Twitch recently announced a 100-hour storage limit for Highlights and will be deleting anything outside the limit on April 19th, 2025.  This is, of course, alarming as many speedrun submissions make use of Twitch highlights.

# Downloading Runs At Risk

Before I dive into the rest of the article, I would like to spotlight a community effort to mitigate the damage caused by Twitch’s actions here. A sincere thank you to @Matse007 and the team behind the Speedrun Rescue Script which detects runs submitted (either from a specific individual or for a whole game) with Twitch Highlights and downloads them for you. With your footage safely preserved, you can re-upload your runs to another platform and update your submissions as needed. At the very least, this script ensures that the valuable content you’ve worked hard to capture remains accessible to you.

[You can get it from the Github page here, alongside the installation instructions.](https://github.com/Matse007/SpeedrunRescueScript)

![](https://lh7-rt.googleusercontent.com/docsz/AD_4nXf7VPdIDDg0u-BzbdpG9VcE_xenHcsOBwisYIn85awtk48SvMZAHQwOs9kcv8kmRXeVtt0UGdblLG1eGIC6t0TfAQ5soJtcU1nmZMSTUIV_2Wty1qTASnvLxZEbE2-NB51eh5bq?key=uq53moH6c6uD_CQPJZjukOHE)

The Speedrun Rescue Script requires installing Python and some other dependencies, so it might not be the most beginner-friendly - but if you’re comfortable with a more technical setup, it’s the best option for backing up all of your runs that are potentially at risk.

If you’re not comfortable with the more technical approach, [Clipr.xyz](https://clipr.xyz/) offers a web-based option for downloading individual VODs. This tool works in a pinch if you only need to save a handful of VODs.

![](https://lh7-rt.googleusercontent.com/docsz/AD_4nXeD8I35HWNZaxXjneeptn7oDVP2ZBwyvtB6pJJ-DuxAxgpcEA_hSr86KBZl1GiIxt_N4MT7Eau4TmKN2uin1MNjmim5U0GhhxACWm74kzCsB04euDuK_AttSoxFeFh4AT_R8W2E?key=uq53moH6c6uD_CQPJZjukOHE)

You can also export VODs directly to YouTube right from within the Twitch Video Producer, although it’s worth noting it’s only one at a time and quite slow.

![](https://lh7-rt.googleusercontent.com/docsz/AD_4nXfL1ycfd-_mBPJ_aybnbGqdBB59S7lFf6jNQ_ASz1Jqhgrsz-3PkzTEqC_72E-ClF9XmTkRDrsuf-UQnBHHEiHhDhmn6k0uFeO_cfhfK113GfAKNtcPUHiseY-uN4eRwqu2fuTFrg?key=uq53moH6c6uD_CQPJZjukOHE)

If you have any other suggestions or know of alternative tools, please share them in the comments - I’ll review them all and potentially add them to the article.

# Highlight Lock

Adding to the urgency, Twitch is preventing users from creating new Highlights until their stored content is below the 100-hour limit - meaning many runners with **hundreds or even thousands of hours of archived footage** are currently unable to save their runs. **For many, sorting through that amount of content is completely unreasonable.**

# A Troubling Pattern - Long-Term Solutions

With the short-term stuff out of the way - let’s talk long-term. Those of you who have been around for a few years may remember similar previous events with YouTube’s unlisted videos and with older Imgur content (frequently used for guides). This is a disturbing pattern that is repeatedly threatening the history of our community.

While we don’t have immediate answers, I wanted to let you know that we are *very* well aware of the situation at hand and are **actively discussing long-term solutions to protect speedrunning history** from similar issues in the future. If you have ideas you would like us to consider, by all means, feel free to drop them in the comments for me to review.

# A message to Runners and Moderators 

We understand that many runners will be re-submitting potentially dozens of runs in the near future. Please be patient with your moderators, as they will be handling a significant influx of submissions while also balancing the rest of their responsibilities outside of speedrunning.

Moderators, once things have settled, we kindly ask that you refrain from deleting any run submissions that were previously verified with video proof, even if the footage was later removed by Twitch.

# Conclusion

This situation is frustrating as hell - but it’s also a reminder of how resilient and resourceful the speedrunning community is. While Twitch’s changes put years of history at risk, efforts like the Speedrun Rescue Script show that we’re not powerless. In the short term, take action to back up your runs, and in the long term, let’s work together to find solutions that protect our community’s archives.

