After bringing the live-streaming world to a halt last week with the announcement of her contract ending, Twitch superstar Imane “Pokimane” Anys has officially announced her re-signing with the platform today. Oh, and she’s also giving away a car.
about that platform announcement…
— pokimane (@pokimanelol) February 8, 2022
instead of choosing between a red or purple car, I'M GIVING ONE AWAY 😎
and as always, https://t.co/nlEB4g7esa 💜 pic.twitter.com/UrTBpYgBvT
Between teasers for org announcements, new representation groups and even some of Twitch’s biggest entertainers straight up leaving the platform for competitors like YouTube Gaming, the world of streaming and online entertainment has been shaking up in a big way over the past year. It’s no wonder that when Pokimane announced that her Twitch contract was officially up and that she’d have an important announcement about the future of her stream on Feb. 8, the community was hanging on the edge of their seats in anticipation.
Before her official announcement, fans were preparing themselves for the streamer to move to YouTube, Facebook or elsewhere. “I know some of you guys made a Facebook account for me, and that s*** was cute as hell,” Pokimane said. “But now you delete it.”
When that announcement finally came, it wasn’t that she’d be changing to another streaming platform — and it wasn’t even just that she’d remain on Twitch. The streamer also announced that she was giving away a brand new Tesla.
Pokimane explained that she thinks only YouTube and Twitch are competitive platforms for big streamers, saying others like Facebook Gaming and Mixer, which died in 2020, aren’t as strong. She mentioned that she was satisfied with her new Twitch deal, but that she also chose Twitch over YouTube because of her community. Additionally, she likes the freedom allowed as a Twitch streamer. “From a business standpoint, signing with Twitch allows me to still have a presence on all platforms,” she said. “If I signed with YouTube, then I would basically have no presence on Twitch anymore.”
She mentioned that she was still open to stream on YouTube in the future and that she’d continue watching how they develop their platform, but for now, she values the way she can form a community on Twitch. “YouTube chat is just not the same as Twitch chat,” Pokimane said laughing. “There’s kinda a meme about YouTube chat.”
“Ever since I started streaming and even to this day it has always been more about the interaction with chat than it’s been about putting on a show … That interaction is f*****g everything for me.”
As for the car, Pokimane said all the details would be posted in a few days, but that the laws around giving away a car were really complex. She said she’s paying for the Model 3 Tesla, the taxes and everything else. She added that she purchased the car with the money from her Twitch community, so it’s Twitch chat’s car anyway.
You can watch Poki’s announcement stream on her Twitch channel to hear more about why she chose purple over red, and what other plans she has for her streaming career.
Nicholas Ray contributed to this report.
