Dr. Disrespect defiantly returned to streaming this fall after taking a break in the wake of admitting to inappropriately contacting a minor in a now deleted tweet that he claims was “bait” for journalists and others.
It may sound ill-advised, but his most devoted fans have indeed stuck around, and on YouTube, he can still draw 10-20,000 concurrent viewers, an enormous amount in the context of the streaming space. The catch, however, is that during his original scandal, YouTube demonetized his channel, meaning he cannot earn ad revenue through those viewers, rather just donations they choose to give him (and they are indeed donating). He said he would re-apply a month ago, and a month later, he announced on stream that YouTube rejected the application and told him to reapply in another sixty days. As a reminder, this is what Dr. Disrespect tweeted after reporting emerged about the reason behind his Twitch ban, the situation that got him demonetized:
“Were there Twitch whisper messages with an individual minor back in 2017? The answer is yes. Were there real intentions behind these messages, the answer is absolutely not. These were casual, mutual conversations that sometimes leaned too much in the direction of being inappropriate, but nothing more.”
In the statement confirming the YouTube rejection, Doc alludes to some other potential big development in the works, implying he may end up leaving the platform based on recent reports that had both he and the head of streaming site Rumble denied reporting that the controversial platform didn’t want him. Another controversial streaming site, Kick, recently said it made no financial sense to sign Doc now. But “not signing” doesn’t mean not allowing him on the platform at all, and being able to monetize, just no big multi-million dollar deal that he may have gotten before all this.
Doc has now leaned into a new…angle, shall we say, yesterday revealing he was selling “Make Gaming Great Again” merch, complete with red hat, and his image superimposed on the text on the shirts. It’s leaning into the right wing portion of his fanbase, which is a large part, judging by who largely was supporting him in the wake of his admission to inappropriately contacting a minor. We have seen other big gaming creators issue plainly-stated right-wing sentiments lately, though obviously nothing like the situation with Doc and the reason for his Twitch ban.
Actual Trump-adjacent merch is…a choice. It is mainly a direct pull from mega-Trump backer Elon Musk, who recently tweeted the phrase “Making Games Great Again!” saying there should be a “video gamer” voting block. Musk frequently posts himself grinding the upper levels of the Diablo 4 endgame.
It seems likely that Doc may end up leaving YouTube for a platform that will actually monetize him, which may in fact be Rumble. We will see if his audience continues to follow and support him. All signs point to yes.
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