Please be sure to thank the team behind Speedrun Rescue Script personally or in the comments.

We’ll keep you updated as we explore better ways to safeguard speedrun history. In the meantime, **if you have any other tools, insights, or ideas, drop them in the comments** - we're all in this together :)

### *Cam // Meta - Speedrun.com Community Manager*

Let's talk about Twitch and their 100 Hour Limit.

Twitch Highlight Limit & Speedruns At Risk

Here’s everything you’ll want to know heading into the challenge:

**Starting Date:** February 27th @ 12:00PM UTC

**Duration:** 10 days, until 11:59PM UTC March 9th, 2025

## **Prize Distribution:**

The $500 prize pool will be distributed among the top performers for fastest completion time in the selected category. The distribution is as follows:

**1st place** - $250

**2nd place** - $150

**3rd place** - $100

Please note that in order to comply with international tax law, **the challenge cash prize may be subject to tax withholding based on the winner's country of residence.**

## **Participation Prizes:**

As usual with our SRC Series Challenges, we are bringing back participation prizes!

First of all, any runner who submits any runs to the Zuma’s Revenge Initiate Speedrun Challenge will receive **one month** of SRC Supporter, if you haven’t heard of Supporter before you may learn more about it[ here](https://www.speedrun.com/supporter)!

Secondly, any challenge participants will be awarded with a unique title! If you’re unfamiliar with Titles, they are a unique descriptor that goes alongside your username on your profile (as well as profile popovers) which can (as of right now) only be acquired by participating in Challenges right here on SRC. To find out more, check out our last article about Titles![ https://www.speedrun.com/news/17vr795x-introducing-titles](https://www.speedrun.com/news/17vr795x-introducing-titles)

The title for participating in this challenge will be… **Ball Buster**!

![](https://lh7-rt.googleusercontent.com/docsz/AD_4nXc0tYU9C0ugU_02EEXh46gPBSyMRmw9v-2F5SSdd_Me4npsgLAjMA__ukq4azQM4qp7DhQiiT5nZecIbeiyrw3tc97akpBZSP59KxIAy_wIJFAQn-_ur-S7hWsPS1O4La2ryGyW3Q?key=yTuCtEsxX4Xj9ArfQbYpRD36)

## **Eligibility:**

Open to players aged 18 and above worldwide, with the following exceptions: North Korea, Syria, Sudan, Cuba, Iran, Somalia, and Venezuela.

If you are under the age of 18, not to worry! You can still participate and win the participation prizes, but unfortunately you will not be eligible for the cash prizes amongst the top 5.

## **Category:**

### **Initiate**

Create a new file and play the first 10 levels of Adventure Mode (1-1 through 1-10). Then navigate to the challenges menu in the main menu and complete the 10 challenges in the “Mettle of the Monkey” page in any order.

## **Submission:**

Record your speedrun and submit it via [our Challenge leaderboard here on Speedrun.com.](https://www.speedrun.com/challenges/l0yzny8e-zumas_revenge-src-series-zuma-s-revenge-initiate-challenge)

Follow the guidelines provided for video formatting and submission requirements, found in the rules section. Please note that we require that prize eligible runs submitted to this challenge must have been live streamed to qualify.

**Rules and Regulations:**

All speedruns must adhere to the official rules, available on the Speedrun.com Challenge leaderboard.

Contest Rules: [https://www.speedrun.com/challenges/l0yzny8e-zumas_revenge-src-series-zuma-s-revenge-initiate-challenge/rules?view=contest](https://www.speedrun.com/challenges/l0yzny8e-zumas_revenge-src-series-zuma-s-revenge-initiate-challenge/rules?view=contest)

Category Rules: [https://www.speedrun.com/challenges/l0yzny8e-zumas_revenge-src-series-zuma-s-revenge-initiate-challenge/rules?view=challenge](https://www.speedrun.com/challenges/l0yzny8e-zumas_revenge-src-series-zuma-s-revenge-initiate-challenge/rules?view=challenge) 

## **Preparation Suggestions**

To find tips & tricks for the speedrun, visit [the Zuma's Revenge leaderboard right here on Speedrun.com](https://www.speedrun.com/zumas_revenge) and/or join [Popcap Games Speedrunning Discord Server](https://discord.gg/RkJ3Fdhhz4)!  You can also follow either the game or the challenge to receive notifications about challenge activity!

