Monetization in AoE

[YodaIamm]

Finding sponsors feels like the main problem, and I'm not sure thats easy to solve regardless of what kind of advertisement-space is possible in-game.

Yeah there are not enough eye balls to attract sponsors.

aoe2 tournaments are happening because of MS. MS throws 50k in prize pool and get 50 millions in revenue from by selling civs

 

[T90Official]

I think you can attract sponsorship that keeps events running smoothly while also not adding to overly intrusive things to the games for viewers. Smart sponsors won't want their advertisements to be too much because they will turn people off. Smart sponsors also won't overpay though, so it would lead to more modest and hopefully consistent offers. Overly intrusive sponsorships never seem to last long for that reason, the "in your face" method isn't going to accomplish much beyond people feeling inconvenienced, and they realize quickly the return on investment isn't there and move on.

Sponsors are out there but from my position, it's very hard to find anything that is comparable to what MS offers us in prizepools. Considering MS brings in a great deal for the game, it then becomes a situation where the amount a sponsor offers doesn't feel like it's "worth it."

For example-- Let's say MS gives me 50k for an event, I use 5k towards costs, and then 45k towards prizepool. Then a brand offers 20k for sponsorship which would require ad plugs between each game, an image on the tourney banner, and some YT edits that explain the product. Ulimately, mentioning the brand 30 secs between each match isn't a big deal, the image is a non issue, and the YT edits are short and sweet. But to accept that deal I would then be going away from the norm which is no advertisements, which could ultimately turn away some viewers. If I'm potentially turning away viewers or subs, then it would only make sense for me to take some of the sponsorship money to soften the blow, so let's say I take half. Then I'm adding $10k on top of an already high $45k prizepool. From the community perspective, it might not be "worth" it to have ads for a 20% increase in prizepool, and it has the potential to sour things with a percentage of people.

I don't know the situation for other creators, but I imagine it's very similar. It's simply not worth the risk to take some deals because of how good we have it right now. The problem with this is when the day MS turns off the money faucet arrives, it will be a big shock to creators and viewers to have to rely on sponsors and change how things flow currently. I have many more ideas and thoughts on the topic that I'll eventually share a bit more openly with the community, but wanted to at least add some perspective to the conversation. Things aren't so black and white on this topic, think there is a middle ground to be found.

 

[Black Adder]

People think too small here. Only handful of people can currently make a decent living from playing AOE2. With more money in the scene, more people could make a living, which would allow them to focus more on improving and playing the game. It could also draw more talented players to the game. All that would increase the level of competition and play.

If you want to see the absolute peak AOE2 and what the best of the best can do, then you need money. I don't think we've reached that level yet.

Problem is there is a very tilted distribution here, so if you add more money, maybe like 10% (simply some small amount) goes to the "new" people who could benefit, while vast, vast majority will end up with the known firms where it does nothing besides them living better (typically no matter who runs a tournament, T90 will always have the biggest benefit, same as generally which players pocket the top prizes). I guess it's somewhat natural, but it certainly doesn't help the situation when we're already at quite some limit of possibilities, so increasing the situation meaningfully probably means serious increase in funding. And you will hardly get that with MS already being kind of the top limit due to having different goals to possible outside sponsors allowing it to practically throw money away (I don't imagine you can expect random huge outside investments above that, or actually even close).

Like frankly, compare before MS money and now - how many more people are actually able to be full-time from the game that weren't before? You'd probably be surprised it's not as big number as you'd think, and certainly not amongst players, content creators have it probably better, though also not much, it's mostly the same people, just on a higher level - many tried because they exactly thought they'd make that place because of the situation, but many didn't make it. We don't have many new faces that would break big, and even if someone like OrnLu gets healthy hundreds of viewers, he certainly cannot even think about living off it, at the same time others long-term are falling off, and look how much money there actually is when Viper and T90 get instant 3k subs moment they show up - but it doesn't go elsewhere (and we still don't have the result what effect this will have on the other creators - if it's extra money or repurposed, or what kind of proportion).

And yeah as mentioned, when (it's not really if, realistically) Microsoft stops or decreases funding, it will be a major crisis, also because people simply got used to the money - from players to content creators to uninvolved viewers - and you cannot really go back to how things were, many would simply leave to greener pastures to replicate success, many wouldn't after the experience have the drive to be "community-minded" as before, many would fall under the impression "it's dead" and simply give up to do other things. That's why "infinite growth" is so dangerous and the focus on prize pools and money, more, more, more, S-Tier, A-Tier, D-Tier, is so detrimental to the long-term life and health (in other words, the "community"). Fairy tales have an ending.

