Twitch’s slot viewership dives following crypto casino ban

The number of people watching Twitch streamers play slot games has nosedived in the wake of the company’s ban on crypto casinos such as Stake.

Slots had become one of the most popular categories on Twitch, with celebrities such as Drake drawing huge audiences when they used the platform to play casino games such as roulette.

But a ban on gambling via Twitch streams came into effect, leading to a massive dip in the number of people watching the slots category on the platform. Research indicated that the number of slots viewers on Twitch had dropped by as much as 97 per cent in the immediate aftermath of the ban taking hold.

Many of the top slots streamers on Twitch had advertised their last gambling sessions on the site, with Drake among those taking part. The Canadian rap star won $12 million from a single roulette spin during his final crypto casino session that was being streamed live to fans on Twitch. Trainwreck, Roshtein, and Xposed were among the other well known slots streamers to take the chance to enjoy one last series of play.

Trainwreck, whose real name is Tyler Niknam, has seen his last slots stream be viewed some two million times, showing just how popular they had become on Twitch in recent times. Niknam previously described Twitch as “corrupt” for what he described as “inconsistent” policies over online casino and sports betting. He pointed out that Amazon – which owns Twitch – had recently signed a deal worth $13 billion to show Thursday Night Football with the NFL, which has sportsbook operator DraftKings as its exclusive odds provider for those broadcasts.

Some streamers have criticised the ban on crypto casinos, but others such as Pokimane have praised it as a good decision. Sites such as Stake, Roobet, Duelbits, and Rollbit have been banned from the Twitch site as a result of the ban on gambling that has come into force.

“While we prohibit sharing links or referral codes to all sites that include slots, roulette, or dice games, we’ve seen some people circumvent those rules and expose our community to potential harm,” the platform said in a statement. “So, we’ll be making a policy update on October 18 to prohibit streaming of gambling sites that include slots, roulette, or dice games that aren’t licensed either in the U.S. or other jurisdictions that provide sufficient consumer protection.”

The ban came as Twitch streamer ItsSliker, who has more than 430,000 subscribers on the site, said in a video that he has a gambling addiction.