A Year Of Hard Lessons For Twitch And Its CEO

Lights pulse, beats boom, and bodies bounce at Elsewhere, a music venue in Brooklyn. On stage, producer and DJ Zedd blazes through a brief, energetic set. It’d be easy to melt into the crowd if not for a couple things that differentiate this from your standard club cacophony: 1) Over time, the space takes on a distinctly purple hue, and 2) a back wall in the main room is occupied by a gigantic Twitch chat. 

This August launch event for Twitch’s new DJ program seems to be attended more by Elsewhere regulars than Twitch diehards. You can tell because nobody really notices when a tall, silver-haired man in a cowboy hat strides through the crowd and occupies a spot near the stage. It’s Dan Clancy, the CEO of Twitch. If you regularly stream on or tune into Twitch, you’d recognize him in an instant. He’s everywhere.

Clancy, a theater and compsci major who worked at NASA, Google, and Nextdoor before joining Twitch as a VP in 2019, graduated to CEO after former CEO and co-founder Emmett Shear stepped down in early 2023. Much has changed since. The company, which previously boasted a headcount of over 2,000 employees, has laid off close to 1,000 people on Clancy’s watch. Earlier this year, Twitch shuttered its business in Korea, an epicenter of esports and gaming culture, due to “prohibitively” high costs of operation.

The company has also raised subscription prices, first in Australia, Canada, the UK, and Turkey, and then later in the US and other countries around the world, to account for rising costs and currency fluctuations, as well as mobile app store fees. Smaller changes, like a move away from partner managers – long a backbone of the service – also signaled that change was in the air. Meanwhile, viewership has declined since Twitch’s pandemic peak, and new competitors like Kick have emerged. 

Despite a variety of symptoms, Twitch has been battling the same core affliction for quite some time: As the Wall Street Journal recently reported, and as others, myself included, reported in previous years, Twitch isn’t profitable. Providing high-definition, low-latency video around the world is, in Clancy’s words, “expensive.” Amazon likes its individual businesses to be "sustainable, viable” ventures on their own terms, which has left Twitch and Amazon at an impasse. Something has to give, and little by little, it has.

But the mood among big-name Twitch streamers and their followers has yet to plummet back to the same depths of doom and gloom as just a couple of years ago, when the company began to embrace ads and (temporarily) eliminated its 70/30 revenue split option. At the time, streamers large and small began openly speaking of fleeing Twitch for greener pastures. That moment was a culmination of years of frustration; between unclear rules, apparent cost cutting that resulted in Twitch letting top streamers go, new features that didn’t meet any apparent need (for example, karaoke app Twitch Sings), failure to deliver long-requested features, and communication woes around urgent problems like “hate raids,” streamers were fed up. Moreover, with YouTube ascendant in the livestreaming space, many thought Twitch’s crown might finally be slipping.  

In some ways, Twitch appears to be on even wobblier legs now, but streamers aren’t heading for the hills. Several, in fact, recently completed their YouTube exclusivity contracts and chose to return to Twitch or multi-stream to YouTube and Twitch, while others – like Ludwig Ahgren, who is still technically a YouTube streamer – have found ways to bring events and other big moments to Twitch. In part, this is simply because creators have acclimated to a new status quo, one in which Twitch is lighter on staff and inundated with ads. On top of that, creators are everywhere now; it behooves them to reach the widest audience possible by distributing streams, videos, and clips across YouTube, Twitch, TikTok, Instagram, and other platforms. 

This about-face is partially Clancy’s doing. Where former CEO Shear preferred to keep to the shadows – with inconsistent company communication strategies to match – Clancy loves to put in face time with streamers. He’s even become something of a streamer himself, regularly jamming both solo and alongside other streamers on his “DJClancy” channel. 

It’s clear that Clancy understands the culture of Twitch on a more intimate level than Twitch execs who’ve come before. These days, there’s a streamer for every possible niche, whether it’s a specific video game, politics, or fraud detection. To some degree, they all play characters, and more so than ever, the islands of internet they’ve carved out for themselves overlap. Viewers might spend most of their time watching only one or two specific streamers, but they maintain awareness of numerous streamers, communities, and cameos. Where the most popular streamers are concerned, modern-day Twitch is a cinematic universe – one that never stops.

