It’s not every day that we see a streaming star like DrLupo, who has 4.5 million followers on Twitch, leave it all behind to sign an exclusive deal with another platform, in this case, YouTube Gaming.
Of course, big names like Ninja and shroud did that in the past, moving to Mixer, Microsoft’s streaming platform, in 2019 before it was shut down in 2020. Ninja, for example, boasted over 13 million followers on Twitch prior to his move to Mixer, where he only reached the three million follower mark and saw his viewership decrease considerably, returning to the Amazon-owned platform last year.
Streaming celebrities are often insecure about revealing the reason behind a move like that, even though almost everyone can tell the decision was made because of the money offered. DrLupo, on the other hand, made it pretty clear why he left Twitch for YouTube.
“Family time is crazy important, [as is] reducing the amount of pressure, because mental health is crazy important,” DrLupo said in an interview with The Washington Post, adding that he spent the last years of his career streaming for 60 to 70 hours per week, which is more or less 10 hours per day.
“Everybody’s just trying to secure the bag, right? There’s no shame in that. That’s literally why everybody gets up and goes to work, right? So of course, the financial situation that YouTube presented me without a doubt is like, you know, I’m secure for life. Everybody’s trying to get to that point. Why would I say no to that?”
DrLupo stressed that he’ll keep putting in the work on his new streaming platform, but he’s hoping that the move will allow him to spend more time with his family and perhaps branch out into a different type of content, like recording “vlog-style” content to show to his fans other than just continuing to play popular games and following what every other streaming star does.
The 34-year-old said YouTube has much room to grow and that he’ll be a small fish in the ocean, instead of being a pretty big fish in a lake. “Twitch is without a doubt the king of livestreaming,” DrLupo said. “YouTube is huge, but the livestream gaming side is a little smaller. Same with Facebook. As those things get refined and built out and fleshed out better, and they’re more adoptable for viewers, it’s gonna matter less and less what platform people stream on. It’s more about supporting the content creators themselves.”
DrLupo is going to start streaming on YouTube tomorrow, Aug. 31. You can follow his channel and turn on notifications to know exactly when he’s live.