 

[LeoMontero]

I think you can attract sponsorship that keeps events running smoothly while also not adding to overly intrusive things to the games for viewers. Smart sponsors won't want their advertisements to be too much because they will turn people off. Smart sponsors also won't overpay though, so it would lead to more modest and hopefully consistent offers. Overly intrusive sponsorships never seem to last long for that reason, the "in your face" method isn't going to accomplish much beyond people feeling inconvenienced, and they realize quickly the return on investment isn't there and move on.

Sponsors are out there but from my position, it's very hard to find anything that is comparable to what MS offers us in prizepools. Considering MS brings in a great deal for the game, it then becomes a situation where the amount a sponsor offers doesn't feel like it's "worth it."

For example-- Let's say MS gives me 50k for an event, I use 5k towards costs, and then 45k towards prizepool. Then a brand offers 20k for sponsorship which would require ad plugs between each game, an image on the tourney banner, and some YT edits that explain the product. Ulimately, mentioning the brand 30 secs between each match isn't a big deal, the image is a non issue, and the YT edits are short and sweet. But to accept that deal I would then be going away from the norm which is no advertisements, which could ultimately turn away some viewers. If I'm potentially turning away viewers or subs, then it would only make sense for me to take some of the sponsorship money to soften the blow, so let's say I take half. Then I'm adding $10k on top of an already high $45k prizepool. From the community perspective, it might not be "worth" it to have ads for a 20% increase in prizepool, and it has the potential to sour things with a percentage of people.

I don't know the situation for other creators, but I imagine it's very similar. It's simply not worth the risk to take some deals because of how good we have it right now. The problem with this is when the day MS turns off the money faucet arrives, it will be a big shock to creators and viewers to have to rely on sponsors and change how things flow currently. I have many more ideas and thoughts on the topic that I'll eventually share a bit more openly with the community, but wanted to at least add some perspective to the conversation. Things aren't so black and white on this topic, think there is a middle ground to be found.

Ok, but how does SC2 do with the advertising in game and function for them? i really dont see this type of advertising intrusive. some logos around the map.

and as you said at the end, what will happened when MS doesnt give more money and there is no other big daddy to help? i think that is not reasonable to not accept at least one sponsor and see what happend. someone has to be the first one, who has the balls to be the first?

and really someone will not see a tournament because there are logos on the map? i just dont see it. for example, you think, T90, that someone will say, "i dont watch HC because there are advertising in game"? i dont know. also you can explain to the viewers the situation, like i have X costs, MS give me
X-Y, i need to cover those expenses, so i need more sponsors. Memb literaly had to make a video saying that it was not worthy so people start to donate. its not good. yes people donate and is perfect, but it shouldnt be that way.

 

[KolyaKrasotkin]

i just dont see it. for example, you think, T90, that someone will say, "i dont watch HC because there are advertising in game"?

The day I see advertisement on an AoE2 map is the day I quit the online modus and stop watching tournaments.

 

[YodaIamm]

and really someone will not see a tournament because there are logos on the map?

I don’t think many will stop watching for this reason

The bigger issue is that there is no incentive for big sponsors to sponsor. MS throws money because they can make 1000x in dlc sales, no one else benefits significantly by marketing to Aoe2 viewers let alone the fact that no of viewers are tiny

 

[LeoMontero]

I don’t think many will stop watching for this reason

The bigger issue is that there is no incentive for big sponsors to sponsor. MS throws money because they can make 1000x in dlc sales, no one else benefits significantly by marketing to Aoe2 viewers let alone the fact that no of viewers are tiny

the thing is that i compare aoe with sc. and literally aoe has always more viewers, always. nonetheles, sc has more popularity, more tournaments i think, more money. so thats is what im trying to understand.

why it work for them, and why it doesnt work for us

 

[YodaIamm]

the thing is that i compare aoe with sc. and literally aoe has always more viewers, always. nonetheles, sc has more popularity, more tournaments i think, more money. so thats is what im trying to understand.

why it work for them, and why it doesnt work for us

May be StarCraft is able to still cash in on past glory when it used to be much bigger than Aoe2 ever was.