Clancy’s character is the same as his job description: CEO of Twitch. But where the actual CEO oversees mass layoffs and price hikes, the character is just another streamer, sans whatever pesky power dynamics his station might entail. His playbook is not that dissimilar from that of others who’ve enjoyed meteoric rises to stardom on Twitch: Befriend as many big names as possible. Turn your speciality, whatever it might be, into novel content that boosts the profiles of preexisting stars as well as your own.

You never know where Clancy’s affable attitude and trademark hat might show up: At the sparsely-attended filming of a streamer organization’s seasonal awards show, during a react streamer’s routine late-night broadcast, around an anime convention that big streamers have been invited to, in Grand Theft Auto getting trolled by a role-player, among a plethora of streamers wishing a popular creator happy birthday, at a Twitch-hosted Zedd show in Brooklyn. No matter the time or place, he’s always happy to engage – to laugh, joke, answer questions, and hear concerns. In pursuit of this, he’s traveled at regular intervals, first touring US cities in a van last year and then globetrotting to Japan, Taiwan, and Australia in the spring and Europe in the summer, where he visited 12 cities including Madrid, Barcelona, Montpellier, and Amsterdam. During his travels, he’s personally interacted with hundreds of streamers.

Clancy has positioned himself as an advocate for Twitch creators, a friendly neighborhood CEO. By most measures, he’s done a good job of it. Streamers, many of whom publicly lamented what they perceived to be Twitch’s slow-mo car crash of a death just a couple years ago, love him. But recent months have begun to demonstrate the limits of his approach, both within Twitch and without.

***

Clancy started his 2023 tenure as CEO with what Bloomberg called a “charm offensive.” He went on the aforementioned van tour. He quickly rolled back and apologized for unpopular decisions, like limits placed on how streamers could display branded content. He implemented a program that once again made it possible for some streamers to qualify for a 70/30 split (in their favor) on subscription revenue. With Clancy calling the shots, Twitch also opened the floodgates on streamers multi-streaming to other platforms, another long-requested change. Early reviews, in contrast to streamers dinging Shear for seeming aloof and out of touch, were effusively positive.  

“This was the fight that I fought for the last two years I was at Twitch,” Marcus “DJWheat” Graham, Twitch’s former head of creator development who became one of the loudest critics of its communication strategy, said on Twitter last year in response to Clancy’s newfound focus on meeting streamers where they’re at. “Dan is bringing the empathy Twitch was missing for years back into the limelight. I’ve always said ‘Community only works when leadership is committed.’ This is leadership committing again.”

Speaking to Aftermath as part of an interview earlier this year, Clancy gave his thoughts on where things broke down before he stepped into the role of CEO.

"[Shear] always cared deeply about the community, but he's just not this outwardly engaged, gregarious type of personality, right?” Clancy told Aftermath. “In absence of having confidence of knowing someone and knowing intent, a lot of people fill in the blanks with an action. ... I think me spending time with them gives them a sense of trust, of motivation. They may disagree with an action, but as long as they think you're on their side, trying to do the right thing, then they understand that we're trying to accomplish the exact same thing."

Clancy’s charm offensive was followed by a late-2023 honeymoon period. Stories profilerated about Good Guy Dan Clancy helping streamers get into conventions, contacting and meeting with every streamer under the sun, and just generally being a good sport. Even streamers with whom Twitch has butted heads in the past, like hot tub meta main character Kaitlyn “Amouranth” Siragusa, came away from sit downs feeling like Clancy authentically understood where they were coming from.

"I had brunch with him [at TwitchCon in October 2023] one on one," Siragusa told Aftermath during an interview last year. "He seems like a reasonable guy, follows logic, isn't judgmental. He actually called pools and hot tubs 'just so fun.' His words. I was like 'Really? OK!' ... He's a pretty cool guy, so I think the future of Twitch has a lot of potential. Now might be one of those too-little, too-late situations, but definitely on a better track than it would have been without [Clancy as CEO]."  

