What is the Twitch ‘adpocalypse’ and what does it mean for streamers?

Several streamers have come out to claim that Twitch is going through an “adpocalypse” that is affecting their revenue income. But what exactly does an “adpocalypse” refer to?

Throughout the month of November, several Twitch streamers have come out to say that they’ve experienced a significant decline in their ad revenue.

One of the many streamers who opened up about this was TheStockGuy who, during a stream, showed his creator dashboard to show that his revenue had dropped by a whopping 95% in the last month, from over $100 a day to $15, despite not having gone through any controversies.

He told his stream: “My advertising revenue is down 95%. Let me show you, because I don’t give a sh*t and I am transparent. I averaged about $100-$200 a day in ad revenue, right? Five days a week, you’re talking about $600-$700 a week, you’re talking about $2800 a month, you know, $3,000 a month.”

What is an “adpocalypse”?

An adpocalypse refers to a reduction in ad revenue across platforms. The current Twitch apocalypse is reportedly affecting some creators by as much as 90%. Industry experts, including Devin Nash, have previously linked the issue to polarizing political content on the platform.

It usually happens when advertisers perform a mass boycott and stops paying the platform or certain creators because they don’t like or agree with the content that their ads are being shared with.

The first apocalypse ever recorded was the YouTube apocalypse that occurred between 2016 and 2017 when the platform decided to shift its focus to more family-friendly content. This resulted in many channels with adult audiences and undertones.

One of the many creators who was affected was PewDiePie, who posted videos that YouTube deemed “Anti-Semitic” and “hate speech”. This led to his channel being boycotted by advertisers and YouTube subsequently demonetizing his videos.

Now, a similar thing is happening on Twitch, as it’s been claimed that several advertisers are looking to leave Twitch due to the platform’s association with extremist or antisemitic content and beliefs.

This started in October, when it was revealed Twitch had prevented users in Israel from joining the streaming platform for a full year following the October 7, 2023 attacks.

The streaming site and its CEO Dan Clancy also faced calls by Democratic Rep. Ritchie Torres to “stop popularizing those who popularize antisemitism”, and specifically singled out Hasan’s political streams, saying: “platforming any of these terrorist organizations, as Piker has done, is beyond the pale.”

As reported by Richard Lewis, “a number of significant companies have paused their advertising spending with the streaming platform” and cited allegations of antisemitism as the reason why.

In an attempt to be more advertiser-friendly, Twitch added a new stream label for political and “sensitive social issues” allowing companies to opt out of having their ads on that content. They’ve also made new policy updates, including banning the word “Zionist”.