of its revenue. So, it's understandable why everyone under 1000 CCV would be considered 'dead weight'; the advertising economics were practically non-existent for anyone small. (Even today, ad revenue for most creators is peanuts compared to their potential to earn from fan funding).

However, advertising on Twitch hasn't been the greatest experience for advertisers, so it makes sense that Twitch has pivoted to focus on broader monetization metrics (Customer Lifetime Value aka CLV) over the last few years.

It's why every single feature release is either about getting viewers to spend money (sub discounts, spendable balance, Power Ups, Hype Trains, Sponsorships, Paid Badges, Combos, etc) OR has an ad format planned/built in (Vertical Feed, Clips/Stories, etc). Even features like Watch Streaks are less about the community and more about getting people to come back and watch ads or spend money. Every feature is about increasing the money spent per user.

I don't see that changing any time soon - nor should it be surprising. But it's always interesting to see it discussed by people who are no longer on the inside.

[Zach Bussey 🇨🇦 @zachbussey]

Check out the full article here: https://t.co/qAmtNLq3x5

[Zach Bussey 🇨🇦 @zachbussey]

@GenghisKon83 Not really. They've had these ads available for about half a year now. I suspect they are slowly starting to think more about the live experience.

[Zach Bussey 🇨🇦 @zachbussey]

YouTube's less-disruptive Side-by-Side ads will only run on livestreams with captions turned *off*, according to YouTube's updated help page.

[Zach Bussey 🇨🇦 @zachbussey]

The remaining changes are formatting or rewording, but the above was distinctly new information not previously listed.

https://t.co/EoW4iASifO

[Zach Bussey 🇨🇦 @zachbussey]

@MizzyMogs You must opt out of Shared Discounts to turn it off.

[Zach Bussey 🇨🇦 @zachbussey]

Twitch is testing giving Active Turbo Subscribers a 30% Discount on one Tier 1 monthly Channel sub.

The discount is shared between Twitch and the Creator.

[Zach Bussey 🇨🇦 @zachbussey]

@nmplol This is year over year.

The month-over-month data is positive (but only because of Streamer U + Ibai's La Velada). Without those two events, month-over-month would be negative.

[Zach Bussey 🇨🇦 @zachbussey]

July 2026 Year-over-Year Stats for Twitch

Twitch continues its general downward trend, but the slide appears to be slowing. If it continues on the slowing curve it's on, the platform may level out (and maybe even show signs of growth) in 16-24 months.

[Zach Bussey 🇨🇦 @zachbussey]

@phosgene22 The absolute peak was in 2021, at 3.1M. So we're down nearly 34%.

[Zach Bussey 🇨🇦 @zachbussey]

Amazon Ads + Twitch were in Shanghai this week to connect with agencies/game devs/publishers.

Chinese-language content on Twitch was watched for 460M hours over the last 365 days via Sullygnome.

China has had Twitch blocked since 2018.

[Zach Bussey 🇨🇦 @zachbussey]

Bloomberg recently did a deep dive into the 'Clipping Machine behind his Fame."

https://t.co/3daGTd19JJ

[Zach Bussey 🇨🇦 @zachbussey]

Clavicular says Kick recently paid $700,000 in a single month to promote his stream through clips. It generated 2.2B views.