Kacey “Lowco" Shields, a streamer who specializes in news and advice for other streamers, streamed with Clancy last October. “There was no sense of a time crunch or off-limit topics,” she told Aftermath. “He was very personable. … I think the feeling of uncertainty with Twitch comes and goes in waves, but Dan’s consistent communication has made a big difference. He’s not afraid of admitting Twitch’s shortcomings, he appears often on Twitch’s Patch Notes [stream] and other broadcasts to communicate new products or changes, and he generally makes himself available to the Twitch community. It goes to show how crucial honest communication and transparency are in maintaining trust.”  

All of this took place against a backdrop of layoffs and earthshaking announcements like Twitch’s intention to withdraw from Korea. In December 2023, Twitch attempted to loosen some of its oft-maligned rules around nudity, especially nudity in service of artwork, only for some streamers to take advantage and flood portions of Twitch with inappropriate imagery. The company rolled back the changes after just two days. Clancy apologized, and while some streamers were upset, public perception of him remained much more positive than that of Twitch’s prior executive cohort.

Clancy was not bulletproof, but he’d cracked the code on getting streamers, in particular, to interpret his actions in good faith. On an internet that’s generally ready to tear executives who make divisive decisions limb from limb, this was no easy feat. But Clancy, by virtue of putting himself out there as a hybrid CEO-influencer, managed it.

"Sometimes we do things that are gonna be pretty much liked by everyone,” Clancy told Aftermath. “When we offer increased rev share, that's something that is fairly positive. Sometimes we do things that are difficult decisions, because that's the nature of running a business. Korea is a perfect example of that. And absolutely, I think [streamers] understand why we're doing that. They trust that we're in it, and they know it's a tough decision. They understand that when we say we didn't make this lightly, it's the truth. They know that we really did struggle with it – that it was a really difficult decision and we would rather not have done it." 

Clancy has said on numerous occasions that he views all of the present day bloodletting as part of a long play. This isn’t just about profitability. In his eyes, it’s about survival.   

"My job isn't just to make sure that Twitch is thriving and succeeding in the next two years; my job is to make sure that Twitch is here 50 years from now or 100 years from now,” Clancy told Aftermath. “[Veteran streamer Ben "CohhCarnage" Cassell], he's raising his family. 20 years from now, he'll still be streaming. Twitch needs to be here if [Cassell] is going to continue to live the life he chose to live. Because it's not like they just go to YouTube or somewhere else. I think our platform is distinctive in what we do. We have an obligation to our community to make sure we're here for a very long time." 

***

It’s not hard to see how that kind of rhetoric would be reassuring to streamers. Clancy speaks passionately, and in a way that suggests he really does have creators’ best interests at heart. On the whole, he’s also managed to give to streamers – a better revenue split, multi-streaming, etc – while taking from others, like viewers, employees, and creators in territories Twitch sees as less crucial to its business. Politics streamer Michael “Mike From PA” Beyer views it as a shrewd calculation.

"Viewers on Twitch aren't the customers," Beyer told Aftermath. "Streamers are. The fact that we decide to make our content there is a choice between a number of competitors. Dan's focus is on selling the platform to us.”  

"Dan seems like a perfect hire for what Twitch needs," Cassell told Aftermath. "They need a performative CEO that can put a positive spin on the negatively charged changes they feel they need to implement. Dan is an incredibly smart, likable guy that will make that process easier. Is Dan doing a great job? He sure is. Have things improved since he took over? From a comms perspective, absolutely. But Dan's role doesn't do much for the common streamer, so nothing much has changed there from him. The general Twitch changes are still hostile to streamers."

This has become more apparent in recent months. Ads continue to make the Twitch viewing experience annoying, to say the least, and subscription price hikes have proven exceedingly unpopular. Twitch has explained that prices needed to go up to ensure that streamers’ revenue splits can remain the same, but that hasn’t exactly reassured the viewers who now have to eat the cost. According to documents reviewed by the Wall Street Journal, Twitch users are spending less overall “in recent years,” which hurts both streamers and Twitch. Meanwhile, a revamped Twitch mobile app more akin to TikTok, Instagram, and YouTube’s shorts-centric offerings prompted widespread blowback, with many saying the update’s focus on discovery interfered with their ability to find the content they were actually looking for. 

