Twitch.tv is a streaming platform owned by Amazon, which is essentially popular among game streamers and viewers of gaming streams. Twitch was acquired by Amazon in 2014, and is used by gamers for broadcasting themselves while playing games usually accompanied by audio commentary, it also contains a chat feature which helps them connect with their audience in real time. The viewers of the streams can donate money to their favorite players, these payments can be done via PayPal , as well as Amazon.

Twitch was hacked on October 6, by an anonymous hacker.
The hacker in a torrent link that contains over 100 GB of data, revealed critical information such as

  • Twitch’s Source code
  • Gross earnings of streamers (since 2019)
  • Details of an unreleased product, as well as
  • Password credentials of multiple users.


The link containing the leaked data was posted on an online forum called 4Chan, the data included the words “part-one” in the name indicating that there could be more data in possession of the hacker. The hacker confirmed the possession of the same, however, they did not give any details about what that data might be. The hacker said their motive behind the data breach was to “foster more disruption and competition” in the streaming platforms and they said that according to them “(Twitch’s streaming community is a) disgusting, toxic cesspool”


Twitch officially confirmed the breach later the same day, but it remained silent in regards to the accuracy of information leaked. No official confirmation concerning the earnings of streamers was provided.


Even as platform remained silent, some streamers on the platform went on record to confirm the figures in the leak. While one Canadian gamer Scott Hellyer(username-tehMorag) revealed that the figures of his earnings were accurate down to the last cent another streamer from Australia, James William (username-CrispyTv) said that his earnings as revealed by the leak were not exact but certainly close to the actual figures. He said his actual earnings are lower than the amount revealed by the leak.


Overall, it has been revealed that nearly 80 Twitch streaming accounts have made more than a million dollars over the past two years, starting from August of 2019. The top-grossing account was a “Dragons and Dungeons” streamer’s involving role-playing by voice actors, run by streamer with username “CriticalRole” which grossed a whopping USD 9.6 Million. While Canadian gamer Felix Lengyel with username “xQcOW” is revealed to be the highest individual earner with an earning of USD 8.4 Million.


Streaming platforms such as Twitch guard information about the earnings of streamers on their platform to prevent the competition whether it is Youtube Gaming, Microsoft Mixers, or other similar platforms from acquiring talents from Twitch by paying the game streamers a higher amount than what is paid to them by Twitch for streaming their content on the platform. This has happened before when Microsoft allegedly paid USD 30 Million to a Twitch Streamer to exclusively stream for their platform Microsoft Mixers


Some cyber experts have recognized this to be among one of the biggest data breaches they have ever witnessed. This hack has finally revealed what has been speculated for years and what many web channels were trying to uncover using bots. Now that this data is leaked and is out in the open it will certainly result in harassment of the streamers and users whose details have been revealed.


Twitch users have been adviced to change passwords and activate two-factor authentication to prevent their data from being compromised, which is an undeniable possibility in the given scenario. With the hacker sitting on a large pile of critically sensitive data that could be sold for a huge sum, Twitch needs to act fast.

(I initially wrote this as an assignment, but then decided to post it here, now that I have I feel like I might write more of these alongside my usual poems and musings, since I finally have the time and the motivation. I’ll try to write as often and as much and about whatever I can. Thanks! For staying around.)

– By : Samridhi Dutta