Twitch Viewership Drops 24% After Viewbot Crackdown

In August 2025, Twitch implemented enhanced detection measures to combat viewbotting, resulting in a significant platform-wide drop in viewer counts, with some channels seeing decreases of up to 24%. The crackdown exposed widespread artificial inflation of audience numbers across thousands of channels, affecting streamers of all sizes, including major creators like Asmongold, who experienced a 10-20% decline. Twitch CEO Dan Clancy emphasized the company's cautious approach to avoid mistakenly filtering out real users, while Chief Product Officer Mike Minton assured that advertisers are protected from ad fraud, as invalid traffic is separately identified and not charged. Despite rumors of a rollback in enforcement, Twitch confirmed the crackdown remains ongoing as a long-term effort to restore trust and integrity on the platform. Industry analysts noted that viewbotting has cost advertisers millions and damaged smaller creators the most, with many streamers and advertising partners welcoming the move despite the initial audience losses. Twitch also highlighted that viewbotting practices often include chat bots alongside view inflation, further undermining genuine engagement.