Would Dr Disrespect be as popular if he wasn't banned on Twitch: An offbeat outlook at the meteoric rise of Doc

The ban of Dr Disrespect from Twitch has been an ongoing story for months. Since June 26, a continuous saga of Doc versus Twitch has been all over the internet, and it's clear that people are interested in knowing what happened to the Two Time.

Unfortunately, only sprinkles of information have been shared about the ban. Everyone knows that the ban is permanent, but no one knows why exactly. Of course, there are plenty of theories, but nothing concrete. Regardless, Dr Disrespect was banned, and he had to change course. He made a move to YouTube, where he's seen tremendous success. But is it as great as it may seem, and would he have been better off on Twitch?

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Would Dr Disrespect be as popular if he wasn't banned on Twitch: An offbeat outlook at the meteoric rise of Doc

(Image Credit: Essentially Sports)

Dr Disrespect made his return to streaming back in August through the YouTube streaming platform. For his return, he reached an astounding 510,000+ concurrent viewers. It's a number that was even higher than the return of Shroud on Twitch and streamers before him. It was a clear sign that the general community was still more than interested in Dr Disrespect. However, an anticipated return stream doesn't equate to steady success.

The YouTube saga of Doc is nearing three months now, and there is some data that can point to the success of his stream so far. Aside from his huge subscriber jump on his channel and video views, it's hard to tell what his exact live stream numbers are. However, there is one metric that is an eye-opener.

The Doc Effect pic.twitter.com/SE6HEd8amD

— #Doctober (@drdisrespect) October 16, 2020

Since Dr Disrespect had joined the YouTube platform, there has been a huge increase in the hours watched. During Quarter 2 of this year, there were 1,519,102,313 hours watched. In the next quarter with Doc involved, there were 1,675,020,049 total hours watched. There is a significant jump there, and though it isn't specific to Dr Disrespect, he surely had some effect on the numbers. What may be even more telling is the opposite effect for Twitch. Though Twitch has far more hours watched, their total hours watched may have dropped by nearly 8%, according to Essentially Sports, from quarter 1 to quarter 2.

Again, the information isn't completely correlated to Dr Disrespect. But if he were still streaming on the platform, he may have been able to close the gap a bit more. Twitch has been seeing massive stats during quarter 1, likely due to the pandemic, and it was inevitable for stats to fall. But the hit likely would have been softer with Doc.

So far, Dr Disrespect is clearly thriving on YouTube, and though we can't compare his exact live stream stats, we can at least look at his streaming stats from Twitch. On Twitch, his peak viewership was at 363 980, which is much lower than on YouTube. He also had an average of 21,479 concurrent viewers on Twitch, which seems to be a bit lower than what Dr Disrespect usually gets on YouTube.

(Image Credit: DrDisrespect/YouTube)

One last stat is his total viewership. On Twitch, he had 182 million total views, while on YouTube, he has 202 million views. The stats aren't completely comparable, considering his past videos likely get good viewership, but the views still stand. His channel has more exposure on YouTube than it did on Twitch, and he's seriously helping the YouTube streaming platform.

So, is he doing better on YouTube for sure? Well, not exactly. It's likely that he's even making less money and making fewer connections now than before. The most obvious reason for that is the permanent ban from Twitch. Not only can he not stream on Twitch, but other Twitch streamers are barred from streaming with him. He ended up on Nadeshot's stream through a tournament in Warzone, and Twitch edited the community rules specifically to stop that. Now, he will be muted if he ends up on a Twitch stream again. Dr Disrespect was effectively cut off from the biggest steamers in the world along with his friends.

Doc also lost his contract for the time being, and by that, we mean the money included with his exclusive deal. There is no official number on how much money the contract was worth or if he lost it for sure, but it's likely part of a legal battle at this point. That, mixed with the subscriptions refunded at the time of his ban, was likely a large hit for Doc. Of course, Dr Disrespect is probably set for life when it comes to money, but that doesn't make the situation any better.

One more effect for Doc with the ban from Twitch was sponsorships. Discord dropped Dr Disrespect after he was banned, and it's likely a reason he isn't a COD partner anymore. In a video from Esports Talk, a clip of Doc was shown where he claims Activision cut him off after he was banned. That means he has no creator code and gets no revenue from that feature.

In terms of viewership and hype, Dr Disrespect seems to be bigger than ever. He plays with stars, he shows off in tournaments, and he is as entertaining as ever. Is he better off now, though? It's hard to say. Right now, it would appear that he has still taken a financial hit that wouldn't exist with Twitch. But if his meteoric rise continues on YouTube, and deals like the one with Rogue Company keep lining up, Dr Disrespect could transcend where he was on Twitch by every metric.