But Twitch still has what it hopes will be an ace in the hole: Stream Together, formerly known as Guest Star. The feature, which has been in development for the past couple years, is currently in beta and allows streamers to quickly and easily collaborate across broadcasts or in the same broadcast. Basically, it’s Twitch’s attempt at a more seamless version of what many streamers can already accomplish with Discord – a solution to a problem that… doesn’t really exist.

Back when it was still called Guest Star, it aimed to bring chatters onto broadcasts, as opposed to other streamers, but it only really succeeded in exposing a core truth of Twitch that’s continued to drag down the feature ever since: Chat, as streamer and reporter Zach Bussey put it, is the collaborator. Most streamers treat chat the way they would another person, conversing with it and bouncing ideas off it. They don’t need to bring an individual chatter or streamer onto their broadcast, and so they don’t, resulting in what have so far been dispiritingly low usage statistics for Stream Together. 

Despite Twitch’s substantial investment in Stream Together – both behind the scenes and on stage at major public events like TwitchCon – Twitch employees do not have much faith in the feature.

"I don't believe in Stream Together, and it seems at this point very few employees do despite many people still working on projects related to it,” one current Twitch employee, who was granted anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly, told Aftermath. “It's worth noting that many better-performing projects have been killed in the past, so it personally feels like this is an executive pet project, and that [Clancy] likes the idea of Stream Together more than the business justification behind it. There is some business justification to Stream Together – just not enough to justify the opportunity cost of working on literally anything else.”

“For Stream Together, there’s more of a PR investment than engineering/product investment nowadays,” said another current Twitch employee. “But I’m sure plenty will argue that any dedicated resources is too much. Streamer setups are held together by duct tape and dreams, so adding one new variable is a huge ask. Also, it’s much easier to use Discord when it’s part of your daily habit. … [Stream Together] was a good bet, but too little too late or just not enough extra value.”

A Twitch spokesperson told Aftermath that the company is working on adding shared chat and shared view counts to Stream Together, as well as new ways for streamers to find others to collaborate with, in hopes of increasing overall usage of the feature.

***

While streamers maintain a degree of confidence in Clancy, Twitch employees are much more skeptical. Leanness and efficiency might mean dollar signs in executives’ eyes, but remaining staff now have to shoulder the burden of multiple rounds of layoffs.

“Teams are overworked,” said one current employee. “I do believe that plenty of important work is still happening, but now it’s a fight to get ideal resourcing. So things are launching in [minimum viable product] modes instead of incubating properly. As you can imagine, this leads to eroded trust from users.”

“Morale is not good at all,” said another. “Lots of people leaving for better places due to the increase in responsibility and decrease in resources to achieve those responsibilities, and often many issues with corporate politics. If the job market was better, this would not be a company people would choose to work at.”

These fraying relations have led to a common refrain among employees: What’s Clancy doing traveling the world on the company’s dime when Twitch is apparently so hard up for money that the only solution was a series of bone-deep cuts? And shouldn’t he be spending his time putting out fires instead of chatting up streamers? 

At the end of June, Clancy tried to assuage these concerns in an email he sent to staff while on his trip across Europe (WSJ first mentioned the email in a piece earlier this year, but Aftermath has viewed it in full for the purposes of this piece).

“For most companies, it is quite reasonable for the CEO to spend a significant amount of time with their customers and suppliers,” Clancy wrote in the email. “If I was running a manufacturing company, I would be meeting with the companies that provided us raw materials as well as the companies that we sold our widgets to. Our streamers serve a similar role to Twitch." 

He added that “a sense of trust” is “critical” for Twitch in a way it might not be for bigger platforms like TikTok and YouTube.

"While obviously [user-generated content] creators are important to these platforms, the viewer's affinity is squarely with the platform rather than any single creator given the number of creators that a viewer will see in a week's time,” Clancy wrote. “For Twitch, a viewer often only watches a handful of streamers in a week. If those streamers are negative towards Twitch the company, it can spill over into the sentiment of the viewers. It is important that our streamers believe we are focused on them and their needs."

