After a 12-day break, Twitch phenomenon Imane “Pokimane” returned to her channel on June 11, 2023.
Fans asked her opinion on streamers who had left Twitch and switched to other platforms during the Just Chatting section. Pokimane likened the predicament to well-known content producers switching to Microsoft’s defunct Mixer. The Moroccan-Canadian star continued with her “hot take,” claiming that she hasn’t yet encountered a livestreaming platform that has impressed her. After explaining what she thought were the factors that made a platform “viable,” Imane added: “To me, it’s not at all impressive for someone who’s huge to go somewhere and have viewers, because you’re already popular. Right? But, until I see an actual platform be able to make creators… like Twitch does and has, frankly, I’d find that impressive, exciting. I think that’s what would really add to this ecosystem of streaming as a whole.”
Earlier today, Pokimane was approximately an hour into her livestream when she was interrupted by viewers who were interested in learning her opinion on content creators leaving Twitch. In response, she remarked: “It just reminds me a lot of, like, Mixer, a year or two ago. I’m not so sure… okay. Actually, this might be kind of a hot take. I have yet to be impressed by any other platform for streaming.”
The former OfflineTV participant acknowledged that Twitch has recently made “disappointing” and dubious judgments. She continued by saying that the “real indicator” of a platform’s potential is seeing up-and-coming content creators “pop off” on it: “Obviously, yes, Twitch has done a lot of disappointing things as of late. But, for me, the real indicator that a streaming platform is viable is if I see a smaller creator pop off on that platform.”
A short while later, Pokimane used YouTube as an example and added: “YouTube is almost there. But you still can’t really swap to YouTube without having a pre-existing channel. It’s like the only way. Like a pre-existing… semi-popular channel. So… yeah!” The 27-year-old made fun of Rumble and Kick by announcing that she will keep up her Twitch livestreams: “And, I’m not going to lie. Like… your only alternatives are a platform rooted in alt-right content creators and a platform rooted in crypto-gambling content creators. These choices are a*s! I’ll stick to my Amazon Primes for now. We’ll see what the future holds, I guess.”
