

Because of this "in the moment" type of broadcast, Twitch viewers expect genuine reactions from streamers. Twitch is centered around live video, allowing the audience to watch real gameplay and hear real-time feedback from the streamer. Twitch has an extremely passionate user-base, with the average user watching over 100 minutes a day. The majority of Americans (63%) have played a game on a console, computer, or mobile device in the past 60 days. Today's gamers are connected to the world around them. Twitch users are enthusiastic about the games they watch and the communities they are a part of. While cultures might differ depending on individual streams, there are common characteristics of the Twitch Community. Live streaming virtualizes this experience, letting viewers chat with other viewers about gameplay that might be well above their own skill level. In the arcade, a crowd would form around someone playing a certain game, and people would discuss the game while waiting for their turn. 7įor Sam Machkovech, Culture Editor at ArsTechnica, a lot of the appeal of Twitch is a return to the kind of social situations experienced in the arcades of his youth. Twitch co-founder and COO Kevin Lin calls this new way to interact with gaming a cultural phenomenon - something tied to a new generation of gamers and how they engage with the things that matter to them. They don't have to be actively playing a game to interact with that game." -Kevin Lin The Culture of Video Games and Streaming "There is this huge demographic of folks who play games and are happy to interact with content based on games. This type of organic mentioning of brands leads to huge results, as many viewers trust the streamers they watch and value their opinion. During the live stream, 37,000 people watched the popular streamer Dr. 6īelow is an example of how a brand can collaborate with a Twitch influencer.

5 This resulted in Twitch commanding 1.8% of peak US internet traffic the fourth highest overall, ahead of Hulu, Facebook and parent company Amazon. In 2016, a total of 292 billion minutes of video was watched on Twitch and 14.2 billion chat messages were sent by viewers during streams.

is a video streaming platform where broadcasters live record themselves while playing video games and simultaneously engaging their viewers in conversation. This live video is transmitted from a personal computer, mobile phone or gaming console to a streaming site such as. Sjoblom & Hamari define streaming as the “cultural phenomenon of live broadcasts of user-generated content.” 1 A stream consists of a broadcaster, or “streamer”, transmitting live video over the internet to their audience. To fully understand Twitch, you should first know exactly what a "stream" is.
