Viewbotting is more important than quality content?!
Viewbotting remains one of the most controversial practices in livestreaming, and a recent post from a top streamer manager has reignited the debate.
Duchscher’s comments spark fresh debate about viewbotting
Reed Duchscher is the founder and CEO of Night Media, a talent agency that works with creators like Kai Cenat and Hasan Piker. However, the CEO recently made headlines after sharing his thoughts on viewbotting in a post on X. According to Duchscher, viewbotting has become so widespread that streamers who refuse to use it may be putting themselves at a disadvantage:
“I would never explicitly say you should bot your views on Twitch, other than in the title of this article. But the reality is, if you’re not viewbotting and everyone else is, you’re at a disadvantage.”
He also argued that detecting viewbots on platforms like Twitch is much harder than on other social media platforms. Large, sudden spikes in viewership can be suspicious, but otherwise it can be difficult to tell whether a stream is artificially inflated:
“Outside of jumping from 3K viewers to 50K in a matter of minutes, there really isn’t a clear way to tell who is botting and who isn’t.”
Duchscher even claimed he experimented with the practice himself:
“I wanted to see what it would cost to bot a stream, and for $180 a week on ViewBotter, I can get 1,500 followers, 225 ‘chatters,’ and 750 concurrent viewers. Not bad for less than $800 a month.”
He emphasized that he does not want to encourage people to viewbot, but argued that the benefits it provides have become so significant that streamers who refuse to do it risk falling behind:
"When you're competing in a category where you’re buried if you don't have 500+ viewers, maybe shifting your strategy to paying clippers and buying bots helps a streamer break through."
Whether his post was meant as an observation or a suggestion, it once again sparked debate about viewbotting within the streaming community. At the same time, Duchscher pointed to a major issue: it is often difficult to prove whether someone is viewbotting on Twitch or not. While streamers like TheBurntPeanut and Stable Ronaldo have previously faced allegations, there is rarely clear evidence to either prove or disprove such claims. So the endless discussion will probably continue until Twitch finds a reliable way to detect bots.
