Twitch recently made headlines and garnered controversy for its latest artistic nudity policy. And it seems like the topic doesn’t seem to end. The policy has turned out to be a boon in some ways for Amazon’s streaming platform.
Earlier this month, Twitch rolled out its artistic nudity policy, which attracted a lot of flak from the community. Consequently, after facing criticism, the policy was rolled back. Nonetheless, the policy broke records for Twitch amidst all the drama.
What was Twitch’s Artistic Nudity policy?
On December 13, 2023, Twitch announced a new policy changing the way explicit content was allowed on the platform. Announcing the new nudity policy, Twitch stated that certain s*xual content that was previously not allowed would now be permitted. However, there was a condition that the content in question should be properly labeled.
Twitch published a blog post revealing the new policy, which stated, “There is a thriving artist community on Twitch, and this policy was overly punitive and did not reflect the impact of the content.” Content including dances like “twerking, grinding, and pole dancing” will be permitted without labeling as well.
Additionally, the policy provided that any content that is drawn, animated, or sculpted of “fully exposed female-presenting breasts and/or genitals or buttocks regardless of gender” will now be permitted on the platform if it is properly labeled as containing s*xual themes. Besides, fictionalized s*xual acts or acts including masturbation would remain restricted.
Twitch breaks record amidst nudity policy backlash
Before the platform rolled back the policy, Twitch broke a notable record. The ‘Art’ category on Twitch broke the viewership record while the “Artistic Nudity” policy was still in place. Ironically, the art category is usually a section that has a fairly low viewership featuring more niche content. However, Twitch’s Artistic Nudity policy made the category a sensation overnight.
“Upon reflection, we have decided that we went too far with this change”
Twitch is rolling back their recent ‘artistic nudity’ policy changes pic.twitter.com/6CFFkC8W1P
— Dexerto (@Dexerto) December 15, 2023
Notably, the ‘Art’ category on Twitch peaked at just short of 100K concurrent viewers during the tenure of the policy. It was the highest number of viewers the platform had seen ever since August 2021 as reported by stat tracker SullyGnome.
In addition to the viewership, the number of streamers publishing content under the section also increased by over 3,000. Needless to say, the introduction of the policy caused quite a havoc. The Art category became flooded with s*xual content, causing the average number of viewers watching the content to grow to over 3,700, as it was filled with s*xual anime and furry content.