**Good luck, and have fun!️**

This month we’re swapping shotguns for balls - our next SRC Series challenge is all about mastering Zuma’s Revenge! Think fast, shoot faster, and keep those chains from reaching the skull. 🔵🟡🔴

SRC Series: Zuma's Revenge Initiate Speedrun Challenge

Introducing the Wii Series Olympics, a brand new LTA competition across the Wii Series of games!

# What is the Wii Series Olympics?

Throughout February to May, runners have one week to complete runs of a game in the series. Runners get to choose the category they want via a vote held in the community Discord server. These can be existing categories or unique challenges devised by the speedrun moderators.

This event will take a particular focus on time barriers, with each one awarding ranking points towards the overall leaderboard. Bronze, Silver and Gold are fixed times, starting off beginner-friendly at Bronze. The top 5 runners at the end of the event win a share of the prize pool.

# Which games are included?

The Wii Series covers the various first-party games branded under the "Wii..." name by Nintendo. These include the Wii Sports series, Wii Party, Wii Play, Wii Fit and Wii Music. Even the revival entry Nintendo Switch Sports is in there!

The most popular games will appear twice to give people multiple chances to play. These will appear in pairs and will last 2 weeks.

We've held events like this in the past, but this time we're going one step further...

# The dynamic Platinum time barrier

For the few who manage to conquer the Gold barrier, there is one final step to achieve perfection - the Platinum barrier. This is set by 1st place and moves as the top time is improved. Only 1st place can achieve Platinum and score the full 1,000 points. Nothing is certain until the end of play for the week!

# Encouraging development and new experiences

Events like this are great for encouraging both newcomers and existing runners to try something new. Many people opt to speedrun one game or sub-series, for example Wii Sports games. However, the Olympics format takes each player's top 5 best performances for an overall score, allowing the playing field to spread between single-game specialists and all-rounders.

The Wii Series is highly accessible for speedrunning since the majority of games are playable on the original Wii, with a range of resources available to get started.

More info about the event can be found in the community Discord server, or alternatively you can simply submit to the Wii Series Olympics categories as they pop up on SRC during each period. We'd love to see you there!

1: Wii Sports Club - 10th-17th Feb
2: Wii Fit	- 17th-24th Feb
3: Wii Sports Resort - 24th Feb-3rd Mar
**4: Wii Party + Wii Play - 3rd-17th Mar**
5: Wii Fit U - 10th-17th Mar
6: Nintendo Switch Sports - 17th-24th Mar
7: Wii Party U	- 24th-31st Mar

BREAK FOR ONE WEEK

8: Wii Play - 7th-14th Apr
9: Wii Music - 14th-21st Apr
10: Wii Play Motion - 21st-28th Apr
**11: Wii Sports + Wii Sports Resort - 28th Apr-12th May**
12: Wii Fit Plus - 5th-12th May
13: Wii Sports	- 12th-19th May
14: Wii Party - 19th-26th May

The Wii Series Olympics is a 14 week LTA competition across the Wii Series of games! This LTA event has a particular focus on time barriers, with each one awarding ranking points for the overall leaderboard.

Wii Series Olympics - A New 14 Week LTA Series

# The Gold Split Newsletter - Week #32 - Twitch's Time Trials

The Gold Split offers a free, weekly digest of news from the world of speedrunning and beyond.

This **Story of the Week** is all about Twitch's recent announcement of limiting the storage of highlights and was featured in this week's issue. The full post includes **more news**, briefly, as well as this week's top times. Check it out **[HERE](https://goldsplit.substack.com/p/week-32)**.

## ![](https://www.speedrun.com/static/blob/wzxxw3qz.png)

# Story of the Week ✨

Yesterday, on February 19th 2025, **Twitch** decided to be an ass and announced that they would limit the storage capacity for *Highlights*. Let’s go over the details and effects of the new policy, what to do now and even discuss some potential alternatives. Even though it affects every streamer, the speedrunning community is disproportionately targeted by this announcement.

## Twitch’s New Policy

The main and crucial part of the announcement is the future storage limit for *Highlights* of 100 hours. This will come into effect retroactively and everybody above the limit right now will see their content deleted on April 19th 2025 until it reaches a total duration below the threshold.

