There’s an open secret among users of Twitch, the Amazon-owned video streaming service used mostly for e-sports streaming: They can embed their streams onto third-party websites to inflate the number of views they get, sometimes exponentially. With this technique, Twitch creators can covertly add tens of thousands of viewers. These viewers are often unaware they are being counted as they casually browse other sites, looking for gaming tips. But for many streamers the value of these fake views outweighs the costs of peer disapproval, as the extra viewers bolster their standings in Twitch’s rankings, potentially attracting more legitimate (and active) viewers, sponsors, and ad revenue.
This practice, known as “legal view botting” (as opposed to illegal view botting, which involves buying fake views), could also benefit Twitch, as the company makes money from advertisers and subscriptions. Though Twitch says that it is “always investigating artificially inflated viewers,” these views may be counted when determining how much advertisers must pay. A Twitch spokesperson did not respond to Fortune’s query about the impact of fake views on advertiser payments.
