Streamer DrLupo Is Leaving Twitch For Youtube

Ben "DrLupo" Lupo, a streamer best known for his talents in first-person-shooter titles, as well as massive charity drives for St. Jude Children's Research Hospital, is departing from his platform of choice. The streaming giant, who has 4.5 million followers on Twitch, will be streaming exclusively on YouTube starting on August 31.

Lupo's move to YouTube follows other high-profile streamers leaving the Amazon-owned service in favor of Google's alternative over the past two years. Notably, Jack "CouRage" Dunlop began streaming on YouTube in 2019, with Rachel "Valkyrae" Hofstetter doing the same in 2020. Both have found success on Google's platform, with the former currently sitting at 3.4 million subscribers and the latter with over 3.5 million subscribers. YouTube is also Herschel "Dr. Disrespect" Beam's streaming platform of choice following his ban from Twitch.

Lupo already has a sizable audience on YouTube, with over 1.7 million subscribers. The streamer has not disclosed the terms of his deal with YouTube just yet. However, speaking to The Washington Post, Lupo said that the amount would leave him "secure for life."

While Lupo will likely take a chunk of his viewership with him to YouTube, he stands to lose a many of the viewers and supporters he had on Twitch. The Amazon-owned platform dominates the streaming market, with a Streamlabs quarterly report stating that the service has just over 65% of the 27.98 billion hours of streams watched in 2020.

Twitch itself has been dealing with multiple issues itself recently, beyond the loss of talent. The platform has been criticized for its handling of DMCA takedowns filed by music publishers over the course of the past year. Streamers are also boycotting the platform for all of September 1 as a response to its plague of hate raids.