PirateSoftware shuts down Twitch ‘adpocalypse’ fears but not everyone agrees

PirateSoftware is shutting down rumors of an ‘adpocalypse’ on Twitch, arguing that only streamers with certain tags are seeing any impact on their ad revenue.

Fears of an ‘adpocalypse’ on Twitch are growing after some streamers reported they weren’t seeing any revenue from their broadcasts following a series of incidents on the site throughout October – November 2024.

These incidents included comments made by Twitch streamer Asmongold regarding the conflict in Palestine, statements from political commentator Hasan, and concerns that the platform was allowing antisemitic content after blocking sign-ups in Israel and Palestine.

While Twitch has rectified this last point, with CEO Dan Clancy stating the site is “committed to ensuring that hate and harassment have no place here,” multiple streamers — including high-profile names like FaZe Kaysan and BigEx — claim their ad revenue was halted completely in the wake of these issues.

A report from Richard Lewis found that 11 “significant” advertisers had paused spending on the platform due to concerns of antisemitism, with multinational oil and gas corporation Chevron being one of them.

The potential of a Twitch ‘adpocalypse,’ coined after mass withdrawal of advertisers on YouTube back in 2017, has created a massive stir for streamers… but not everyone is convinced this is actually happening.

Prominent streamer and game developer PirateSoftware has spoken out against the possibility of an ‘adpocalypse,’ claiming that only broadcasters who tag their content as sexual or political are seeing an impact in revenue.

“There is no Twitch Adpocalypse,” he wrote in a tweet on November 19. “…The reason some streamers were seeing reduced ad-fill rates was because of their content and tags. If you had a tag with sexual or political themes of any kind you stopped getting ad-fill.” 

“An adpocalypse would denote that this is happening to everyone on the platform,” he continued. “It’s not. Our income is exactly the same for this time of year as it ever has been. Don’t have political or sexual content on your stream, category, or tags and nothing changes.”

PirateSoftware’s argument follows the discovery from several streamers that their broadcasts, which were tagged with regions like Iran or Venezuela, had been allegedly demonetized, as well as other streamers whose content was labeled as sexual.

However, not everyone is buying PirateSoftware’s explanation. Overwatch streamer Flats, for instance, says that his revenue has been impacted despite not having any political or sexual tags on his streams.

Streamer FaZe Kalei also hit back at PirateSoftware, saying in a now-deleted tweet: “Don’t think that’s true lmao. If I showed you my ad revenue from two weeks ago to now, you’d be in awe. Never had this issue until randomly this week.”

Plenty of other users, though, are fully in agreement with PirateSoftware’s findings, with one viewer writing: “I think people are misrepresenting this situation for a chance at clout.”

“So there is an adpocalypse, just not for everyone,” another said. “This is one of those situations where it’s both true and false depending on your frame of reference.”

This isn’t the first time PirateSoftware has attempted to allay streamers’ fears of a supposed ‘adpocalypse.’ Both he and xQc have previously claimed that the ‘adpocalypse’ “isn’t real,” arguing that only broadcasters with certain tags are likely seeing any changes.