The Real Reason Pokimane Almost Quit Twitch This Year

As positive and entertaining as Pokimane can be during her Twitch streams, the star's time in the spotlight has oftn been plagued by the tragic realities of sexism and harassment. And despite the streamer's persistence, it's understandable that there have been points where she has felt burnt out from the struggles she's gone through as one of the top streamers on Twitch.

Earlier this week, Pokimane let her fans in on the fact that she easily could have seen herself retiring from streaming in 2022. In a clip from her Jan. 13 stream, Poki explained what really changed her mind: "If it wasn't for the influx of female viewers, female streamers, and just more diverse community members – whether that's people of color or other minorities within the last year or two over COVID – I think I likely would have retired from streaming this year."

Fans who have followed Pokimane for awhile can likely guess the reason she came to this difficult realization, but she laid it all out: "Feeling like your existence is friction in the industry you're in is just not fun. At some point you're like, 'f*** this s***. I wanna have a good life. I wanna hang out...I just wanna play games." Pokimane was prompted to share her indecision with her fans following an upsetting event the day before.

The day before Pokimane let her fans in on her thoughts about potentially ending her streaming career, her Jan. 12 stream was the target of a hate raid. According to a report from Dexerto, the raid was initiated by Twitch partner JiDion, who sent his viewers to her channel. This ultimately led to her feed being flooded by hateful and misogynistic messages. JiDion, who was just partnered on Twitch on Jan. 11, has now been banned by Twitch for two weeks. Though the streamer claimed on Twitter his "dislike with her has nothing to do with her gender but her as a person," he admitted that he had still broken Twitch's rules around "targeted" and "personal attacks."

In response, Pokimane has since made her main Twitter feed private, though she did post an update to her second account sharing a displeased emoji for the "hundreds of incels in [her] mentions" and expressing thanks for the "cute msgs & tweets from friends." She was clearly alluding to the many supportive tweets she's since received from streamers like Jacksepticeye, Disguised Toast, and many more regarding the hate raid, which is behavior she doesn't want to be normalized.

Only time will tell how the hate raid may affect Pokimane's decision to stay on Twitch. As she shared in her Jan. 13 stream, this discipline seems way too lenient, but beyond that, she was dismayed to see someone "who was already harassing [her] on Twitter for a week [get] partnered on Twitch." She challenged the platform directly, asking, "Is that really the kind of partners you want, Twitch? I just don't understand."