Twitch has pulled a feature that allows users to donate 1,000 gifted subs for just under $5,000 as many streamers spoke out, but it may not be gone for long.
On November 26, Twitch gave viewers the ability to gift 1000 subscriptions at once. While this would typically cost $6,000, the 1K bundle comes with a $1,000 discount.
Emiru was one of the first streamers to receive the new amount of gifted subs, leaving her speechless and confused.
A viral clip showed the Twitch star baffled by the donation, calling it “crazy.”
Other creators were quick to criticize the new gifted sub feature for a variety of reasons shortly after it was added.
Streamers concerned Twitch will put viewers in debt gifting thousands of subs
One of the biggest names to call out Twitch was Ludwig, who accused the Amazon-owned platform of only adding the feature to “suck more money from viewers.”
The streamer named off a series of new features Twitch has added over the years such as Hype Trains while not making a “decent” mobile app.
VTuber Lucia was also concerned, explaining that she was worried that some viewers who can’t afford to donate so much would do so anyway.
“They could put themselves in a horrible position,” she said before alluding to Twitch’s financial struggles. “Twitch takes 30-50% of this, makes you wonder why they’re raising limits on gifting subs.”
“I will always be grateful to Twitch for giving me my platform, but I can tell their focus is on profit, profit, profit and there’s barely any communication on any of this.”
Lucia and fellow VTuber Akame also shared another similar concern: the possibility of a viewer issuing a chargeback.
Chargebacks have been used regularly by scammers to leave streamers out of pocket by issuing refunds.
“I would be scared to receive that amount of subs,” they remarked. “What if they do a chargeback and you just sit there with a debt staring at you.”
Amid the discussion, Twitch pulled the 1000 gifted sub option, however, as some pointed out, this is likely due to the site running a 35% off discount until December 1.
We’ll have to see if Twitch brings the new gifted sub total back once the new promotion ends or if the streamers have managed to convinced the platform to pull the plug on the feature completely.