![](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_1456,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F3123770b-207c-44e8-a467-135f6d5a6e38_1600x900.jpeg)

Additionally, it is already affecting people right now: if you are above the limit, you will not be able to save any more *Highlights*.

Because *Past Broadcasts* only get saved for a few weeks at most depending on your Twitch status level and *Clips* have a maximum duration of 60 seconds, *Highlights* used to be the main way to preserve past speedruns indefinitely and provide a living record. And for many people they still are. These days, YouTube has taken over a large part of this and most speedruns submitted to speedrun.com include a link to a YouTube video, but a large part of the history is still found in Twitch *Highlights*.

## What it causes

Now, at least a decade of speedrunning history is in peril. A speedrunner’s *Highlights* on Twitch are documenting their personal journey as well as how routes and techniques evolved. They’re a living record of a community’s progress and it’s an educational resource for newcomers. Additionally, leaderboards are set to lose countless runs that were submitted as Twitch *Highlights*.

Even if everything was miraculously saved and exported to other platforms, Twitch’s discovery features with the ability to look for content for a specific game only works great as a library for this type of content. Streaming on Twitch is now many people's livelihood, and it’s unreasonable to expect them to go through hundreds or even thousands of hours of videos to preserve their *Highlights*.

And the effects don’t stop at the individual streamers. Marathon organisations like Games Done Quick likely already have a different platform for their past events, but will be forced to stop offering them on Twitch. YouTube creators will have a much harder time to find clips and information for their long-form video essays that showcase a game’s unique speedrunning history. And for viewers, the ability to read chat messages sent during the livestream alongside the VoDs gives Twitch *Highlights* an edge over other platforms.

Ultimately, I expect that a lot of people, both streamers and viewers but especially speedrunners, are going to consider alternatives and that this new policy will do more harm than good in the long run.

![](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_1456,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F241cfc90-f1bc-41fb-ae35-e748b3868316_898x521.jpeg)[Joshimuz](https://www.twitch.tv/joshimuz)’ overfilled *Highlight* storage

## Arguments

Twitch claims that *Highlights* don't drive discovery or engagement like *Clips* or the mobile feed and are therefore considered ineffective. But for speedrunners it’s not all about the numbers. It’s about keeping a historical record. Low view counts don’t equate to low importance.

Twitch tries to soften the blow by arguing that only 0.5% of active streamers would be affected. But this makes it even more baffling that a drastic step like this is necessary. Besides, the announcement overgeneralises and treats all content alike. I bet that the percentage is much higher among our community. A one-size-fits-all policy is incredibly blunt and not the solution. It erodes trust in the close relationship between Twitch and the speedrunning community yet again, and some people will leave.

We’re all aware that storage and maintenance isn’t free. But other platforms have also figured this out long ago, maintaining vast libraries of rarely viewed content. In addition, Twitch is owned by Amazon, which also runs AWS, one of the largest cloud service providers with access to highly scalable, cost-effective storage.

## Alternative Solutions

Let’s entertain their arguments for a bit and assume that some form of action is absolutely necessary. At the heart of it all it’s still a money issue and there are many better potential solutions that don’t cripple the speedrunning history of the entire community.

- For content that sees little traffic, Twitch could migrate these videos to a lower-cost archival storage solution while still being retrievable. It reduces costs significantly while still preserving these libraries.
- Similarly, another option might be to automatically downscale the resolution of videos stored long term with a low amount of views. This reduces their file size and the costs of storing them.

## The Path Forward

We need to move forward under the assumption that Twitch is not going to back-pedal on this policy. Many leaderboards are already considering rejecting times submitted with a Twitch *Highlight* as the video.

If you are a moderating one or more leaderboards: help preserve the legacy of the game(s) you oversee. Launch a community effort to check the speedruns on your leaderboards and verify whether the videos are hosted on Twitch or elsewhere. Inform the runners that use Twitch *Highlights* about the issue. Ideally, no action is necessary if their *Highlights* don’t add up to 100 hours. But if they exceed the limit, advise them to export the videos and provide a new link.

Many runners have already left the scene and won’t hear about this, but their times still remain relevant or even competitive. If you don’t receive a response shortly before the deadline on April 19th 2025, please take the initiative to download those videos yourself, re-upload them as private videos to a shared community channel on a different platform and update the links.