He went on to outline his trip itinerary and note that he would meet 150 streamers by the time he was finished. He also provided highlights from the then-in-progress trip, including one-on-ones with Spanish streamers Auronplay and Rubius, two of the most popular in the world, and tales involving Paddle – a tennis-like game – and an impromptu karaoke night.

I could definitely see this rubbing overworked employees the wrong way. When I asked Clancy how he makes it all work during our interview earlier this year, he said that it’s a balancing act and that, contrary to appearances, it’s not all fun and games.

"When I was doing the van tour of the East Coast, my schedule was, I was working on Pacific Time, I would usually have meetings starting around 11 [AM] or so, I would have meetings until 7 [PM], and then usually I would literally have driven exactly to where I would have dinner with a streamer,” Clancy told Aftermath. “I'd do stuff with the streamer, and then I'd get in the car and drive, or I'd drive the next morning. So some of it is just managing scheduling. I'll spend 60 or 70 hours working and streaming, but I enjoy it, you know?" 

Resentment among some employees seems to have festered since earlier this summer. Recent messages Aftermath has viewed from Twitch’s page on Blind, an anonymous space for verified employees to discuss issues, are rife with anti-Clancy sentiment. Many suggest that Clancy feels the need to be involved in too many projects at once while simultaneously putting time and money that could be better spent elsewhere into various streamer-pleasing excursions. 

“I like Dan as a person, but as a Twitch CEO he’s not giving what he’s supposed to be giving,” reads one Blind message written by an anonymous Twitch employee. “No strategy, wasting money [on] ‘Dan in a van,’ not profitable as a company hemorrhaging money, doesn’t lead his teams, takes on more than he can chew … I mean, the list can go on and on.”

Another anonymous Twitch employee created a poll with two options: “Dan in the van is the man to can” and “Dan in the van is the man to stan.” Of 104 participants, 72 – or 69.2 percent – chose “can.” 

One Blind conversation between employees took place while Clancy was doing a rock climbing broadcast alongside a streamer named DeraJN.

“He’s rock climbing right now!?!?” wrote one employee.

“Yup, he was livestreaming it, lol,” wrote another.

“Jesus,” replied the first.

“Reminds me of the time he wasn’t doing anything other than video gaming,” said a third.

A Twitch spokesperson told Aftermath this week that Clancy’s approach has not changed, and he will continue meeting with streamers. 

Some streamers question the benefits even of the part of Clancy’s strategy that appears to be working.

“I feel like because Dan has heavily focused on streaming himself, he has created this power dynamic of 'If he likes you, you'll get a chance to be propped up by him, taken care of [by] him,' etc,” a streamer, who was granted anonymity out of concern that speaking out against Twitch’s boss could hurt their career, told Aftermath. “I don't think that creators genuinely like him, but rather what he could potentially 'do' for them. … I was hoping that Twitch and everyone who works so hard to keep Twitch going would benefit under Dan's new leading role as the CEO, but it really does seem like the only person who seems to be benefitting is just Dan.”

While some streamers and viewers view Clancy as a real one for getting on their level and engaging with their sometimes risqué humor, others feel like his behavior is not always befitting of a CEO. In August, he publicly joked to one smaller streamer's face that the streamer had been "bitching" about Twitch, which took that streamer by surprise. He's also flirted with the idea of allowing banned creators like the eternally-controversial Adin Ross back onto Twitch, albeit only if they demonstrate sustained change. This, too, has rubbed some streamers the wrong way.  

"It's very concerning that he decides to even entertain these toxic creators," said the anonymous streamer. "It doesn't do anything but create a belief that a) people like Adin, Sneako, etc are able to escape consequences from their disgusting actions, and b) invites their audience to feel safe in spaces like Twitch. Twitch does not need these creators, and it's incredibly weird that he entertains the idea of their return."

