Tarkov developer Battlestate Games banned from Twitch for second time

The official Twitch account of Battlestate Games, the development studio behind Escape from Tarkov, has been banned from the platform. The ban comes at the same time as an active Twitch drops promotion is on-going in-game.

On January 1, the Battlestate Games channel was made unavailable, now reading the standard message that the account violated “Twitch’s Community Guidelines or Terms of Service.”

Although Twitch never specifies the exact violation publicly, fans who were watching the stream have highlighted a number of potential breaches that occurred.

Why was Tarkov developer banned from Twitch?

The exact cause of the ban is unconfirmed. Twitch does not comment on community guidelines violations.

Many viewers point to a segment of the stream where developers were allegedly wielding and aiming ‘airsoft’ rifles, sometimes aimed at each other.

Battlestate Games

Technically, this could breach Twitch’s community guidelines around threats and harassment, which prohibits “Brandishing lethal or harmful weapons, such as guns, knives, or explosives.”

However, this policy has not always been enforced strictly, with knives being shown on streams in the past with no repercussions, if not done in a threatening manner.

There are also other claims that a developer was drunk and said offensive words in Russian to some viewers. None of this can be confirmed as the VOD and all clips of the stream are now removed due to the ban.

Dexerto has reached out to Battlestate Games for comment. This is not actually the first time the dev’s account has been banned. In 2019, the channel was suspended when a developer mimicked shooting themselves with an unloaded pistol.

Meanwhile, you can still earn Tarkov Twitch drops by watching participating streamers.