xQc says: Twitch streamers lie to viewers to make more money – “The system rewards it”

The biggest streamer on Twitch is Canadian Félix “xQc” Lengyel, a former pro in Blizzard’s shooter Overwatch. In a podcast he now explains that some streamers pretend to be broke even if they are rich. They would maintain this “facade” because the “Twitch” system encourages this behavior.

What does xQc say exactly? In a Twitch stream on November 29, xQc once again got into a rage. He says, partly with some unintelligible passages:

Streamers who pretend they don’t make much money. Streamers who are like, “Hey, I’m broke.” Even I blow it, “Buddy, you’re rich. Stop being such a jerk.” They’re doing it on purpose. They pretend to joke about it – but they don’t joke about it: they say they don’t make much money. But that’s not true.

That’s a brick in their facade. It has to do with the whole system. The system rewards that. It’s a system that makes them money. And one of those bricks is pretending you don’t have any money. And if you pull out a brick and then another, the facade collapses.

xQc

xQc accuses streamers of putting up a false facade

What does the man mean by that? In his own way, xQc declares:

• Streamers build an image designed to entice viewers to donate more money to them; via donations or via Twitch Prime
• As part of this image, streamers maintain the impression that they are financially struggling and need the support of fans
• According to xQc, the “Twitch system” ensures that streamers benefit from deceiving their fans in this way

Is he right about that? It’s certainly the case with some of the streamers he criticizes. There are different ways that content creators deal with money. This has to do with which target group you are addressing and how you feel about this target group:

• Some content creators targeting younger viewers, especially those close to the rap scene, even emphasize how much money they have – they “flex” with their earnings. MontanaBlack keeps flirting with how much money he has and how he could make more. Gambling streamers like Scurrows are also “flexing” with their money.
• In the extreme example, people even pretend to have more money than they actually have according to the motto “fake it, till you make it”. There is a discussion about the German streamer ApoRed in particular that he is pretending to be swimming in money, but is actually broke.

• Other content creators, especially smaller ones, who target a fixed group of viewers, downright money from the viewers, take it as a “fee,” often complaining they need that support.
• For many successful, maximum-reach streamers, money is not even an issue they talk about – everyone knows that superstars like TimTheTatman or shroud have a lot of money. But they are mostly modest and don’t even address it.
• Some streamers like Pokimane even say: They don’t want large donations from their viewers, they would make their money with advertising deals. Viewers should rather donate to “small streamers”.

But xQc is right that part of many streamers’ image is to appear less wealthy than they actually are in order to keep a flow of donations going. This takes on absurd proportions when people with a lot of money demand €5 from viewers who are threatened by poverty.

There was a big discussion with the streamer HasanAbi in August 2021 because as a “left streamer” he could afford a large villa:

Streamer criticizes rich people on Twitch, buys house for $ 2.7 million