 

[Black Adder]

the thing is that i compare aoe with sc. and literally aoe has always more viewers, always. nonetheles, sc has more popularity, more tournaments i think, more money. so thats is what im trying to understand.

why it work for them, and why it doesnt work for us

Because StarCraft eSports has reach and overreach and if you invest into it, you'll get way more eyes than just the viewers on stream, everybody knows what it is, it's "cool" to be involved, AoE has nothing like that, if there's a tournament, no one knows about it besides us, it's just a fun campaign/casual skirmish pastime from 25 years ago for everyone else. Why? Because Blizzard made sure of that. They fully backed the eSports that developed around it and funneled it with money and made sure it'll succeed (plus of course good cooperation with major players in the field, Korea and such, so good/helpful externalities) - not some measly hundreds of thousands, but tens of millions. MS does nothing like that, they literally just advertise inside to the already-players, which obviously does nothing to spread it out there, even Redbull got imo somewhat low buzz (but still logically the best through Redbull a bit) when you think about it for what it was. They just do not push it out there, and they're the only ones to do it, no one else can, because they're the big guys with contacts and leverage to get it into every news outlet if they want to, because those others will listen to them what they have to say - they did an advertisement on Times Square, AoEIV was written about quite widely even beyond standard and in non-gaming outlets, so it can be done, they can do it, but they're just not interested in such a way in competitive it seems. Back in WCG times they used to be wanting to be out there on the top and in the buzz and making sure they're in with AoE (which resulted for example also into something like GGL, which was similar to MLG now), that stopped and never resumed, and that's why we are where we are. So yeah, it's about motivation, and well, also money - it would cost probably a lot more than it does now, and return on that investment? Well that's unclear (would the appeal of "everyone's childhood game" with normalisation of gaming and competitive one as well somehow translate into something?), considering even Blizzard stopped with it, but StarCraft has the advantage of living off those 20 years when it was a thing, it means a lot - it got the game established as THE GOAT.

 

[LeoMontero]

Because StarCraft eSports has reach and overreach and if you invest into it, you'll get way more eyes than just the viewers on stream, everybody knows what it is, it's "cool" to be involved, AoE has nothing like that, if there's a tournament, no one knows about it besides us, it's just a fun campaign/casual skirmish pastime from 25 years ago for everyone else. Why? Because Blizzard made sure of that. They fully backed the eSports that developed around it and funneled it with money and made sure it'll succeed (plus of course good cooperation with major players in the field, Korea and such, so good/helpful externalities) - not some measly hundreds of thousands, but tens of millions. MS does nothing like that, they literally just advertise inside to the already-players, which obviously does nothing to spread it out there, even Redbull got imo somewhat low buzz (but still logically the best through Redbull a bit) when you think about it for what it was. They just do not push it out there, and they're the only ones to do it, no one else can, because they're the big guys with contacts and leverage to get it into every news outlet if they want to, because those others will listen to them what they have to say - they did an advertisement on Times Square, AoEIV was written about quite widely even beyond standard and in non-gaming outlets, so it can be done, they can do it, but they're just not interested in such a way in competitive it seems. Back in WCG times they used to be wanting to be out there on the top and in the buzz and making sure they're in with AoE (which resulted for example also into something like GGL, which was similar to MLG now), that stopped and never resumed, and that's why we are where we are. So yeah, it's about motivation, and well, also money - it would cost probably a lot more than it does now, and return on that investment? Well that's unclear (would the appeal of "everyone's childhood game" with normalisation of gaming and competitive one as well somehow translate into something?), considering even Blizzard stopped with it, but StarCraft has the advantage of living off those 20 years when it was a thing, it means a lot - it got the game established as THE GOAT.

realy nice explanation.

well, i hope that AoE can dethrone SC, and i think is already more popular than SC in the world, maybe except in south korea.

 

[Dovahkiin4e201]

I think you can attract sponsorship that keeps events running smoothly while also not adding to overly intrusive things to the games for viewers. Smart sponsors won't want their advertisements to be too much because they will turn people off. Smart sponsors also won't overpay though, so it would lead to more modest and hopefully consistent offers. Overly intrusive sponsorships never seem to last long for that reason, the "in your face" method isn't going to accomplish much beyond people feeling inconvenienced, and they realize quickly the return on investment isn't there and move on.

