A hacker has reportedly leaked...well...all of Twitch. The information included in the leak apparently includes source code for the entire site, historical creator payout reports, clients for different platforms, and plenty more.
What is this Twitch hack and what's been leaked?
According to VGC, the hacker originally posted the leak in the form of a torrent file around 125GB in size. The hacker said they leaked the info because Twitch's community is a "toxic cesspool", so more "competition" in the online streaming space is needed. Leaked data supposedly includes all of Twitch's source code, plus comment history that goes back to the site's "early beginnings". There are also creator payout reports from way back in 2019, as well as clients for mobile, desktop, and console, Twitch-owned properties such as mod client CurseForge, and an as-yet-unannounced Steam competitor codenamed "Vapor" created by Amazon Game Studios.
Some Twitter users have already begun to independently verify the information available in the leak (which is, according to VGC, still publicly available for download). Twitter user Sinoc tweeted that the leak also contains encrypted user passwords, so it's probably a good idea to change your password and enable two-factor authentication if you want to stay safe. To do this, head over to your Twitch profile, find the Security and Privacy option within the Settings menu, then click Edit Two-Factor Authentication.
The leak also appears to contain payouts for content creators. These payouts can reach millions of dollars; creator xQcOW earned $8.46 million from Twitch between August 2019 and October 2021, while the tabletop show Critical Role earned $9.63 million in that time period. In a single month, summit1g earned $362,987 from Twitch, while Tyler1 raked in $213,000. It's pretty clear that content creation on Twitch is serious business.
What can we take from this leak?
If the information within the leak is legit (and a source close to VGC apparently confirmed that it is), then we know that there's a new digital storefront in development over at Amazon Game Studios. The leak also contained Twitch "red teaming" tools, which are intended to help battle hackers by having staff pose as intruders in order to improve security. This information out in the wild might not be great news for Twitch. In addition, the hacker also said this is only the first part of what they intend to leak. They haven't specified what else might be coming yet, but stay tuned.
Twitch has been under increased public scrutiny in recent months. Last month, content creators launched a campaign intended to protest inaction on "hate raids", where bots fill chat with slurs and inappropriate content. It's also been the subject of a campaign launched by the NMPA, a music publishers' association looking to crack down on creators using copyrighted content in their videos. In some cases, this has led to the widespread destruction of archive material, too, which isn't great for streamers. Looks like Twitch's woes are very much not over yet. We'll bring you more on this story as it develops.
What do you think of this Twitch leak? Let us know in the comments below!