Streaming on Twitch has become business, especially when it comes to the game Fortnite. It's so big that the people who broadcast themselves sitting at home playing video games have agents and "talent managers." As the New Yorker reports, it has "viewership numbers that rival those of MSNBC or CNN, Twitch is less like a conventional Web site than like a kaleidoscopic television network: thousands of channels at once, broadcasting live at every hour of the day."
If you have that many channels, where (mostly) young men sit at home and stream themselves playing video games with little oversight or regulation, there are bound to be some raw moments captured on-screen, which is part of the appeal of the site. But this week an Australian streamer took it to another level. According to The Telegraph, Luke James Munday was captured assaulting his partner, live on Twitch. In the video, he shouts to his 21-year-old partner "be out soon," as in done streaming. He eventually finished and moves off-screen, whereupon crying babies and yelling can be heard. A woman's voice addresses Munday and the viewers of his stream:"you hit me in the face, don't you dare touch my face, you hear that, all you people there?"
One of these viewers called the police and Munday has been charged with common assault. He will appear in court in New South Wales on Thursday.