By now, it is common knowledge that streaming copyrighted material is not allowed on Twitch. Over the years, there have been countless stories of content creators being banned or warned for illegally sharing content on their Twitch channel. Live or pay-per-view sporting events like the Super Bowl and UFC fights are understandably included in this content ban, and apparently so is streaming Madden NFL.
Recently, a couple of Twitch’s most popular streamers were temporarily removed from the platform for streaming anime. Pokimane was banned for 48 hours after streaming Avatar on her channel, and DisguisedToast got hit with a one-month Twitch ban for broadcasting Death Note. DisguisedToast stated that he got banned intentionally to scare others away from watching anime on the platform. But it took so long for the streamer to get booted — the entirety of Naruto and almost all of Death Note — that the stunt ironically may have caused some people to conclude that they likely wouldn’t get in trouble for such behavior.
Many Twitch streamers decided to again test the efficiency of the platform’s ban hammer on February 13, during the Super Bowl. A number of people livestreamed the championship football game, some openly and others more discretely by giving their stream a misleading title to make it seem like they were playing Madden NFL. Other people, in an attempt to attract an audience, titled their streams to make viewers believe they were watching the Super Bowl while, in fact, they were playing a video game. Twitch’s ban bots were out in force, though, and many people got kicked from the platform for illegally streaming the Super Bowl, including those who had mistitled their streams. During the trawl, however, people who were legitimately playing Madden NFL on Twitch got caught up in the net and banned as well.
Hopefully, Twitch streamers who were not breaking any rules and were simply playing Madden NFL on their channels will have their accounts reinstated quickly. VODs of the streamers’ activity when the bans occurred should clear things up. Unfortunately, the majority of the bans were carried out by bots, who likely could not easily discern the difference between real football coverage and a video game. That means it will be up to real people to double check all of the support queries and decide on a case by case basis, and that may take a while.
The NPD Group, who conducts market analysis on multiple industries, recently released its data on video game hardware and software sales for January 2022. Madden NFL 22 ranked fifth on the list of top-selling games for the month, and so it’s understandable why many streamers felt inspired to play the popular title during the Super Bowl.
Madden NFL 22 is available on PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.