Sponsors are out there but from my position, it's very hard to find anything that is comparable to what MS offers us in prizepools. Considering MS brings in a great deal for the game, it then becomes a situation where the amount a sponsor offers doesn't feel like it's "worth it."

For example-- Let's say MS gives me 50k for an event, I use 5k towards costs, and then 45k towards prizepool. Then a brand offers 20k for sponsorship which would require ad plugs between each game, an image on the tourney banner, and some YT edits that explain the product. Ulimately, mentioning the brand 30 secs between each match isn't a big deal, the image is a non issue, and the YT edits are short and sweet. But to accept that deal I would then be going away from the norm which is no advertisements, which could ultimately turn away some viewers. If I'm potentially turning away viewers or subs, then it would only make sense for me to take some of the sponsorship money to soften the blow, so let's say I take half. Then I'm adding $10k on top of an already high $45k prizepool. From the community perspective, it might not be "worth" it to have ads for a 20% increase in prizepool, and it has the potential to sour things with a percentage of people.

I don't know the situation for other creators, but I imagine it's very similar. It's simply not worth the risk to take some deals because of how good we have it right now. The problem with this is when the day MS turns off the money faucet arrives, it will be a big shock to creators and viewers to have to rely on sponsors and change how things flow currently. I have many more ideas and thoughts on the topic that I'll eventually share a bit more openly with the community, but wanted to at least add some perspective to the conversation. Things aren't so black and white on this topic, think there is a middle ground to be found.

Personally as a viewer, as much as I despise commercialisation of everything, I am somewhat okay with most advertisements if they aren't particularly too intrusive. I think some tournaments back before DE actually had that style of sponsorship. There is definitely a line that shouldn't be crossed, sponsors shouldn't be affecting the game in anyway (don't make it similar to American sports where the game is designed to ensure the most possible advertisements that can be put into a game) however I think unintrusive sponsorships are probably going to be fine for most people. Plus it's probably better go start getting these sponsors to be used to sponsoring oe2 tournaments before the Microsoft money stops, maybe the compromise would be to gradually introduce the advertisements a few steps at a time rather than all at once? To see how it goes gradually and if it is affecting viewership numbers?

 

[Rippa]

I think monetization has good and bad sides and I'm happy that content creators like T90 put much thought into how to monetize the best without putting off viewers and selling out completely.

Recently it got a lot more annoying to watch twitch streams I am not suscribed to because of the increased amount of ads (at least it feels like it). When I finally get to the stream I want to have fun, watch, listen and chat about the game I enjoy. And not getting influenced by advertisement just so the prizepool of a tournament can be 5k bigger. That would indeed take away frome my viewing experience and throw me off so I might not watch and suscribe at all.

But monetization also has good sides to it I think.

I played AOE in my childhood, then after a fear years again via LAN with friends. Saw some viper videos on youtube in hopes to get tips to crush my friends. I fell in love with the banter, began watching on twitch.tv, chatting, supporting small and big streamers and so on, feeling like a part of the community. I myself play online, though Im not the chatty type so I play teamgames via matchmaking of DE.

For me HD was a great thing, since I could finally play this game via multiplayer online like I always wanted to do. If only voobly was around I probably never would have made the step to install it till it seemed overly complicated to me. But already having steam it was only 3 clicks and done.

I understand the people who wish back the voobly days with their undoubtedly great community, but many people would not have had the oppurtunity to rediscover or discover that game for themself without the exposure from big tournaments and streamers who are only there because of the moneyz.

 

[SouFire]

It has been several years since the gamepass project started and with it all the microsoft investments on their gaming, microsoft is not making money with aoe, well not even with their gamepass, selling games and not even making enough money selling their consoles, so it doesn't matter how many gimmick units they introduce or events they sponsor, in the big picture the whole gaming scene for microsoft is operating at big losses and small revenues, so at this point it is just a matter of time and there is nothing a small community like aoe could do.

Chris voobly has made up good points, we don't have pinztec anymore thx to aoe4, mattsalsa or other rich boys sponsoring events, we are microsoft dependent on everything and things are not going well for them, aoe2 DE has always been a giant mod that can only work on their servers, so it can't be played in platforms like voobly, so if it dies there is no other option.

