DrLupo Leaves Twitch
DrLupo, who is one of the most popular streamers on Twitch, has revealed that he’ll be leaving Twitch to stream exclusively on YouTube. He didn’t disclose any details about the deal, but it can be assumed that it must have been something truly exceptional for DrLupo to leave the streaming giant Twitch.
In his interview for The Washington Post, Dr Lupo shared some of his views on streaming, mentioning how he was aware that he couldn’t keep at it forever and pointed out the importance of family and spending more time with them. Streaming on YouTube will most certainly present its own set of challenges, but also plenty of new opportunities, including a much more flexible streaming schedule.
Many streamers have successfully made this transition, such as Dr Disrespect, and there’s no doubt that DrLupo will do the same.
A New Beginning
Whenever a streamer moves to another platform, they’re pretty much forced to start everything all over again. Of course, when it comes to top paid streamers such as DrLupo, things do tend to go way easier. DrLupo is an already established streamer, with millions of fans following him. Right now, he has close to 4.5 million followers on Twitch and averages close to 10 thousand views every day.
The majority of his fans will most likely follow DrLupo over to YouTube, but a certain number might stay behind. This is mainly due to how Twitch is structured. It’s a superior streaming platform and the Twitch community follows multiple streamers at the same time, often switching between streams or having multiple streams open to interact with people in other Twitch chats. This convenience is hard to give up for many viewers.
Still, the deal that YouTube presented to DrLupo was enough for him to be “secure for life”, so even if his numbers do take a small hit he’ll barely even notice it.
The Rise of YouTube Streaming
DrLupo’s exclusivity deal is nothing new in the streaming world. A few years ago we saw Shroud and Ninja, who were some of the most popular streamers at the time, move over to Microsoft’s Mixer and signed their own exclusivity deals worth millions. The streaming platform shut down, but both streamers got paid in full.
DrLupo signed his own deal with YouTube, and while we do not know the details of it, it could foreshadow similar events to come. The majority of YouTube’s content creators focus on videos that often include prepared scripted content, and streaming is much less represented.
We might see YouTube pull the same move that Mixer did and start offering big Twitch streamers deals they simply can’t refuse. It does seem to be the simplest and most effective approach. If they do nothing, people will just continue streaming on Twitch. DrLupo is taking the first step, but we might see more big Twitch streamers follow him.
DrLupo will stream for the first time on YouTube on August 31st, so make sure to tune in and give him a warm welcome.
