Ninja Defends Twitch's New Year's Eve Countdown Ads

Advertisements promoting popular streamer Ninja's New Year's Eve event have started popping up on Twitch, which is causing quite a bit of frustration for other streamers. Ninja has since responded, kicking around the idea that maybe folks just aren't happy with the ads because they don't like him, personally.

Ninja's New Year's event kicks off at 1 p.m. PT on December 31, with 12 hours of streaming carrying folks through the festive event. The show is obviously a big deal for Twitch, which is why they're hosting it from Times Square and are advertising it all over the place.

However, Ninja's peers have offered some arguments of their own as to why running these ads on their channels is in poor form, which might have something to do with the fact that Ninja has since gone on to remove the tweet featuring the quote above.

If you're not clear on what the fuss is all about, many are arguing that what Twitch is doing is no different than, say, a huge Burger King promotion being advertised, without direct consent, within McDonald's. It's not a perfect analogy since streamers agree to Twitch running advertisements, but that should help clarify why many feel it's in poor taste.

Ninja is huge, right? So how is it fair to run an advertisement for his stream on the streams of his competition? Folks like to think of streaming as one big, happy family, but those folks are all battling to gain the attention of the same pool of viewers. If you're planning to do a New Year's stream and Twitch runs a glitzy ad for their golden boy's stream on your channel, is there not a chance you'll lose some of your viewers due to those ads?

According to Ninja's comment, via Variety, he thinks it has more to do with a dislike for him than the fact that the ads exist. It's true that he has become extremely popular and with that popularity comes extra hate. That just comes with the territory of making it big. Some folks will call you a sellout, some folks will simply not like you because you are the "it" thing right now and, yes, some folks will simply be jealous of your success.

But at the same time, it's an uphill battle if you want to claim a rising tide lifts all ships in this kind of situation. The advertisements are being run on competing Twitch channels, so the folks seeing those ads are already Twitch users and not the "new fans" for everyone Ninja alludes to. It would be like claiming an ad on ABC for a competing MTV event will get more fans to watch television in general. Doesn't quite add up.