One of Twitch’s biggest stars and its most popular female streamer, Imane ‘Pokimane’ Anys, has signed a multi-year exclusivity deal to remain on the platform.
After a flurry of well-known Twitch streamers – such as Tyler ‘Ninja’ Blevins, Michael ‘Shroud’ Grzesiek, and Jack ‘CouRage’ Dunlop – left for rivals such as Mixer, YouTube, and Facebook Gaming that were offering lucrative contracts, the Amazon-owned platform began to dish out deals of its own to secure its top streamers. The likes of Tim ‘TimTheTatman’ Betar and Ben ‘DrLupo’ Lupo have signed deals to remain on Twitch.
To keep hold of Pokimane, who is immensely popular and the seventh most followed active streamer on Twitch, will be a big win for the streaming service. Despite rumours circulating late last year that Pokimane could be moving to Mixer, the 23-year-old has committed her future to the platform, which she says in a statement is the only place with the “infrastructure and tools” that will allow her to continue expanding her already massive community.
“The community of streamers on Twitch, as well as the community I’ve built around my channel, both mean so much to me,” says Pokimane. “I want to continue to make a lasting impact on the world of live streaming, and I truly believe there’s no other place that has the infrastructure and tools that will allow me to do so.”
— pokimane (@pokimanelol) March 5, 2020
Pokimane, who is on the cusp of becoming only the tenth channel in Twitch history to reach 4 million followers, has averaged audiences of around 12,000 viewers in 2020 so far and currently has over 9,000 subscribers to her channel.
United Talent Agency, who represent Pokimane and brokered her new Twitch contract, have previously negotiated deals for their other clients to move away from Twitch to rival platforms and helped the likes of Rachel ‘Valkyrae’ Hoffsetter and Jeremy ‘Disguised Toast’ Wang move to YouTube and Facebook Gaming, respectively.
The value of Pokimane’s Twitch deal is not disclosed, but there’s a strong chance it is well into the millions of dollars.
