These Games Are ALL Banned on Twitch – Here’s Why…

What games are banned on Twitch? There’s actually quite a few – here’s everything you need to know…

Twitch is a big deal. It’s used by hundreds of millions people every single day and, while there are plenty of alternatives to Twitch, platforms like Periscope, Vimeo, YouTube Live, and Facebook Live, Twitch is the go-to platform for most gamers these days.

But when you have one of the biggest social gaming platforms on the planet, moderation becomes a huge deal. Twitch has a large team of moderators that ensure the platform is safe for all of its users. And the task of moderating Twitch is no cakewalk either.

With such a huge pool of users, Twitch’s moderators have to be constantly scanning the network for content and/or games that do not, for whatever reason, adhere to its community guidelines. Right now, there are currently 40 games that are banned on Twitch.

Why Does Twitch Ban Certain Games?

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Twitch takes moderation and the safety of its users very seriously; you kind of have to when you’re running a network as large as this. New game releases and uploaded content are constantly reviewed and monitored by Twitch’s moderators.

Twitch has a tone of ground rules about what is and what isn’t allowed on its platform. Some titles might exist in something of a grey area and require a human eye to review it, while others will be barred from Twitch simply because they have an official ESRB rating of Adults Only.

How Twitch Uses ESRB Ratings

Any game that has an ESRB rating of Adults Only is not allowed on Twitch. But any game that has an ESRB rating of Mature or lower ARE allowed, although these games will almost certainly be subject to review by Twitch’s moderators.

Generally speaking, any game that is totally NSFW or has highly sexual content and/or violence is prohibited. Any games that push hateful messages or propaganda are also banned.

Here’s how Twitch explains it on in its official T&Cs:

Game reviews are conducted following reports from the community. If the game is unrated by the ESRB and a wholly-comparable rated title cannot be found, the moderation team determines whether the game violates our Community Guidelines. Titles may be restricted if they are sufficiently extreme by a single element of the game (e.g. sexual content, violence, intent) or several elements in aggregate violate our policies.

Twitch

Of course, with new games launching all the time, the list of games that are banned on Twitch is constantly growing. As of right now, so early 2023, there are currently 40 games that are banned on Twitch.

What About Twitch Streamers?

You can make A LOT of money streaming on Twitch. Not only that but you can effectively become a celebrity too, commanding tens of millions of followers.

But in order to do that you’ll need to learn how to grow your Twitch followers.

Twitch is VERY focussed on making its platform safe for all types of users from all backgrounds, so streamers have to adhere to a strict set of rules and guidelines. Failure to do so can result in streamers getting banned from the platform.

Twitch’s community guidelines, rules by which all users have to abide by, is over 3000 words long. To say it was detailed would be the understatement of the century. But with masses of users comes great responsibility – no wants to feds knocking at your door.

What’s The Deal With Twitch’s Community Guidelines?

If you’re a reasonable, nice person, you could basically stream on Twitch and never run into issues. The vast majority of its guidelines relate to obnoxious behaviour that has no place in modern society – things like racism, sexism, and general bigotry.

But just as everybody has that one crazy aunt on FB that likes to share a bunch of racist nonsense, Twitch has its own brand of undesirables too. And it is a constant battle to ensure that those that dabble in hate speech, racism, and deplorable sexual behaviour are quickly found and banned from the platform.

Twitch does not want to be held responsible for bad things that happen on its platform – stuff like hate speech, for instance, or for porn or adult content (that’s what OnlyFans is for). And in order to make sure the platform is safe for people of all ages, a robust set of community guidelines is essential, so everybody knows what they can and cannot do.

But it doesn’t always go to plan. Case in point: DrDisRespect.

What Happened With DrDisRespect?

The most high profile person to be banned from Twitch is DrDisRespect, a popular streamer known for his loud and outrageous persona.

He was permanently banned from the platform in June 2020 due to unspecified transgressions which is a nice way of saying Twitch didn’t give any reason for banning his profile.

This, of course, caused a massive uproar among the Twitch community; DrDisRespect, at the time of the ban, had 4 million followers and his streams often reached tens of millions of viewers.

DrDisRespect then moved his operation over to YouTube and took Twitch to court. The case was resolved, however, with neither party admitting any wrongdoing (again, pretty weird). What’s even weirder is that DrDisRespect has never revealed WHY he was banned in the first place, even though he claims to know the exact reason for it.

You can read Twitch’s community guidelines in full here.

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Richard Goodwin

Richard Goodwin has been working as a tech journalist for over 10 years. He is the editor and owner of KnowYourMobile.

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