A Report suggests that Twitch might have paid to boost viewership for one of their channels called Crown.
Twitch is reportedly boosting the channel stats for one of their channels called Crown. Apparently, the site uses “junk” viewers to make the channel appear more popular than it actually is.
Twitch Reportedly Inflating Their Viewership Numbers
A report by Bloomberg states that Amazon has been using misleading viewership numbers to promote their Twitch channel Crown.
In comparison to other channels, the viewers are less interactive with the stream, not really typing in chat or dropping a follow. These unengaged viewers are referred to as “junk” viewers, as they don't contribute or engage with the content and for all we know could be bots.
For a viewer to be considered as “engaged” he has to interact with the stream through the chat and watch the broadcast for a longer period of time. In the case of Crown, none of this is the case, as viewers are jumping off quickly and are not typing much in the chat at all.
The problem with this is, that the amount advertisers and sponsorships pay for a placement during a stream depends on viewership numbers as potential customers. Companies apparently paid up to $500,000 to promote themselves on the Twitch channel with that in mind.
At the moment, Twitch is taking L's left and right, now they might even lose one of their biggest creators to Kick:
If viewers are jumping off the stream quickly or don't interact with the chat, chances are high that they are not going to see or “consume” the advertisement as intended, therefore making the sponsorship/ad less effective.
Bloomberg also reported, that the parent company of Twitch apparently paid tens of thousands of Dollars to promote Crown on the site's homepage, making it more visible for users and advertisers/sponsors.
This could happen as an effort by Amazon to make Twitch more profitable, as the platform is allegedly bleeding money, therefore introducing more predatory ad incentives for streamers etc.