Despite only launching in June this year, Hype Chat has already overstayed its welcome on Twitch.
Based on “community feedback”, the live-streaming platform is removing the feature on 15 November, just five months after it was introduced.
Twitch is removing Hype Chat feature after only five months
Hype Chat was introduced in June 2023 as a way for viewers to pay for their messages to be pinned in a streamer’s chat.
The feature was a way for fans of streamer’s to pay a bit extra for their comment to be noticed, however it seems as though it wasn’t as popular as Twitch hoped it would be.
In a Tweet shared on 9 November, Twitch said: “Based on the community’s feedback, we’ve decided to deprecate Hype Chat on November 15th and invest more into Cheering and Bits, going forward.
“We still believe in the value of pinned messages in fast-moving chats; viewers will be able to pin Cheers with Bits in the coming weeks.”
The feature seems to be being incorporated in some sense into the Cheers and Bits feature, reportedly allowing all Partners and Affiliates to pin a Cheer message.
Hype Chat did not take off like Twitch hoped it would
Hype Chat allowed viewers to pay $1-$500 to have their message saved at the top of chat, with the duration, design and message length depending on how much the viewer was willing to spend.
The feature was available to almost all Twitch Partners, though many disliked the feature as they could not opt out and only received 70% of the revenue earned.
As well as the inability to not use the Hype Chat feature, many steamers and viewers alike found it to be underwhelming or redundant.
Twitch streamer Kruzadar, said: “While I enjoyed Hype Chats, it definitely felt a bit redundant. Glad to hear there’s going to be more investment into bits and cheering.”
Another Twitter user said: “Good, almost everyone saw this as a hugely greedy move when it rolled out and did everything to make sure their audience didn’t use it.
“This is a good step to start getting back some faith from the streaming community.”
