Emmett Shear resigns as Twitch CEO after 16 years

Emmett Shear, the CEO and co-founder of Twitch, announced he will be resigning from his role at the games-focused livestreaming platform. Instead, Shear will remain with the company in an advisory role.

In a blog post, Shear said he would be stepping down to pursue parenthood. “Twitch often feels to me like a child I’ve been raising as well. And while I will always want to be there if Twitch needs me, at 16 years old it feels to me Twitch is ready to move out of the house and venture alone,” Shear explained.

Shear has been with Twitch since its humble beginnings as Justin.tv, all the way to being the premier destination for games livestreaming. In 2014, he played a key role in Amazon’s nearly $1 billion acquisition. Since then, Twitch has become a powerful cultural juggernaut in gaming and more.

Dan Clancy, president of Twitch, will take over as CEO. Clancy has extensive experience in tech, serving as an executive at both Google and Nextdoor. However, its not clear that Clancy has the same gaming bone fides as Shear who was an avid StarCraft 2 player. Clancy joined Twitch in 2019.

Emmett Shear’s decision doesn’t come as a total surprise. Clancy began playing a more public role in recent months. In September, Clancy — not Shear — penned a letter to address the Twitch community’s concerns about monetization changes.