TwitchCon’s 10th Anniversary: The Good and the Inexcusable
TwitchCon San Diego was supposed to mark 10 years of bringing the community together, with major feature announcements and thousands of creators connecting in person. Instead, the weekend ended with a high-profile streamer being assaulted at her meet and greet while Twitch security reportedly stood by and did nothing, fundamentally undermining everything the event claims to represent.
We’ll cover the announcements, some of which are genuinely useful for creators, but let’s address the security failure first.
What Happened?
On Saturday, streamer Emiru was physically assaulted at her TwitchCon meet and greet. An individual crossed multiple security barriers, grabbed her face, and attempted to kiss her. The assault itself was captured on camera, but what happened afterward raises even more serious questions about how TwitchCon handles security.
Here’s Emiru’s account of what actually happened:
- The attacker crossed “multiple barriers” to reach her, including walking past another creator’s meet and greet
- TwitchCon security staff (3-4 present in the area) did not react or pursue the individual
- The person who stopped the assault was Emiru’s own security guard
- No TwitchCon staff checked on her afterward to see if she was okay
- She overheard Twitch security joking that they “didn’t even see what happened”
- The attacker was allowed to walk away and wasn’t apprehended until hours later, seemingly only after her manager pressed the issue
What makes this particularly frustrating is Twitch’s official response, which claimed they “immediately blocked this individual from returning” and that “law enforcement and event security were on site and responded to the incident.” Emiru directly contradicts this, calling it a “blatant lie.”
Why Twitch’s Response Doesn’t Cut It
Twitch’s statement opened with “The safety and security of all those attending TwitchCon is our highest priority,” but that claim becomes difficult to take seriously when you compare it to what actually happened on the ground.
They increased security at meet and greets after the incident and banned the individual indefinitely. These are necessary steps, but they’re reactive measures after something has already gone seriously wrong.
Emiru ended her statement by saying this was her last TwitchCon and that “other creators should seriously consider not attending in the future.” For a creator who’s been attending for 10 years, that should tell you everything about how this was handled.
The Announcements: What Actually Matters
Despite everything, TwitchCon did bring some feature announcements that could genuinely help creators, so here’s what you need to know.
Dual-Format Streaming Moves to Beta
We covered this feature extensively when it was announced in Rotterdam and again when the Alpha launched in August. The short version: stream in both horizontal (16:9) and vertical (9:16) formats simultaneously, giving mobile viewers an optimized full-screen experience.
What’s new:
- Expanding beyond OBS and Aitum Vertical to include Streamlabs Desktop, Streamrun, and StreamElements plugins.
- Gradually adding more creators to Beta testing.
- Support for streaming from Meta’s AI glasses via the Twitch mobile app.
This feature makes sense strategically – mobile viewership is massive, and platforms like TikTok have proven vertical content works. The question remains whether this actually improves discoverability for smaller creators or primarily benefits those already established. You can join the Beta waitlist if you want to test it.
Auto Clips: AI-Generated Highlights
Twitch is building a feature to automatically create clips from your streams using AI and various signals like positive excitement. You can also trigger clips during your stream by saying “Clip That.”
The pitch:
- Auto-generates clips as you stream
- Eventually will splice together moments and eliminate dead space
- Automatically adds captions
- Creates a review queue after your stream for approval
- Aims to help you share content across social media
Multiple platforms have tried this and the results have always been disappointing, but it is improving. The key will be whether Twitch provides proper editing tools for these auto-generated clips. If you can’t easily adjust cuts, reposition framing, or modify captions, these won’t be much more useful than what already exists.
Worth noting: only about 1 in 4 streamers currently make and share clips after every stream, which Twitch specifically called out. This feature seems designed to solve that problem by removing the manual effort. Alpha testing starts next month with a waitlist now open.
Watch Streaks Going Live for Everyone
Watch Streaks have been in limited testing for a while, and they’re finally rolling out to all channels in the next two weeks.
The concept is simple: viewers build streaks by watching consecutive streams, showing off their loyalty. What makes this version better than the initial test is that viewers can maintain streaks by watching clips, stories, or VODs within 24 hours of missing a stream.
Co-Streaming Updates
We covered the co-streaming announcement in detail in last week’s newsletter, so I won’t repeat everything here. The short version: streamers can mark streams as “Co-Streamable” for events, and Twitch will display combined viewcounts across all co-streamers. This is a solid update for esports and tournaments that finally acknowledges the real reach these events have when multiple creators stream them simultaneously.
Monetization Updates
Combos (the feature that lets viewers rally together with Bits to create on-stream moments) is moving beyond closed beta. Twitch is adding single-tap animations that grow larger based on contribution level and integrating Combos into the standard Cheering experience.
Streamer-Led Promotions have been successful since launching in June. Medium-sized creators are seeing 30-45% increases in gifting revenue during promotions. Twitch is expanding this with experiments around badge drops and different ways for viewers to unlock discounts through channel engagement.
Sponsorships are expanding to all monetizing streamers, including Affiliates, in the coming months. Twitch claims they’ll help 10 times more creators secure brand deals this year than in 2024. The Bounty Board is also being integrated into the main sponsorships tab.
One last thing: Prime Subs are now usable in the iOS app, which has been a long-standing request.
Safety and Moderation Updates
Given what happened this weekend, the timing of these announcements is ironic.
Enforcement Changes: Starting early next year, less severe Community Guideline violations will result in behavior-specific suspensions rather than complete account locks. For example, you might be temporarily suspended from streaming but still able to chat and watch others. Your VODs and clips would remain accessible to viewers. This is actually a reasonable change, matching consequences to violations makes sense.
New Roles: Two new channel management roles are coming next month:
- A representative role (for agents/managers) with access to analytics, financial data, and sponsorship opportunities.
- Lead Moderator role that can add/remove other mods and manage moderation settings.
Both should help creators delegate responsibilities as they grow.
Pete’s Content Corner
Delve into my weekly selection of content creation highlights – handpicked videos, podcasts, and tweets that promise to captivate, educate, and entertain.
- YouTube rolled out Public-to-Members-Only livestream transitions to all monetizing creators. You can now switch from a public stream directly to members-only content without ending and restarting, with a customizable countdown timer and separate analytics for each portion.
- Streamlabs launched Stream Shift, letting Streamlabs Ultra (paid) subscribers seamlessly move their broadcast between PC and mobile without ending the stream.
- Elgato released Wave Link 3.0, a completely redesigned audio mixing app that’s now free for everyone – no Elgato hardware required. The update includes a routing table for visualizing audio flow, support for multiple hardware inputs, up to 5 independent output mixes, and VST3/Audio Unit effects support.
Thanks, as always, for taking the time to read Stream Report.
Pete ✌️
