Twitch’s potential new feature, view boosting, has been incredibly divisive among audiences and streamers alike even before its implementation.
One of Twitch’s most prominent streamers, xQc, voiced his displeasure earlier on stream.
“This has to be probably the worst idea I have ever heard in my life,” xQc said during a recent stream. “This is quite possibly the dumbest shit I have ever had the displeasure of putting my eyes on.”
The former Overwatch pro equated the new feature to the long bannable offense of viewbotting.
“What if you were to just hire a bunch of viewers, and every day just put in a $1,000 worth of viewbotting – sorry, I mean boosting,” xQc said.
XQc is one of the largest streamers on Twitch’s platform. The 25-year-old streamer has over nine million followers and broadcasts to thousands of viewers daily. The French Canadian streamer’s opinions have reached the wider Twitch audience, but his concerns are already shared by many others.
Twitch product manager Jacob Rosok said the feature will roll out with small test groups, although this hasn’t managed the massive community backlash seen thus far.
This isn’t the first time the boost feature has been discussed on Twitch, either. Previously, viewers were able to use channel points as a means of promoting their favorite streamer. Now, channel points have been switched out for monetary transactions. Steamers boosted by their viewers will appear on the recommended page for larger amounts of Twitch users to see and potentially click on.
