PewDiePie has been banned from Twitch
As one of the biggest content creators out there, millions of people regularly welcome the sight of PewDiePie to their phones and computer screens. But there's now one less platform for them to do so.
The 33-year-old - real name Felix Kjellberg - is primarily known now for his YouTube content, which is pre-recorded and has attracted more than 11 million subscribers, and less so for his role as a Twitch streamer.
In fact, he hasn't even used the streaming platform to put out any live videos for quite some time - and yet on Monday (8 May), he found himself banned from it.
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The ban comes after PewDiePie's Twitch account sprung back to life in March after going untouched for years, but rather than becoming a new home for the YouTuber, the account instead started inexplicably airing episodes of the Canadian sitcom Trailer Park Boys.
As baffling as this was, an explanation did eventually come to light as it turned out distribution and monetization service CoPilot Media was using the sitcom as a test ahead of a planned rollout of 'PewDiePie Infinity', which sees PewDiePie's videos play on Twitch non-stop.
The videos played out since then until this week, when the automated Twitter account StreamerBans shared an update to say his channel had been banned.
A message on PewDiePie's Twitch page reads: "This channel is temporarily unavailable due to a violation of Twitch's Community Guidelines or Terms of Service."
Twitch didn't publicly comment on the ban or reveal how long it would last, which isn't unusual for the platform, but the silence did prompt a lot of fans to try and come up with their own explanations.
One fan suggested the YouTuber's ban might be the result of some updated guidelines on the platform, writing: "I'm thinking this might have to do with the branded content policy that just went into place a week ago or so? You have to mark that for all brands/sponsors that work with you in your content. If he at all left that in the videos, that's an [easy] takedown."
Another suggested PewDiePie Infinity might have prompted the ban, writing: "I'm assuming the ban is using infinite vods, they probably don't want you doing that..."
Unfortunately even Kjellberg himself has stayed quiet on the ban, so we're no closer to finding out the reason behind it. The YouTuber has a few other things to be thinking about at the moment, as he and his wife are currently awaiting the arrival of their first child.
UNILAD has reached out to Twitch and PewDiePie for comment.
Emily Brown