Popular streamer xQc‘s Twitch channel appears to have an age restriction today, requiring viewers to verify they are not minors before watching his stream.
The French-Canadian streamer and former Overwatch League professional is the most viewed and followed English-speaking livestreamer on Twitch. The impact of XQc on the platform is enormous. According to Streams Charts, the streamer’s 10.9 million followers have watched 73,979 average viewers over the course of the past year, totaling 138.79 million hours.
Despite being a very well-known figure on the site, xQc frequently disagrees with Twitch employees. xQc has a tense relationship with Twitch staff due to dropping out of Twitch Rivals competitions mid-tournament and criticizing potential platform features like “Boost this Stream.”
Today, when streaming, he learned that his channel had been made age-restricted. xQc sat in shock after getting a screenshot of an age-gate appearing on his channel sixteen hours into his ongoing stream. Pokelawls, a fellow streamer, confirmed that his friend’s channel had age restrictions. Users of channels with age restrictions must verify their birthdate before watching the stream, preventing minors from viewing potentially mature content.
Although not expressly against Twitch’s terms of service, age restrictions are applied to channels that are known to contain mature content. Although he has been known to use mature language and post sexually explicit material since the beginning of his channel, XQc has been able to avoid age restrictions.
The age restriction might have resulted from his recent sponsorship of Stake in the gambling industry. While many viewers and streamers have criticized xQc for engaging in the activity, other users have urged Twitch to address the growing number of gambling streams on the website.
It’s unclear exactly why xQc’s channel has been age-gated, but the streamer appeared equally as surprised as his viewers to learn of the development.
