Twitch Slashes Gift Sub Prices by 35% But Gamers Aren’t Happy

Twitch has sneaked in a 35% discount for gift subscriptions in the latest iteration of the highly advertised “share-the-love” event. However, even with this attempted romantic “early Valentine’s Day” atmosphere, the gaming crowd, at best, has given mixed opinions on the matter.

Replies to this announcement tweet came in faster than a speedrunner glitching through walls, with streamers and viewers unloading complaints about everything from unfair bans to revenue shares. One of the Twitter users, @BlueWanderer748, outrightly called it “false advertising,” alleging that the discount only applies if creators are willing to share the discount with Twitch. And that stings.

Others, themselves demanding changes, were a bit more constructive. @Robisgreat10 insisted: “Update every streamer should provide closed caption to make sure every deaf/HOH access to watch.” Preach. Things, however, went downhill from there when @AndrewO33425430 started screaming about terrorists? The replies descended into full-blown Twitch chat madness in no time.

Some have gone technical: @HughJarseSonna and his mates complain about unending #1000 error-crashes and pixelated streams; whereas @OgagaOkpare signals the flooding of creators to Kick, “You guys are loosing a lot of content Creators.” That misspelled “loosing” really sells the raw frustration.

A few spotty moments of positivity trickled through. @shivjam celebrated an anniversary for their partner, then @nataly_hs declared it a “wonderful offer” before lamenting with a sad and humorous, “only left now is to find people who would use this 😅”

Increasing competition from platforms such as Kick throw this price drop on the front burner of Twitch, with many streamers criticising Twitch’s seemingly inconsistent moderation. @thisisGwenevere joins the chorus of Twitch critics: “How about we work on enforcing TOS equally across the platform FOR ALL STREAMERS!”

But if you’ve gone further in reading the fine print, you realize 35% looks pretty juicy but it doesn’t represent anything but an altruistic move – terms apply, in the words of @john_titanfall2 to ease the criticism: “That’s why it says terms apply mate”. The promotion looks to spur interaction in what’s seen as a slump with @ColeSlawComedy jokingly commenting: “Money drying up time for a flash sale.”

Twitch’s gifting sub system has been a subject of controversy, with one segment of the community summarized by @DasVegeto: “Gifting subs to millionaires no thanks.” But these promotions actually do help growing communities more for the smaller creators. The platform definitely balances the line between corporate profits and support for the creators, and by the widely expressed opinion one can judge, they do seem to be heavily leaning on the former end of that scale.

In an ostentatiously light-hearted way, Twitch has been trying over and over again to make things sweeter throughout an ongoing war of streams, throwing the accusations of favoritism and mismanagement in the air. I don’t even know if this discount is to redeem favor or redirect attention towards other pressing issues, but it surely marks the community’s voice of discontent.

When these are shared across the gaming community, everyone chips in on their gripes, and the replies section of Twitch turns into free therapy sessions. Perhaps the next promo should have a 35% discount on platform criticism, too.