Twitch Proclaims New Storage Limits, Threatening Gamer Archives

The Web is perpetually…till it isn’t. On Wednesday, Twitch announced that it’s going to implement new limits on archived video Highlights and Uploads that customers can retailer on their account. The brand new guidelines, set to take impact on April 19, 2025, will set a 100-hour storage restrict on saved movies.

Any account with greater than 100 hours of content material might want to manually take away highlights and uploads—together with unpublished content material that’s saved to the channel however not publicly accessible—or be topic to an automatic purge of content material that Twitch will perform. The corporate says it’ll delete content material “with the least views, till they’re beneath the restrict.”

The streaming service was fairly clear about the truth that cash is the explanation for the change to its archive guidelines: “The storage of this content material is dear,” Twitch said, reasoning that reducing down on saved Highlights and Uploads “helps us handle assets extra effectively…and proceed to put money into new options and enhancements.”

In response to the corporate, simply 0.5% of creators on the platform have exceeded the 100-hour storage restrict, however that also quantities to doubtlessly hundreds of thousands of hours of content material that can be unceremoniously deleted, all to learn Twitch’s backside line. Highlights had been launched as a method for creators to select an important moments of their very own stream and curate a reel of their finest content material.

Whereas Twitch claims that the function hasn’t been as efficient at driving engagement because it had hoped, The Verge points out that the speedrunning neighborhood has relied on Highlights to avoid wasting record-breaking runs. SummoningSalt, a well known YouTuber who creates documentaries on varied speedrunning histories said on Bluesky that Twitch’s resolution to restrict storage marks a “actually unhappy day for speedrunning.”

One other speedrunner, MrJimmysteel25, tweeted that for his or her neighborhood, highlights had been by no means about “discovery or engagement” however about preserving historical past. “Individuals use highlights to archive, and also you’re destroying YEARS of speedrunning and different communites historical past.”

Customers can obtain and save their very own Highlights, however this presents an area storage drawback. And the truth that Twitch has imposed this restrict as a way of value financial savings leaves open the chance that a further crunch may come if, at any level sooner or later, Twitch must juice its backside line. It shouldn’t be misplaced on this entire state of affairs that Twitch is owned by Amazon, which operates the largest cloud storage platform on this planet. It’s simply one other reminder that while you belief historical past to a company, it’ll solely protect as a lot as it could monetize.