LIRIK discovers source of ‘viewbotting’ on his Twitch channel
Twitch star Saqib ‘LIRIK’ Zahid has discovered the source of the supposed view botting that plagued his channel on November 22.
LIRIK is a diverse content creator, who often treats his fans to a wide range of content. From chatting about real-life events to running riot in GTA, the American streamer knows how to put on a show.
With a following of over 2.5 million, he is one of the most popular streamers on Twitch, meaning that his presence on the platform is unprecedented. However, despite his success on the platform, he held a sneaky suspicion that he was being ‘viewbotted’ during a November 22 broadcast.
LIRIK’s views peaked at over 882,000 on November 22.Viewbotting is a fraudulent tactic frequently used among low-profile Twitch streamers, in a bid to catapult their viewership numbers to increase their perceived popularity.
Of course, given Zahid’s profile on Twitch, it’s safe to say that he doesn’t need the assistance of artificial views. So where did the increase in the 29-year-old’s views come from?
According to LIRIK, the views were genuine. “It’s actually not viewbots, these are actual people,” the American said. “But, it’s embedded somewhere… The thing is, it’s not (viewbots). I’ve confirmed it, I’ve confirmed it already.”
Essentially, Zahid’s spike in views were supposedly due to an unknown website embedding his stream. Thus netting him an increase in viewership numbers, while his chat appears to progress at the normal rate.
“The thing is, that a lot of these people were watching, it’s embedded somewhere,” he said. “But the thing is, they can’t chat unless they click on the embedded link.”
Indeed, LIRIK was keen to understand the source of the skewed numbers, since his views soared way above his average — as his November 22 livestream attracted an extra 107,000 viewers to his previous high for that week.
Moreover, Twitch are keen on clamping down on view botting. After winning a lawsuit that took down three major view botting providers in 2018, Amazon’s streaming service appears to be keeping a tight lock on the situation.
Which is precisely why Zahid didn’t want his name potentially smeared by association with the fraudulent technique.