YouTube vs. Twitch: The dispute goes into the next round after the switch of the high-reach streamers DrLupo and TimTheTatMan. Will German content creators also switch?
Top US streamers Benjamin “DrLupo” Lupo and Timothy John “TimTheTatman” Betar switched from Twitch to YouTube at the beginning of the month. Behind the switches are not only large amounts of money, but also the question of whether other content creators will follow the trend – not only in America, but also in Germany.
New trend or isolated cases?
In fact, the two trailblazers could inspire even more streamers to migrate platforms. For both of them, the change seemed to have paid off. TimTheTatman tweeted on Friday that he was very interested in whether fans would watch his stream as well as VOD (video on demand) on YouTube. The video reached number one status on the trending section for gaming on YouTube, as well as now over two million views.
one thing I was really interested to see with streaming on YouTube was how leaving my stream VODs up as videos was going to go… safe to say it’s a good idea… pic.twitter.com/AD6fDg2IIG
— timthetatman👑 (@timthetatman) September 3, 2021
Could German Twitch streamers follow?
Will German Twitch stars jump on the YouTube bandwagon soon? Probably not: Twitch has not really lost popularity in the German landscape. There was already a trend in 2019 where giants like Tyler “Ninja” Blevins or Michael “shroud” Grzesiek switched to Mixer. In Germany, this had no impact and with the quick demise of Mixer last year, streamer:ins will probably think twice about a similar deal in the future.
Especially if the best-known top streamers like Marcel “MontanaBlack” Eris, Max “Trymacs” Stemmler or Elias “Eligella” Nerlich remain loyal to the platform, viewers will hardly have to reckon with a change. Some of the content creators are even bound to Twitch with exclusive contracts. Elias Nerlich talked about his new contract in a recent stream and noted that a handful of others in Germany have the same deal.
YouTube vs. Twitch: Which is better?
In between all the headlines about switches and exclusive offers, the debate naturally flares up: which is actually the better platform? The streamers themselves often keep their opinions on the subject under wraps. Herschel “Guy” Beahm IV, a.k.a. Dr Disrespect, spoke out clearly in a stream last week. The US-American was banned on Twitch and therefore switched to YouTube, but is of the opinion that the platform would be significantly worse from a functional point of view.
Dr Disrespect calls out YouTube not being better than Twitch from a functional perspective
The community on Twitch still superior pic.twitter.com/Q6vKsCmJaI
— Jake Lucky (@JakeSucky) September 2, 2021
According to him, one of the main criticisms is that the “discoverability” is not there. Moreover, scientists are needed to understand the algorithm. This is problematic from the point of view of content creators, he says, because it is not transparent to them by what means the content works well on the site.
YouTube also has disadvantages for viewers. If a stream is terminated, it would be like a black hole, according to Dr Disrespect. There would be nothing for the community to do, neither in chat nor recommendations for further streams. YouTube would have to figure out how to create a community environment. Only when YouTube can fix these disadvantages could it be a competitor to Twitch.
