Twitch exec tasked with improving streamer experience leaves amid profit-focused changes

Twitch’s senior vice president for global creators Constance Knight announced to colleagues this week that she will be leaving the company, according to a Bloomberg report.

The timing of the internal email reportedly lined up with president Dan Clancy’s public letter detailing upcoming changes to the platform’s subscription revenue share splits. It’s difficult to tell if the move by Knight is at all related, but based on the email obtained by Bloomberg, she already has a position elsewhere set up.

The note from Knight indicated she is taking on a position that “provides exciting growth opportunities for me both professionally and personally.” The job is also in the “creator space.” Knight has been working for Twitch for just more than a year. Prior to her stay there, she worked at Instagram for 11 months and YouTube for more than eight years in creator-related positions.

In her position at Twitch, Knight was responsible for leading “efforts to improve the overall experience for its livestreaming partners,” according to a Variety report from when she was hired last July. Constance has not publicly announced her departure on Twitter or updated her LinkedIn profile.

Her departure comes as the platform seems to be prioritizing profitability through changes to subscription revenue splits and increasingly incentivizing that streamers run advertisements. 

At the beginning of the year, Twitch lost its chief content officer Michael Aragon and chief operations officer Sara Clemens. Aragon left his position for an executive role at Lululemon, while Clemens became a senior advisor for Blackstone Growth. Bloomberg reported that neither of those roles have been filled.

The executive exodus isn’t limited to Twitch in the streaming world. Earlier this year, Lester Chen left a similar position to the one Knight held. He was the global head of gaming creators at YouTube, and has since become a partner and gaming creator lead at Andreessen Horowitz. Prior to his departure, Ryan “Fwiz” Wyatt left his post at YouTube as senior managing director, global head of gaming to become the CEO at Polygon Studios.

Update Sept. 23 5:57pm CT: In a statement provided to Dot Esports, Twitch confirmed that Constance Knight has resigned from her position at Twitch, but provided no further comment on the matter.