Twitch is still far and away the dominant platform for livestreamers, but YouTube appears to be making a push to at least partially balance the playing field. Just two days after Benjamin "DrLupo" Lupo revealed that he'd signed an exclusive streaming deal with YouTube, Tim Betar—better known as TimTheTatman—announced that he too is making the switch from Twitch.
The news came by way of a video posted to Twitter:
the futurehttps://t.co/Hz9YZ0m2EA pic.twitter.com/ekGwDreHOLSeptember 1, 2021
That disembodied head inviting Betar belongs to Jack "CouRage" Dunlop, who signed his own exclusive deal with YouTube in November 2019.
Betar leaves behind a massive Twitch base of 7 million followers, but like Lupo, he's not going into YouTube as any kind of newbie: He has 3.81 million subscribers there, a number that will no doubt grow now that it's his exclusive home. Interestingly, he told Business Insider that while he has a larger audience on Twitch, he seems to be more popularly known as a YouTuber.
"I'd say seven to eight out of 10 people coming up to me go, 'Man, I love your YouTube,'" he said. "I have more followers on Twitch, but a lot of people day-to-day call me a YouTuber."
Just as it did with Lupo, Twitch paid tribute to Betar's success on its platform:
You'll always be a King to us.Thank you for everything, @timthetatman. pic.twitter.com/keeZeElnpmSeptember 1, 2021
"It’s been great to see all that TimTheTatman has achieved since being partnered in 2012 on Twitch—whether it was marrying the love of his life and welcoming an heir to the Tatman throne, or the trials and tribulations of achieving his first Fall Guys crown," a Twitch spokesperson said in an email. "It’s been a pleasure being part of Tim’s community, and we are proud of everything he has done for gaming."
Twitch can afford to be magnanimous: A StreamLabs report on livestream viewing indicates that the platform accounted for more than 72% of total hours watched in the first quarter of 2021, compared to 15.6% for YouTube and 12.1% for Facebook. A Q2 report indicates that Twitch is also continuing to experience healthy audience growth, while YouTube appears to be struggling a bit.
StreamLabs also noted, however, that Rachel "Valkyrae" Hofsetter, who signed an exclusive deal with YouTube in 2020, was the top female streamer across all platforms over the first three months of 2021, handily surpassing even Twitch heavyweight Imane "Pokimane" Anys. That kind of success could be a big part of why YouTube appears to be moving so aggressively to bring big streamer names under its roof.
