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Twitch Co-Founder Emmett Shear Steps Down as CEO

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James Fudge

1 year ago

Twitch Co-Founder and current CEO Emmett Shear announced Thursday that he would be stepping down from the role after more than 16 years at the Amazon-owned, gaming-focused live streaming platform. Twitch’s current President Dan Clancy will step into the CEO role, effective immediately, while Shear will continue to serve in an advisory role.

In a social media post, Shear shared his feelings on working at the company over the last 16 years, but summarized his exit as such:

“In October 2006 we started working on live video for the internet. That became Twitch. More than 16 years later, I’m now a father and ready to move to my next phase of life. I wrote a blog post, but the short version is: thank you so much to everyone who built this with me.”

Shear, Michael Seibel, and Justin Kan originally started Twitch as a reality TV experiment called Justin.TV in late-2006 to early-2007. Eventually other categories were added including a gaming category that would evolve into what is now Twitch. In August of 2014 Amazon acquired Twitch for roughly $970M USD.

James Fudge

With a career spanning over two decades in the esports and gaming journalism landscape, James Fudge stands as a seasoned veteran and a pivotal figure in the evolution of esports media. His journey began in 1997 at Game-Wire / Avault, where he curated gaming and community news, laying the groundwork for his expertise in the field. In his more recent roles, James cemented his status as an authority in the esports business sphere as Senior Editor Esports at Sports Business Journal and The Esports Observer between 2018 and 2021.