Ninja, DrLupo & TimTheTatMan explain why new squad streaming on Twitch is broken
DrLupo, Ninja, TimTheTatMan - TwitchTwitch unveiled its new ‘Squad Stream’ feature on March 27, allowing up to four streamers to broadcast out of the same window at once.
However, some of the platform’s top streamers are taking issue with the update, including the likes of Tyler ‘Ninja’ Blevins, Ben ‘DrLupo’ Lupo, and Tim ‘TimTheTatMan’ Bertar.
The group spoke out on the feature during a broadcast on March 28, where Tim noted that users who mute the audio of individual channels within a squad stream are not recorded as viewers.
Twitch unrolled its squad streaming feature on March 27 – but some streamers aren’t happy with the update.“Let’s say you’re watching a stream and you mute the audio,” Tim explained. “You no longer count as a viewer.”
Ninja seemed to be shocked by this information, stating, “Bro, I probably have 100,000 viewers a day, then, and everyone just mutes me.”
While the entire group admitted to muting the audio of all but one channel, DrLupo pointed out that squad streams are likely to see a major spike in views at the beginning, followed by a massive drop.
Lupo then gave out some useful advice for users to combat this flaw, explaining that they can use a feature of the Google Chrome browser to make their views count.
“If you’re in Chrome, you can turn the audio up in the stream… and mute the tab, and you count as a viewer,” he stated.
DrLupo reminded viewers about Google Chrome’s mute tab function, for those users who want to make sure their views still count.TimTheTatMan didn’t seem to be impressed with Lupo’s loophole, arguing that Twitch should still count said users as viewers – even if they mute a stream during a squad broadcast.
“Twitch shouldn’t do that at all,” he said of the issue. “If someone wants to mute, you should still 100% count as a viewer. Because I’m sure there’s people at work or something… who have the audio muted completely.”
Ninja’s comments on the matter are especially pertinent, as he’s one of Twitch’s most popular streamers, sitting at over a whopping 13 million followers as of March 28.
While Ninja was already popular in the gaming space, the streamer skyrocketed to fame after playing Fortnite with rapper Drake in March 2018, going on to secure a major partnership with Red Bull Esports and even a live New Year’s Eve event in Times Square for 2019.
Ninja is one of Twitch’s most popular streamers, sitting at over 13 million followers due to his Fortnite gameplay.DrLupo is likewise one of Twitch’s more popular broadcasters, with over three million followers on Twitch and over one million on Twitter.
Lupo raised an impressive amount of funds for St. Jude’s Children’s Research Hospital just ahead of 2019, as well, amassing over one million dollars for children with cancer throughout 2018 in an emotional victory, thanks to his charitable fanbase.
TimTheTatMan likewise holds over three million Twitch followers, and even announced the gender his child during a heartwarming live stream in September 2018.
Twitch announced their squad streaming feature at TwitchCon 2018, alongside additional tools for stream chat moderators.
Thus far, squad streaming has been met with mixed reactions – and Twitch has yet to speak out on the issue of muted viewership for the update.
However, Twitch also released a unique opportunity for subscribers of Twitch Prime on March 28, allowing users to score a full year of Nintendo’s Switch Online service for free.