Popular video game streamer Sykkuno decided to leave Twitch this month after the streaming platform misspelled his name in an official email.
With a massive following of 4 million and over 103 million views on Twitch, the gamer took many in the livestreaming community by surprise.
Sykkuno took to social media to announce the move and went live on YouTube on May 3, marking his first-ever YouTube Gaming livestream.
During the broadcast, the streamer explained his reasons behind the move, saying that he had asked for a better deal from Twitch after initially receiving an offer he described as “just bad.”
Although the platform eventually upped his offer to one he was more willing to consider, the streamer indicated that, in the end, YouTube’s was more compelling.
Subscribe to
NextShark's Newsletter
A daily dose of Asian America's essential stories, in under 5 minutes.
Get our collection of Asian America's most essential stories to your inbox daily for free.
Unsure? Check out our Newsletter Archive.
Sykkuno went on to share that another reason he ultimately made the decision to move was an official email he received from Twitch in which his name had been misspelled. In his YouTube livestream session he shared a screenshot of the email that showed a subject line that read: “Twitch x Sukkuno Agreement.”
“I’m supposed to be the 28th highest earning creator on the platform — the 45th most-followed of all time on the platform — and they called me ‘Sukkuno’ on an official email,” he said. “I mean, maybe I have too big of an ego or something, but I was shocked.”
According to Sykkuno, he had originally been willing to work harder for less money because he liked the platform but was ultimately disappointed that they “couldn’t even spell my name right.”
“I didn’t feel that appreciated there, guys,” the streamer went on. “So I started thinking, I’m about to take [the YouTube] deal.”
He added, “And they spelled my name right, that was a big plus.”
In a statement released to Polygon, a Twitch representative said, “We don’t comment on individual creators/cases out of respect for the privacy of everyone involved.”
While the move marks Sykkuno’s first time livestreaming his actual gameplay on YouTube, he has long been a creator on the platform.
His original YouTube account, which he used to upload gameplay content from “League of Legends” and “Minecraft,“ dates to April 2006. In 2011, he moved to his current channel, which currently has over 2.75 million subscribers.
Despite his early start on YouTube, Sykkuno, a Los Angeles native of Chinese and Vietnamese descent, only started to gain popularity as a streamer when he began broadcasting regularly on his Twitch channel in 2019.
In 2020, he gained greater online stardom after joining personalities such as DisguisedToast, LilyPichu and other streamers in a collective called Offline TV. He maintained the growth of his follower base even after leaving the group a couple of months later.
Featured Image via Sykkuno
