Twitch source code, creator payouts leaked in massive data breach

Amazon-owned streaming platform Twitch is facing a massive data breach after a 4chan user posted leaked information on Wednesday. The information shared as part of the 125 GB torrent file includes streamer payout information and totals, source code for Twitch clients, Twitch security tools, and an “unreleased Steam competitor from Amazon Game Studios,” The Verge reported.

News website Video Games Chronicle first published news of the leak this morning, and The Verge has since confirmed the breach is legitimate. Twitch has not responded to Polygon’s request for more information.

Wednesday’s leak is intended to “foster more disruption and competition in the online video streaming space,” the 4chan user posted on the message board. The poster also called the Twitch community a “disgusting toxic cesspool.”

Labeled as “part one,” the hacker implies they have more information than what’s already been shared. Three years of creator payout data — which lists out gross earnings for the site’s top streamers — was published. Multiple streamers have said on Twitter that payout information published as part of the leak matches their analytics. Payout information for 10,000 streamers has been published, with top channels earning hundreds of thousands of dollars each month, per the data leaked.

Source code for Twitch clients on mobile, desktop, and game consoles are also part of that leak, as well as “the entirety of twitch.tv,” The Verge said, “with commit history going back to its early beginnings.” Commit history is a compiled archive of changes and revisions made to the site.

The Verge also reported that “code related to proprietary SDKs and internal AWS services used by Twitch,” an Amazon Game Studios Steam competitor, data on other Twitch-owned properties, and security tools have been published as part of the leak. People on Reddit are combing through the leaked information and posting their findings: like data related to a Twitch Easter egg that awards players a golden Kappa emote.

User information does not appear to be part of the published leak, but we’ve reached out to Twitch for confirmation.