Dr Disrespect’s return has massive implications for the streaming industry

Dr Disrespect returned to streaming on Aug. 7. More than half a million people watched the banned Twitch streamer make his YouTube debut.

With a plethora of new sounds and imaging around the stream, Dr Disrespect quickly addressed the elephant in the room that was his Twitch ban before executing what was ultimately a stream that a regular viewer of Doc’s would expect to see. 

But for some reason, the viewership Dr Disrespect generated was much higher than what fans were used to seeing from Doc on Twitch prior to his ban.

In the past year on Twitch, Dr Disrespect averaged 23,813 viewers on Twitch over the course of 1,240 hours of streaming. His peak viewer count was just 97,540—less than one fifth of what he attracted on YouTube last week.

While Dr Disrespect tried at every turn to make his stream on YouTube a familiar one for his fans, something about the whirlwind of drama surrounding his ban on Twitch gave him a must-see stream.

Prior to hitting more than 500,000 viewers on YouTube over the weekend, Dr Disrespect, who’s touted as one of the most well-known streamers in the industry, had a peak of 388,000 viewers in 2018 on Twitch, according to Stream Hatchet data.

So what made Doc’s return to streaming something that everyone felt the need to watch? 

The actual content itself is exactly what you’d expect from the Two-Time. He maintained his ridiculous, egocentric, and narcissistic character. He stayed true to the type of entertainment that he always consistently delivered on Twitch. And despite having some new donation sounds and imaging, his stream wasn’t anything groundbreaking for his standards.

What made Dr Disrespect’s return to streaming the most-hyped event in the industry was the mystery surrounding it. 

With people still unaware of why exactly Doc was banned from Twitch, there’s a massive contingency of people who seemed to be there for the drama.

In the age of technology, where many business-related deals end up being leaked on social media before they’re officially unveiled, Dr Disrespect’s Twitch ban is perhaps one of the only things people don’t know the details about.

There’s still a looming threat of legal action between Dr Disrespect and Twitch, but no one seems to have any clue why he was taken off the platform permanently despite having a lucrative exclusive contract.

While there isn’t much of a way to replicate Dr Disrespect’s real-life drama with Twitch, it has generated more PR than the Two-Time could ever create with the unique narratives he makes for the character he roleplays.

Due to the bizarre nature of his situation, Dr Disrespect’s name buzzes across social media so much that many of his sponsors have stayed with him despite the potential risks that could come depending on what Doc’s ban was for.

Seeing metrics like Dr Disrespect’s subscriber count on YouTube jump by more than half a million to 2.35 million, up from 1.78 million last week, sponsors like MTN DEW and Turtle Beach tweeted out support for Doc’s return and had links to their websites on his stream.

With little knowledge of exactly how Dr Disrespect’s ban with Twitch will play out, Doc’s sponsors could be putting themselves in a tough situation if it’s revealed that he was guilty of something nefarious. But the amount of exposure they can get from playing off of Doc’s mysterious circumstance appears to have outweighed the pitfalls involved.

As of right now, Dr Disrespect hasn’t published a new regular streaming schedule. He doesn’t have any sort of deal with YouTube to stream with the platform exclusively and perhaps his lack of streams is related to behind-the-scenes negotiations to find a new platform.

But as long as people don’t know the details about Dr Disrespect’s ban, it’s almost as if the secrecy surrounding it amplifies the power of his brand. 

Dr Disrespect admitted on his stream last week that he has to be extremely careful with everything he says due to the legal ramifications of his Twitch ban. But still, he’s put himself in front of hundreds of thousands of people and has sponsors backing the decision.

While there certainly could be something troublesome hiding below the surface of Dr Disrespect’s Twitch ban, his ability to move on shows that he’s confident the information won’t go public, or he truly believes that he’s done nothing wrong.

Either way, the Doc is back, at least momentarily, and everyone is clamoring to see what he has to say.