The Amazon-owned platform for video game streaming Twitch has been compromised by a malicious cyber-attack, exposing the earnings data of streamers.
The Earnings of Professional Streamers Become Public
The hack has leaked sensitive personal data about the earnings of the platform’s top streamers. This also includes the data of prominent content creators who stream gambling-oriented games.
The data was then uploaded to the anonymous image-based bulletin board 4chan, irreversibly falling into the hands of the public. It contains the important Twitch source code and data on the earnings of the top 10,000 content creators on Twitch for the period between August 2019 and October 2021.
Twitch tried to reassure everyone that the 125GB of leaked data don’t contain any login information that may lead to those users’ accounts being taken. However, many specialists still advise the users whose accounts got compromised to change their password and enable two-factor authentication just in case.
Twitch is currently leading an investigation on who is behind the cyber attack. The platform believes that originates from malicious third-party software. Regardless, this is a grim time for Twitch as this breach will largely diminish trust in its services. The time is also very inconvenient as the Amazon-owned streaming service was under heavy critique for its various missteps, such as not taking enough action against hate raids, being biased in which channels receive a custom contract, etc.
What Does the Hack Mean to Twitch’s Gambling Part
The absolute leader in terms of revenues was the channel CriticalRole which had earned about $9.6 in the period that the leak reveals. CriticalRole was followed by xQcOW with $8.4 million and summit1g with $5.8 million.
The hack has also revealed the earnings of many of Twitch’s gambling channels. The best of the professional Slots category streamers, poker streamers, etc. have all had their income revealed to the public.
For example, it was revealed that Adin Ross, Tyler “Trainwrecks” Faraz Niknam, and Jens “TheRealKnossi” Knossalla have earned $1.8 million, $1.6 million, and $2.1 million respectively. TheRealKnossi, the highest earner of this bunch, places in the 21st spot among all of the streamers.
These numbers don’t include additional revenue from fan donations and contracts with iGaming brands. The real earnings may be much higher, as Ross has been previously revealed to have been offered $1.4 million a month to showcase crypto casino Duelbits on his streams.
Numerous poker players, such as Lex Veldhuis, Fintan Hand and Jamie Staples have also had their earnings revealed and sit at $294,000, $89,000 and $60,000 respectively.
Although this leak will likely damage Twitch’s reputation a lot, it definitely provides some curious insight into the world of professional streaming. However, for the industry’s best future, it will be for the best if Twitch manages to prevent such a leak from happening for a second time.