Streaming is not the same as before, twitch went full greedy and with it most of their streamers, i stopped watching TV cause of the annoying ads and now twitch is full with 'em, viper, t90 and most aoe streamers have like x10 times more ads than before, while it might be good for them it ain't good for the viewers and ever since that change on twitch the platform has been losing viewers, you can't even switch channels without eating ads and subscribing to all those channels is not an option for casual viewers so i highly doubt recovering those numbers seen back at hidden cup events unless using bots, also you guys are a bit naive pretending aoe2 has had 40k viewers lately, it is the same viewers with multiple windows open to support other channels that boost up the numbers, i think the real numbers are those within t90+30% and the channels on foreign languages on big events which deftly ain't close to 40k viewers.

Viper and t90 are back on twitch and their start was rock solid, but now they have settle down to 2k-3k viewers average outside big events, last time when viper came back from mixer he had 5k viewer average on random days, also they say that Youtube is paying way less than before so the monetization on streaming and content creation has suffered a significant hit compared to the golden days.

So monetization for big events will go back to community funds and random rich people sooner or later.

 

[Zeev]

It has been several years since the gamepass project started and with it all the microsoft investments on their gaming, microsoft is not making money with aoe, well not even with their gamepass, selling games and not even making enough money selling their consoles, so it doesn't matter how many gimmick units they introduce or events they sponsor, in the big picture the whole gaming scene for microsoft is operating at big losses and small revenues, so at this point it is just a matter of time and there is nothing a small community like aoe could do.

Where do you get this information? Microsoft Xbox division makes over a billion in profit:

Xbox profits revealed in new FTC leak

Gamers, investors, consumers and competitors finally get a concrete answer on just how profitable Microsoft's Xbox video games division actually is.

www.tweaktown.com

 

[LeoMontero]

It has been several years since the gamepass project started and with it all the microsoft investments on their gaming, microsoft is not making money with aoe, well not even with their gamepass, selling games and not even making enough money selling their consoles, so it doesn't matter how many gimmick units they introduce or events they sponsor, in the big picture the whole gaming scene for microsoft is operating at big losses and small revenues, so at this point it is just a matter of time and there is nothing a small community like aoe could do.

Chris voobly has made up good points, we don't have pinztec anymore thx to aoe4, mattsalsa or other rich boys sponsoring events, we are microsoft dependent on everything and things are not going well for them, aoe2 DE has always been a giant mod that can only work on their servers, so it can't be played in platforms like voobly, so if it dies there is no other option.

Streaming is not the same as before, twitch went full greedy and with it most of their streamers, i stopped watching TV cause of the annoying ads and now twitch is full with 'em, viper, t90 and most aoe streamers have like x10 times more ads than before, while it might be good for them it ain't good for the viewers and ever since that change on twitch the platform has been losing viewers, you can't even switch channels without eating ads and subscribing to all those channels is not an option for casual viewers so i highly doubt recovering those numbers seen back at hidden cup events unless using bots, also you guys are a bit naive pretending aoe2 has had 40k viewers lately, it is the same viewers with multiple windows open to support other channels that boost up the numbers, i think the real numbers are those within t90+30% and the channels on foreign languages on big events which deftly ain't close to 40k viewers.

Viper and t90 are back on twitch and their start was rock solid, but now they have settle down to 2k-3k viewers average outside big events, last time when viper came back from mixer he had 5k viewer average on random days, also they say that Youtube is paying way less than before so the monetization on streaming and content creation has suffered a significant hit compared to the golden days.

So monetization for big events will go back to community funds and random rich people sooner or later.

a big no to all what here says

 

[Halleju]

i stopped watching TV cause of the annoying ads and now twitch is full with 'em, viper, t90 and most aoe streamers have like x10 times more ads than before,

I've never understood why people suffer this greediness instead of using a simple addblocker. I don't remember the day I saw adds on twitch.

 

[Lokalo]

I've never understood why people suffer this greediness instead of using a simple addblocker. I don't remember the day I saw adds on twitch.

I might be completely off, however as I understand there are adds when switching between streamers that you can't block even with ad blocker. However as I'm from small country I almost never get those adds. But there are sometimes some little periods for like few days or a week where I do get those adds. So I assume that usually no one just paying for adds to be shown, so in some areas people like me just don't get adds, which might be a case for you too. While if you live in some area like USA or UK you might be unable to block all ads even with ad block. Or perhaps my ad block sometimes was just not working, im not sure. But if I would always have to watch those annoying adds every time I switch streamer etc, it indeed would be annoying as hell, especially that you can't even pay properly for adds to disapear, I mean if you watch 1 or 2 channels, then sure, but it is hardly realistic you will subscribe to 5-10 channels just to skip adds. Overall I feel more ppl subscribe to support streamer than skipping adds. It's just insane to think that you pay like 10 euros or 20 to get internet or netflix overall and then you have to pay 5 euros per one channel just to not get adds in twitch.

