Dr Disrespect moves to Rumble, will head up its Rumble Gaming category

LOS ANGELES, CA - JULY 13: Gamer Dr DisRespect gets interviewed at the Twitch Prime and PUBG Battlegrounds Squad Showdown gaming event on July 13, 2018 in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by Michael Tullberg/Getty Images)
(Image credit: Getty Images)

Guy Beahm, the streamer better known as Dr Disrespect, has joined the right-wing streaming platform Rumble, not just as a streamer but also as lead of Rumble Gaming—not esports talent agency of the same name, which is unrelated, but the platform's gaming-focused livestream category.

"As part of an agreement that includes equity with milestones as a majority of its compensation, Dr Disrespect will provide exclusive content to Rumble Premium for his 'Champions Club' community," Rumble said. "Dr Disrespect will also lead Rumble Gaming, acting as an advisor and helping to build the Rumble Gaming community."

Along with exclusive content for Rumble subscribers, Beahm will continue to stream free content on Rumble.

The move to Rumble comes after Beahm's request to remonetize his YouTube channel, which was demonetized in June following his admission of inappropriate conversations with a minor on Twitch, was declined in September. Ironically, just a few weeks later he shot down rumors that he was moving to the streaming platform Kick with a disparaging post saying he'd retire first: "My community is the best in the industry," he said at the time. "I wouldn't take it there."

Which is fair enough: Kick is the platform that controversially pays huge amounts of money to xQc and Nickmercs for gambling streams, and more recently hosted banned Twitch streamer Adin Ross as he fawned over Donald Trump. But Rumble is home to numerous personalities of dubious repute too: Streamers currently trending on the platform include Dan Bongino, Steven Crowder, Viva Frei, Russell Brand, The Quartering, and the Tate Brothers. Is that worse? I would argue that it absolutely might be.

Beahm isn't a bad fit for it, though. In October he announced a line of Donald Trump-inspired "Make Gaming Great Again" merchandise available for purchase on his website. Naturally, it sold out quickly.

"Crazy to think a type of 'class of people' tried to cancel us and create a false, exaggerated narrative about something from almost a decade ago. They embarrassed my family and I," Beahm said on his real-name X account, which had been idle for more than a year prior to today. That "narrative" arose from Beahm's admission in June in which he downplayed his interactions with a minor that got him a lifetime Twitch ban, claiming they were "casual, mutual conversations that sometimes leaned too much in the direction of being inappropriate." Logs of the conversations have not been released by Beahm or Twitch.

"And with all that false, negative energy, YouTube decided to act as well and take my livelihood away by demonetizing us without any real explanation ... Truly grateful for the opportunity to help grow a new, hungry platform that represents the type of values I'm aligned with. No more cancel culture, no more suppression."

"Rumble is in a new era, and I'm laser-focused on expanding into two categories: gaming and crypto," Rumble Chairman and CEO Chris Pavlovski said. "Dr Disrespect will give a much-needed injection into our gaming category."

Beahm's first stream on Rumble is set to happen on December 2.

Andy Chalk

Andy has been gaming on PCs from the very beginning, starting as a youngster with text adventures and primitive action games on a cassette-based TRS80. From there he graduated to the glory days of Sierra Online adventures and Microprose sims, ran a local BBS, learned how to build PCs, and developed a longstanding love of RPGs, immersive sims, and shooters. He began writing videogame news in 2007 for The Escapist and somehow managed to avoid getting fired until 2014, when he joined the storied ranks of PC Gamer. He covers all aspects of the industry, from new game announcements and patch notes to legal disputes, Twitch beefs, esports, and Henry Cavill. Lots of Henry Cavill.