“I wanted to watch the stream, not the same ad!” Sykkuno criticizes Twitch ads and is unimpressed with Turbo subscriptions

Twitch streamer Thomas “Sykkuno” recently criticized pre-roll ads and the platform’s Turbo subscriptions.

Twitch’s pre-roll ads have come under a fair bit of scrutiny in recent times. Sykkuno claimed that while one or two ads are acceptable, the platform sometimes hits viewers with 5 minutes’ worth of ads.

Twitch’s Turbo subscription service allows viewers to skip past these ads without affecting the streamers’ ad revenue. Sykkuno claimed that the Turbo service is not a viable solution to the problem.

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Sykkuno wants Twitch ad system to go a major overhaul, does not support Turbo subscriptions

During the livestream, Sykkuno criticized pre-roll ads and claimed they were a huge problem for Twitch viewers. He claimed that most viewers are bound to stop watching when they are hit with 5 minutes’ worth of ads before the stream starts:

I feel like one ad is not so bad, but sometimes I pop into a stream, and it hits me with eight ads in a row, and I’m just like, “I wanted to watch the stream, not the same ad! Like one or two ads are fine, like 30 seconds worth of them. But you get hit with 5 minutes of ads when you open a stream, I am cooked, I am out of there.”

The platform recently introduced a Twitch Turbo subscription service for $8.99 per month. Turbo users can enjoy an ad-free experience on the platform, with no pre-roll, mid-roll or display ads being shown to them. However, Sykkuno claimed that the Turbo service is not a solution to the problem as the fees do not go towards supporting the streamers:

“I don’t know if I’m going to get in trouble for saying this, but the problem with Twitch Turbo is that you’re not supporting any of the streamers. It’s not that I don’t appreciate Twitch, but I’m here for the streamers. I’m not a Twitch fanboy. I think twitch is cool, and I appreciate them, but that’s just how it is for me. I support streamers, not the platform.”

It appears as if Sykkuno was unaware that streamers still get ad revenue for Turbo users even if the viewers themselves do not watch them. The official blog related to Twitch’s Turbo service claims that streamers still get credits for ad impressions when a Turbo user watches their channel.