"I’m not a fan of these decisions, as I don’t believe social media sites should lend their platform for bigotry and hate speech," said Shields. "The only thing that makes sense is Twitch is playing a numbers game; they are desperate for revenue, and they’ll bank on more people coming than going. Although it doesn’t seem like that strategy is panning out for Twitter/X."

Clancy, however, believes that people can change, and if a platform is going to be around for decades, it should allow for that.

"We need to make sure we have a process by which strikes and offenses expire over time," Clancy told Aftermath. "When we first built these things, we weren't thinking we're gonna be here for 20 years. What happened 20 years ago or 5 years ago isn't all that relevant to whether or not I can trust you today.”

Graham, who felt positive about Clancy late last year, still thinks he’s doing the right thing by regularly engaging with creators. He’s just not sure about the conclusions Clancy is arriving at.

"Looking back at the last year, having insights from employees as well, having a lot of criticism around [Stream Together] – the performance and the numbers – there's a perception that Dan is building the features that he wants as a creator," Graham told Aftermath. "The importance of listening to creators is the reason Twitch exists today. The subscription program was not built because Twitch thought it would be a good idea. It was built because a creator, Sean ‘Day9’ Plott, said 'You know what would be a really good idea? What if one of my community members could support me in that way? Maybe there's some benefit in that.' And that's how the product was born." 

Clancy says he applies feedback from creators regularly and directly.

“One of the biggest benefits [of talking to streamers] is, I work through different ideas,” he told Aftermath. “I go through details, and it helps refine much of the detail thinking. It's certainly the case with respect to our community guidelines; a lot of the details do come from talking to streamers. Certainly in the collaboration [features] as well and our thoughts on using clips and how to support more social sharing.”

But even armed with all the relevant knowledge in the world, Graham isn’t sure Clancy – or anybody working at Twitch – would necessarily make the correct calls.

“Every creator is different,” said Graham. “Dan doesn't represent the 1 percent; they need something different. Dan doesn't represent the 25 percent; they need something different. Dan doesn't represent the affiliate [tier streamer] who doesn't have a job as CEO on the side. … What has to be respected is that figuring out the right thing to build for Twitch is very difficult. No one's saying this is easy, but it should be easy to understand if people don't want it."

Some Twitch employees fear that more layoffs are on the horizon. 

“People are scared,” said one current Twitch employee. “They see their friends from previous layoffs still unemployed.”

“It would burn this company to the ground and also leave us forever [in] lights on mode,” said another on Blind, “but hey, Dan will get to stream as much as he can, will continue to build his personal brand, will continue to micromanage and generally have a great time traveling all year.”

A Twitch spokesperson told Aftermath that “we are confident in Twitch’s business and remain focused on serving the needs of our streamers for the long term.”

***

At Twitch’s DJ program launch party in Brooklyn, Clancy recedes into the crowd and disappears from view. On stage, Zedd thanks Twitch for creating the category, which via partnerships with the music industry allows DJs to monetize content without fear of getting DMCA-ed, saying that he wishes something like it existed when he was young and first starting out. Then he announces that the next song will be the last. 

As the crowd screams along to “Clarity,” Clancy appears on stage. This time, he’s not checking Twitch chat. Instead, he pumps his fist and jumps up and down enthusiastically alongside Zedd. Later, Clancy clarifies to me that though “DJ” is part of his Twitch handle, he’s a musician – not a DJ. This isn’t really his world. Still, up on stage dancing with Zedd, he’s living somebody’s dream. It might not be his, but someone has absolutely imagined themselves up there and felt their heart swell. 

Watching this unfold, I’m reminded of something Clancy said when I interviewed him earlier in the year. He might be the man with the van, but he’s not the man with the plan. He lives in the moment.     

"I'm not one of these people with 'the plan,'” he told Aftermath. “I wasn't planning on being CEO. I was doing what I do. I've always been one that does what I'm doing at the time and does not worry about what I'm going to do next. I'd streamed once or twice before I became CEO. Then when I became CEO, I said 'I should commit to doing this regularly.' And initially, I wasn't necessarily planning on doing it as long as I have. I was thinking that after a while I'd kind of get the tech. I will have done it. And I really keep doing it because I enjoy it."  

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