Guy “Dr. Disrespect” Beahm, one of the biggest streamers on the planet and previously the holder of an especially lucrative Twitch contract, is back streaming again. It’s not on Twitch, though.
Beahm, who was a community manager for Call of Duty developer Sledgehammer Games and “Dr. Disrespect” on YouTube before his streaming career began, has become one of gaming’s biggest streamers and celebrities over the last couple of years. His antics and stream production saw the 38-year-old accrue more than 4 million followers on Twitch, and Twitch signed him to a two-year contract only earlier this year.
That contract was seemingly cancelled when Twitch banned Beahm permanently. The reasons still haven’t been made clear, either by Beahm, his team or Twitch themselves. But in an interview held weeks after Beahm’s removal, the streamer began to imply that he knew the real reason before being cut off by his publicist:
PC Gamer: Even on your last stream, you were talking about David Ike and his documentary. I’m curious, in bringing up those thoughts — and I think it’s ok to call them controversial — did that ever result in Twitch saying anything to you or warning you?
Beahm: No.
So you don’t think that might be the cause?
Beahm: I don’t think so. In fact, I —
Beahm’s publicist: We’re getting really close to dangerous territory here. So, you know, Doc, we don’t know why Twitch banned him, and there is no formal warnings or reprimand on record. That’s all legal is going to let him say.
Now, Beahm is back streaming again. After telling PC Gamer that he would consider streaming from his Champions Club website, Facebook or YouTube, it seems like Beahm is setting up shop on YouTube. A subscription button was added to Beahm’s YouTube channel, and earlier this morning Beahm confirmed the thoughts:
Tomorrow, we arrive.https://t.co/EzD5VNbsVB
— Dr Disrespect (@drdisrespect) August 6, 2020
DrDisrespect has added a $4.99/Join button to his YouTube channel, went live on Instagram just now, and played a parody news report at the end saying that “DrDisrespect may return to streaming as soon as today” pic.twitter.com/rYLmL3ue6L
— Rod Breslau (@Slasher) August 6, 2020
A short trailer posted on Beahm’s Twitter, looking forlornly over a cyberpunk city from a fake penthouse high-rise setting, already has more than 2 million views. Almost 44,000 viewers at the time of writing were already watching a pre-show animation on the official stream below, but at its peak more than 300,000 people tuned in.
Twitch’s record for an individual streamer is still held by Ninja, who racked up 667,000 concurrent viewers in 2018 during a live Fortnite event. There have been bigger views on official channels, however, with PlayStation getting almost 1 million concurrents earlier this year for the official PlayStation 5 reveal.
Still, having more than 300,000 people tune in isn’t bad for a show that’s not even live. And it’s not far off Beahm’s own streaming record of more than 388,000 concurrents. The stream was a return for Beahm to Twitch, having taken a break in 2018 following an infidelity scandal. And the figures will undoubtedly help Beahm if he’s to port over his millions of followers to YouTube, not to mention the community and ecosystem that helped fuel his popularity.
Of course, none of this answers the question as to why Twitch banned Beahm in the first place. Sources told Kotaku that the ban was definitely permanent, and in a follow-up statement the platform said ” we take appropriate action when we have evidence that a streamer has acted in violation of our Community Guidelines or Terms of Service”.
“These apply to all streamers regardless of status or prominence in the community,” Twitch’s statement said.
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