It was the biggest event in the history of YouTube.
The only problem? A technical glitch, leaving many fans starring at a black screen with the words “we are expecting heavy traffic please hold on” splashed across it in white font.
In case you’ve been doing a social media detox, YouTube superstars Logan Paul and Olajide William ‘JJ’ Olatunji (a.k.a. KSI) battled it out UFC-style at a white-collar boxing fight in Manchester, U.K last night.
The hotly-anticipated event was hyped up by both competitors for months prior to the showdown, with KSI and Logan Paul vowing to “destroy” one and other in the ring.
Spoiler alert: the fight ended in a draw and the pair have agreed to do a rematch in the future to settle the score. This certainly isn’t the last we’ll be seeing of them
Some fans were annoyed at the outcome (claiming the fight was rigged), but not nearly as irritated as the unknown number of people who forked over approx. Dhs30 ($8 USD) to watch the fight via a Pay-Per-View live-stream website – and simply couldn’t.
Due to a technical problem (speculated to be caused by high-volume traffic to live-stream sources), many fans who had paid to watch the fight weren’t able to.
It has yet to be confirmed how many people were affected and unable to tune in, but the number is estimated to be in the thousands.
Naturally, many people who couldn’t watch the fight took to Twitter to vent their frustrations…
Well, the KSI vs Logan Paul stream has been live for about an hour and a half and for those who purchased the fight via the website, we have seen none of the action thus far, and are unlikely to see anything for the remainder of the evening.
I, and many others, expect a refund.
— JDeleay (@JDeleay) August 25, 2018
… and demand refunds.
@YouTube I want a refund for the #KSIvsLogan fight, couldn’t even watch it
— Rob (@idntknow123) August 25, 2018
Hey @YouTube im trying to watch this fight … I'm straightlined into internet and your website is buffering every 5 seconds!!!! WTF!!!!!!!!!!!!! #KSIvLogan #KSIvsLogan
— J e [ SS ] i K a (@XxPonziexX) August 25, 2018
Even singer-songwriter Olly Murs had problems trying to watch the fight.
Seriously how do we watch this KSI vs Logan fight ?! I’ve gone onto link, I’ve clicked on the pay per view link! How do I pay? Doing my nut in
— Olly Murs (@ollyofficial) August 25, 2018
Therefore, it isn’t surprising that thousands of people turned to pirated live-stream channels in order to watch the fight, which included live-streaming platforms Periscope and Twitch.
According to The Verge, “…at its height, over a million people were using Twitch to watch a fight on YouTube.”
“A lot of people watched it through illegal streaming on Twitch.” – Ahmed Al-Nasheet, Gaming Influencer (@dvlzgame)
Dubai-based gaming influencer and YouTuber Ahmed Al-Nasheet was quick to point out that many people were forced to turn to illegal live-streaming as they had no other way of watching the fight – even if they had or wanted to legally pay via Pay-Per-View.
“The issue with the fight was that, even if you paid for it up front, the website was closed. So… there was no chance for you to watch it,” he said. “And a lot of people were complaining about this because they wanted to watch it.”
“The other issue that they had was that most of the people who watched the live stream on their iPhones couldn’t pay using their phones. They had to subscribe through something else and then watch it on their [Apple device]. So, each user had open two different tabs, on two different devices.”
Going forward, he thinks KSI and Logan Paul should consider streaming the rematch for free.
“It will get them even more views,” he said, noting that it could potentially help them break a record if they forgo Pay-Per-View.
But how will these two mega-influencers prevent this problem from happening again?
Or, better yet, how will events like this change the way we consume creator content in the future?
Both KSI and Logan Paul have said a rematch will take place in the future.
This means they’ll almost certainly be asking fans to pay up, yet again, to watch them battle it out in the ring for the second time.
But if the pair (whose content has largely been “free” for their viewers to enjoy in the past) want to continue to profit from a Pay-Per-View business model they’ll need to hammer out the technical issues related to these “high-traffic” problems.
And if they’re able to successfully do so, it will be interesting to see whether or not we’ll be seeing more “Pay-Per-View” events within the YouTube community…
Were you able to watch the fight? Did you experience any issues with trying to live-stream the event? Let us know in the comments below.
Photo and video credit: YouTube, Instagram