On Wednesday, Twitch announced plans to introduce a limitation on streamers, restricting them to 100 hours of highlights and uploads. The platform will delete content that exceeds this limit, citing the ineffectiveness of highlights in driving discovery or engagement and the high cost of storage as the reasons behind this decision. This new storage cap is scheduled to take effect on April 19.
The changes will specifically affect highlights, which are edited snippets from a channel’s past broadcasts, as well as other uploaded content. However, clips and past broadcasts (VODs) will remain unaffected by this new measure, with past broadcasts already subject to automatic deletion after a certain duration.
This announcement by Twitch coincides with a similar update from Facebook, which indicated that live videos on its platform would now only be stored for 30 days before being deleted, with past broadcasts set to be removed in the upcoming months.
Twitch had initially launched highlights with the aim of helping streamers compile highlight reels of their best moments. However, the company now recognizes that other features like Clips, Tags, and the Mobile Discovery Feed are more effective in driving discovery and engagement.
According to a blog post by Twitch, despite their limited effectiveness, some users have accumulated thousands of hours of highlights and uploads. The company reported that maintaining the storage of such content is costly. The introduction of the 100-hour storage limit, which affects less than 0.5% of active channels and accounts for less than 0.1% of total hours watched, is intended to help manage resources efficiently. This measure will allow Twitch to continue supporting highlights and uploads while investing in new features and improving viewer engagement tools like Clips and the mobile feed.
Some streamers have expressed dissatisfaction with this decision via social media, noting that Twitch is owned by Amazon, a leader in cloud services through its AWS platform.
Streamers whose channels exceed the new limit will have their highlights and uploads automatically deleted, starting with the least-viewed highlights. Twitch is advising users to download or export their content before the deadline.
