"The downfall of Twitch": Streaming platform new “boost” feature is literally pay-to-win

Twitch’s recently released “paid boost” feature has come under severe criticism from the overall community in recent days.

The feature allows viewers to pay a fee to promote specific channels on the platform. It was initially introduced on Twitch via a “patch notes” broadcast on September 30 and is currently being tested among a small group of streamers.

The overall community has criticized the feature and claimed it will make life even more difficult for smaller streamers who struggle to gain visibility on Twitch. The release of the feature is being called a “pay-to-win” move as streamers with more money will be able to exploit it to grow their channels quickly.

---

Twitch’s new “boost” feature is being called a pay-to-win move by the internet

A number of concerns have been raised by the overall community against the boost feature. Apart from making Twitch a “pay-to-win” platform, the fees paid by viewers to promote a specific channel will go to Twitch, and not the channel itself. The boost feature is therefore allowing Twitch to effectively collect a fee to promote certain channels over others.

Currently, there has been no update with regards to when the boost feature might be released for the entire platform. Twitch may decide against implementing the feature, especially in the wake of the criticism it has received on Twitter. Esports Talk host Jake Lucky recently posted a tweet confirming that the boost feature was being tested among a small group of streamers.

The original tweet has since been retweeted almost 3,000 times, with most people claiming that the boost feature can be damaging to the overall platform. A range of smaller streamers also replied to the post and claimed that it would lessen their chances of growing their channels even more.

A range of more popular content creators have also criticized the boost feature, most notably Felix “xQc” Lengyel. xQc claimed recently that the move was the worst idea he had ever seen, with others such as StableRonaldo claiming that the feature would bring about the downfall of Twitch.

With the overall community having made their stance on the matter clear, it will be interesting to see whether Twitch decides to implement the paid boost feature for the entire platform.