For Twitch, the live-streaming platform watched by over 30 million viewers each day, 2022 was not an easy year. Now, with the company set to lay off hundreds of employees in the next few weeks, it’s feeling the impacts of tumult — and bracing for more.
In September, a streamer admitted he had borrowed money from top creators under false pretenses to feed a gambling addiction. The ensuing community-wide furor forced Twitch to implement a long-sought policy cracking down on gambling. That was followed by a Bloomberg News report that detailed allegations that Twitch had not curtailed the exploitation of children on its platform. The company further angered its content creators by announcing that it would take a bigger chunk of subscription profits out of their hands.
