An alleged former Twitch staff member has claimed that the livestreaming platform introduced the $4,990 "low-hanging fruit feature," which allows viewers to gift 1,000 subscribers to a streamer, to "keep the leadership happy." On November 27, 2025, Dev Iyer (@dev1yer), an alleged former Twitch product team member who claims to have helped develop the gift subscriptions feature, shared his thoughts on the situation.According to Iyer, the "only reason" for the 1,000 gift subscriptions feature to exist was that "internal staff were scrambling to hit end-of-year revenue targets." He added:"As a former member of the Twitch product team who built out gift subs, I can tell you the only reason this feature exists is that internal staff are scrambling to hit EoY revenue targets with “low-hanging fruit” features to squeeze every penny they can get to keep leadership happy"dev iyer @dev1yerLINKAs a former member of the Twitch product team who built out gift subs, I can tell you the only reason this feature exists is that internal staff are scrambling to hit EoY revenue targets with “low-hanging fruit” features to squeeze every penny they can get to keep leadershipTwitch product head, Mike Minton, responded to Dev Iyer's social media post, describing his opinions as an "incorrect take":"Hey Dev. Hope you are doing well. This is an incorrect take. We did this because we have a small number of users that gift in large amounts and this makes it easier for them. The revenue lift here doesn’t make a difference as most of these users were already gifting large amounts."Iyer responded, claiming that when Twitch takes thousands of dollars in a single transaction, the revenue share with streamers "does more harm than good":"Mike hope you’re well! I understand the business angle and on-platform creator benefits of gifting, but when you’re talking about thousands of dollars for a single transaction, revshare does more harm than good IMO. It makes more sense for that cash to be donated so the streamer can purchase better equipment, pay mods, pay the bills, etc."Mike Minton and Dev Iyer's interaction on X (Image via X/@MikeMinton and @dev1yer)Twitch reportedly temporarily removes the 1,000 gifted subscription featureOn the same day (November 27, 2025), Zach Bussey (@zachbussey on X) reported that Twitch had temporarily removed the new $4,990 feature because the platform was "unhappy with how it was distributing" subscriptions to streamers' communities.Bussey wrote:"Update: Twitch temporarily removed the new 1000 gift option because they were unhappy with how it was distributing the 1000 gifts to the streamers' community."Twitch has yet to issue an official statement regarding the removal of the 1,000-gifted subscription feature.