Twitch spends big to keep top streamers DrLupo, TimTheTatman and LIRIK

Begun, the streaming wars have. In a year filled with high-profile defections to rival services, Twitch has been forced to put down the cash to keep its top personalities on the platform. In an announcement, Benjamin "DrLupo" Lupo, Saqib "LIRIK" Zahid and Timothy "TimTheTatman" Betar, confirmed they will remain with the Amazon-owned streaming service after signing "multi-year content deals."

According to esports consultant Rod "Slasher" Breslau, the contracts run into "the millions of dollars per year." The sums involved aren't surprising: between them, DrLupo, LIRIK and TimTheTatman count almost 10.375 million followers, pulling in tens of thousands of viewers every stream.

While Mixer, YouTube Gaming and Facebook Gaming are growing, the trio's decision to stay with the service that made them famous makes sense. Twitch is still far and away the biggest streaming service (it currently accounts for over 75 percent of the streaming market) and it's where all three personalities have carved out lucrative careers interacting with fans over the past half-decade.

The deals also mark another successful round of negotiations for talent agency Loaded, which represents DrLupo, LIRIK and TimTheTatman. The management company was behind Ninja's multi-million dollar switch to Mixer, doing the same for FPS star Michael "shroud" Grzesiek two months later. That's not forgetting Fortnite streamer Jack "CourageJD" Dunlop, who recently jumped from Twitch to YouTube.