Twitch, the Amazon-owned livestreaming service that caters to video gamers, confirmed that it has experienced a data security breach. The hack allegedly resulted in the theft of information on payout amounts to livestreamers, Twitch source code and details on a purported Steam rival from Amazon Game Studios.
In a tweet Wednesday morning, Twitch said, “We can confirm a breach has taken place. Our teams are working with urgency to understand the extent of this. We will update the community as soon as additional information is available. Thank you for bearing with us.”
Someone on Wednesday anonymously posted a data dump — totaling more than 125 gigabytes — on the message-board site 4chan. The leak was first reported by Video Games Chronicle.
According to the 4chan post, data stolen from Twitch includes three years of details on creator payouts; source code for mobile, desktop and game console Twitch clients; an unreleased Steam competitor from Amazon Game Studios; and Twitch’s internal security tools. The post was titled “twitch leaks part one,” suggesting there’s more data that may become public. The leak does not appear to contain personal information, but the damage appears extensive. The post is titled “twitch leaks part one,” implying that there may be more to come.
Reps for Twitch did not respond to a request for additional information.
Twitch was launched in 2011 by the co-founders of Justin.tv, one of the first websites to host livestreaming. Amazon acquired Twitch in 2014 for about $970 million. In addition to operating its livestreaming platform, Twitch also hosts the TwitchCon community event, which will return with TwitchCon Amsterdam in July 2022 followed by TwitchCon San Diego in October 2022.