For all speedrunners, here are some options you might consider:

- Check whether or not you’ve reached the 100-hour limit through your Twitch Dashboard. You’ll find the *Video Producer* under *Content.*
- If you are, start working on exporting and/or backing up everything that might be valuable.
- Create a plan about which *Highlights* to manually delete before April 19th. Don’t leave it up to Twitch to select them automatically.
- Stream your progress! Take a trip down memory lane together with your community!
- Raise awareness! Share this article and re-post content regarding the issue on your favourite social media platform.

## Helpful Links

- **[TwitchDownloader](https://github.com/lay295/TwitchDownloader)** can help you to download videos in bulk and save chat messages in a separate file.
- Matse007’s **[SpeedrunRescueScript](https://github.com/Matse007/SpeedrunRescueScript)** checks your own runs on speedrun.com and lets you download the videos hosted on Twitch.
- **[Jonga’s Step-by-Step Process](https://bsky.app/profile/jongamebeer.bsky.social/post/3lim2ygbvuk26)** on Bluesky is about setting up a separate YouTube channel and exporting Twitch *Highlights* there.

![](https://www.speedrun.com/static/blob/rz251jdz.png)

Thank you for reading! If you're curious about more of this week's news or would even consider subscribing to the newsletter, you'll find the full post over **[HERE](https://goldsplit.substack.com/p/week-32)**.

Finding new stories to cover can be challenging. I encourage you to think about what happened recently in the communities you are a part of. If there are any stories, articles, glitches, events, or other topics I should be taking a look at, go ahead and **[submit them here](https://forms.gle/F1VJ4PG68FTZKqn49)** or on the **[Gold Split Discord](https://discord.gg/SpbFCgsYkU)**! 📨

The Gold Split is a free weekly newsletter focused on speedrunning. This week's main story is all about Twitch's recent announcement of limiting the storage of highlights.

Twitch's Time Trials - The Gold Split #32

Zuma's Revenge

Multiple Wii Series Games

Fatzke

SMMidi

1qpekp36

xwpw4y0l

SRC Series: Zuma's Revenge Initiate Challenge

eqp8wpk5

SRC Series: DOOM (Kex Port) Legacy of Rust All Secrets Speedrun Challenge

34pov7kg

SRC Series: Plants vs. Zombies Speedrun Challenge

6lp4vpzw

SRC Series: Black Ops 6 Zombies Speedrun Challenge

56y1gy9e

SRC Series: Titanfall 2 Helmet Rush

4m7jny51

Rebel Rush Speedrun Challenge

j5y0ly9k

SRC Series: Peggle Initiate Speedrun Challenge

SRC Series: MULLET MAD JACK Speedrun Challenge

nzy2zyq3

ALTF42 $5000 Speedrun Challenge

The Splodey $10,000 Speedrun Challenge

MoistCr1TiKaL $15,000 Speedrun Challenge #5

Athena Crisis Completionist Speedrun Challenge

1k75870l

Survive both Chapter 1 & 2 of Poppy Playtime

SRC Series: Poppy Playtime Duo Challenge

3dydl7r2

SRC Series: Ultrakill All Secret Levels (Inbounds)

SRC Series: Rocket Racing Expert Tracks

m9yx0ygj

Pit of Eternal Sands - $10,000 Speedrun Challenge

Blood Will Run $10,000 Challenge

m2p98y5x

Peggle Nights

Plants vs. Zombies

Titanfall 2

ULTRAKILL

Poppy Playtime: Chapter 1

ALTF42 [Early Access]

Ghostrunner 2

Another Crab's Treasure

In order to properly figure out categories, rules, timing method, etc. this leaderboard will not feature any runs for the first two weeks after the game's release. In the meantime you can join us in the [Prince of Persia discord](https://discordapp.com/invite/0Ss0agDWPoiSvr3E) to discuss about the game.

Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown

Rocket Racing

MULLET MAD JACK

Athena Crisis

Splodey

Doom (Kex Port)

Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 Zombies

Tails Noir: Rebel Rush

Speed4 TLC - Titanfall 2 | All Helmets - @LordFluffy

MiSide

Roblox: Isle 10

Lets discuss any relevant rules and any questions before we open the leaderboards

A Game About Digging A Hole

HASTE: Broken Worlds

Zort

ANTONBLAST