Twitch clarifies it did not undo its crackdown on viewbots, as suspected streamers seemingly return to having high viewcounts

Twitch may be reversing some of its measures against view botting (Image via @Twitch/X) )
Twitch may be reversing some of its measures against view botting (Image via @Twitch/X)

Twitch has responded to claims of undoing its crackdown on viewbots, stating that the platform has not reversed any of the "viewbot tools or removal efforts."

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In a statement issued to Sportskeeda, a Twitch representative said:

"We haven’t rolled back any of our viewbot tools or removal efforts. We are very committed to combating viewbotting on Twitch. We think our work here is important, not only for our service, but for the wider livestreaming industry. Viewership fluctuates throughout the day, so you may notice some changes over time. Plus, viewbotter services work hard to evade detection and figure out new detection systems."
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"Combatting viewbots is an ongoing process, and we continue to develop new and better methods to detect viewbots. This will always be the case. We are fully committed to combatting inauthentic viewership on Twitch, continue to invest in our detection tools, and will continue to make updates to improve our viewbot system."

On August 21, 2025, Twitch launched a major viewbot crackdown, deploying upgraded detection systems to remove artificial viewers and improve the authenticity of viewership data.

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Industry analyst Zach Bussey on X felt the platform might be reversing some of its measures, as creators are seemingly back to their original view counts.

In his post, Bussey mentioned how a majority of creators he reviewed on Saturday, August 23, two days after the crackdown, had risen back to their 30-day average viewership:

"It's a bit too early to be sure, but it looks like Twitch undid this change today. Almost every example I looked at on Saturday that showed streamers having their lowest performing streams of the year between Thursday-Saturday, are back at their 30-day average today. (That or every viewbot service has found a solution already.)"
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He also left room to speculate that view-botting services may have found a workaround for the platform's latest policies. Soon after these polices came into place, Twitch saw a steep drop in overall viewership, up to 24% compared to the previous week.


Looking at xQc's comments on Twitch's view-botting countermeasures

xQc weighed in, claiming that the view-botting tactic was strategically used by agencies to inflate their creators' metrics and gain more advertising traction:

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"I’ve been thinking, WHY orgs would bot heavily? Then the answer seemed almost obvious. Talent agencies receive a % from ad streams their talent does. By inflating their streamers they can sell massive ad packages in bulk and take in much higher sums. To put simply, fraud."
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On August 23, xQc shared data showing how a certain creator's viewership dropped significantly after the platform's crackdown. He also mentioned that creators who are part of groups or organizations have a higher number of artificial viewers:

"Twitch has cracked down on bots in the 2-3 days and viewbotters/victims of viewbotting have been exposed. Streamers that are part of groups/orgs are seemingly being botted much more heavily. I don’t want to start witch hunts but the data is interesting. Go see for yourself."
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The streamer then created a thread, sharing his thoughts on view-botting as a whole.


In other news, xQc expressed his frustration with MrBeast following their TeamWater collaboration, stating that the experience made him feel as though he were a scammer.

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Edited by Sijo Samuel Paul
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