One of Twitch's biggest and most-tenured streamers is leaving the company. Lily “LilyPichu” Ki announced on Thursday that she has signed with YouTube after ten years of being partnered by Twitch. She announced her decision in a video she posted to her YouTube and Twitter accounts.

YouTube's streaming platform has gained popularity over the last few years thanks to some major signings. Their most notable recent signings include people associated with LilyPichu, such as Sykkuno and Ludwig “Ludwig” Ahgren. Aside from that, they have retained some of the streamers they signed prior to this year, such as Rachel “Valkyrae” Hofstetter and Jack “CouRageJD” Dunlop from 100 Theives.

Who is LilyPichu?

Many day one fans of League of Legends will likely remember LilyPichu's name. The Korean-American streamer was one of the pioneers of League content in it's earlier days. She would post self-composed music related to the Riot Games title, as well as gameplay footage of her actually playing the game.

Aside from her League of Legends content, LilyPichu is also well-known for her music. She has composed several songs that have gained popularity amongst the streaming community. Her music is also notable in that she has permitted other streamers to listen to  her music on stream or use it as background music.

In 2017, LilyPichu announced her decision to be one of the inaugural members of OfflineTV, a organization for content creators. While she maintained a solid community throughout her ten years on Twitch, it was in 2020 when she, along with most of the OfflineTV friend group, started to rise in popularity. She, along with Disguised Toast, Valkyrae, and Sykkuno, were the pioneers of the “Among Us” megatrend that made Twitch a household name in many countries.

Nowadays, LilyPichu is focused more on streaming variety games and music on her stream.

Why did LilyPichu sign with YouTube?

While LilyPichu herself hasn't stated any official reason as to why she left Twitch for YouTube, fans have been speculating on her reasoning why. Most of the theories are based off the reasons her friends cited as part of their decisions to leave Twitch.

Aside from the money, many fans theorize that a major factor in her decision was the required streaming hours for both platforms. Many Twitch streamers have hinted that they are required to stream a large amount of hours in order to fulfill their contract obligations. Lily herself has went so far as to leave her stream open overnight in order to cover her bases. Considering that both Sykkuno and Ludwig cited this as a big reason for their switch, one can say that this is also a major reason for her departure.

A related reason to this could be LilyPichu's desire to pursue her other interests. She has expressed on more than one occasion her desire to pursue music, voice acting, and art more. With a presumably less taxing contract on YouTube, she is free to pursue her passions.

Will any other Twitch streamer follow LilyPichu?

Lily's YouTube decision has obviously raised a massive question amongst fans: will other streamers start to follow suit and move platforms? Fans have already theorized who are the next streamers to change platforms over the next few months.

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The most likely candidates for a YouTube switch could very well be another streamer from the OfflineTV friend group. Lily is the fourth streamer from the group to join YouTube. She is also the first official member of the organization to switch to said platform. As mentioned earlier, Sykkuno, Valkyrae, and Ludwig have all been streaming on YouTube.

A big reason why fans are thinking that this could be the start of a massive exodus is the seemingly callous way Twitch treats their streamers. Sykkuno revealed that in an official email sent by Twitch, they misspelled his username as “Sukkuno”. He felt slighted a bit, eventually decided to go to YouTube. Ludwig also alluded to Twitch seemingly not prioritizing him when he told them he wanted to move.

It's mind-boggling that two of Twitch's biggest streamers felt that they were undervalued. Ludwig and Sykkuno were part of the major boom in Twitch streaming. That, along with the countless stories streamers have about the company, leads a lot of people to believe that an exodus is coming.

As for the the most likely candidates, fans are speculating that 2021 Content Creator of the Year Leslie “fuslie” Fu and Christina “TinaKitten” Kenyon are the next streamers to move to Twitch. There are also some that speculate that one of OTV's core members could also join YouTube.