Today I tuned into the Sunday Morning Cities Skylines Livestream by Joy Builds Cities, a weekly visit to Cider River and a refuge from all the noise. We hang out, tell terrible jokes in the live chat, and Joy builds her beautifully detailed city week by week.
Today when we started chatting, we noticed little crowns alongside some people's names in the chat: YouTube have introduced a Live Chat Leaderboard, similar to TikTok live streams, with an XP total for participating and a crown for the three noisiest people.
If you have also encountered this and you want to know how to turn off YouTube live stream crowns, leaderboard and XP, you'll find it buried quite deep into your account settings.
What is the YouTube Live Chat Leaderboard?
Here's how YouTube describes the Live Chat Leaderboard:
So to score XP, you need to post in the chat, send Super Chats and/or Super Stickers. And it resets when you join a new/different stream, so you're not losing out on a running total if you turn it off.
(Note also, if you opt out of the leaderboard as a viewer, you can still participate in the chat as normal, and everyone else who is still opted in can still score points - you just don't see all the clutter in your own chat.)
If you'd rather follow the instructions on YouTube's own Help Centre, you can find that link here.
How to turn off YouTube Live Chat crowns
For me, the 'crowns' that appear alongside the top 3 fans in the chat are the main reason to turn this feature off. They're visual clutter in a part of the screen that is already not especially spacious.
To opt out of YouTube Live Chat leaderboards, follow these steps:
On Desktop
Click on your profile picture at the top-right of YouTube (alongside the notification bell) and click Settings.
On the YouTube Settings page, click Privacy.
Turn ON the third toggle Live chat - Turn off leaderboard participation.
(It's an opt-out, so you have to turn it ON to opt out, which will then turn OFF the crowns and the leaderboard. Super logical.)
On Mobile
In the YouTube app, go to the You tab.
Select Settings, then Live Chat.
Select Turn off leaderboard participation.
Does it matter?
No! If you enjoy it, leave it on. If you find it distracting, turn it off. I can see how the leaderboard might be fun for some streams. It does feel like a reaction to TikTok's participation coins that viewers earn for watching and chatting, but that's OK.
Honestly I'm just glad YouTube gives us the option to turn this off. As I said, it's only really the crowns next to the top 3 fans in the chat itself that I find problematic - a less intrusive symbol, such as a gold, silver or bronze medal, and I would probably leave this turned on.