 

[Drunken_master]

u can block everything
I started watching aoc streams +- at 2013
never seen add in my life

 

[YodaIamm]

u can block everything
I started watching aoc streams +- at 2013
never seen add in my life

how do you adblock for twitch app on phone / ipad without having adblock installed at router ?

 

[Halleju]

how do you adblock for twitch app on phone / ipad without having adblock installed at router ?

Yeah on mobile is not easy. PC on the other hand it's simple Ublock Origin, add a filter and a script from pixeltris/Twitchadsolutions and you don't see ads again (with Firefox at least.)

I remember when and especially HOW Youtube and twitch started. The goals from both were simply to give people a platform to show their hobbies to the world. Now everyone and their dog on those platforms want to make easy money and they want more and more. When I felt the greediness and them turning away from their origins, I started to block every monetization they throw at me. Nowadays, they make it really easy to do this without having a guilty conscience.
It's not about supporting anymore, at least for the big part. It's about greed.

 

[ponciliano]

I've already paid box price for the game and also pay DLCs, and some people defend having ads shoved on them on top of it all?

Seriously...

 

[Drunken_master]

u proly cant block on twitch app,
but why no use firefox on phone to watch twitch?

 

[akku]

I've never understood why people suffer this greediness instead of using a simple addblocker. I don't remember the day I saw adds on twitch.

u can block everything
I started watching aoc streams +- at 2013
never seen add in my life

Please tell me which ad blocker you use lol.

I have default Brave adblock which works well for youtube and most websites, but twitch ads are a thing regardless.

 

[Drunken_master]

firefox + ublock + dontcareaboutcookies
is all u need

 

[akku]

It has been several years since the gamepass project started and with it all the microsoft investments on their gaming, microsoft is not making money with aoe, well not even with their gamepass, selling games and not even making enough money selling their consoles, so it doesn't matter how many gimmick units they introduce or events they sponsor, in the big picture the whole gaming scene for microsoft is operating at big losses and small revenues, so at this point it is just a matter of time and there is nothing a small community like aoe could do.

Chris voobly has made up good points, we don't have pinztec anymore thx to aoe4, mattsalsa or other rich boys sponsoring events, we are microsoft dependent on everything and things are not going well for them, aoe2 DE has always been a giant mod that can only work on their servers, so it can't be played in platforms like voobly, so if it dies there is no other option.

Streaming is not the same as before, twitch went full greedy and with it most of their streamers, i stopped watching TV cause of the annoying ads and now twitch is full with 'em, viper, t90 and most aoe streamers have like x10 times more ads than before, while it might be good for them it ain't good for the viewers and ever since that change on twitch the platform has been losing viewers, you can't even switch channels without eating ads and subscribing to all those channels is not an option for casual viewers so i highly doubt recovering those numbers seen back at hidden cup events unless using bots, also you guys are a bit naive pretending aoe2 has had 40k viewers lately, it is the same viewers with multiple windows open to support other channels that boost up the numbers, i think the real numbers are those within t90+30% and the channels on foreign languages on big events which deftly ain't close to 40k viewers.

Viper and t90 are back on twitch and their start was rock solid, but now they have settle down to 2k-3k viewers average outside big events, last time when viper came back from mixer he had 5k viewer average on random days, also they say that Youtube is paying way less than before so the monetization on streaming and content creation has suffered a significant hit compared to the golden days.

So monetization for big events will go back to community funds and random rich people sooner or later.

How is microsoft losing money with aoe2?
If they was the case, they wouldn't be pumping out DLCs after DLCs. This isn't like aoe4 where they are trying to at least salvage the product at the cost of potential losses, aoe2 DE was a massive success at launch with good reviews.

Aside from potentially a 100-200 overzealous viewers, nobody is gonna bother opening up multiple streams to boost the viewership 11.
Subtracting say 5K estimation of duplicate viewership (likely much lesser), it still hits a peak of 35K.

But yeah, you're right about twitch making it harder than ever for the casual viewers out there. The unskippable ads (esp in between crucial moments) are a massive turnoff.