Is Twitch replacing traditional Television?
Twitch is revolutionizing live streaming content by attracting younger generations. We analyze data to understand the popularity and their content.
Understanding Twitch
Twitch is a company currently owned by Amazon that provides a service of live streaming, anyone can start live streaming by just having an internet connection. Originally Twitch started as a service for people who wanted to live stream gaming content but nowadays there are different categories. To have better benefits as a content creator you should become a partner which will give you possibilities in having sponsorships, better channel customization, etc. This contract requires the content creator to comply with certain live streaming requirements. Revenue for the content creator and the company comes from subscriptions to the channels, donations, and ads.
As a viewer, you don’t need much apart from just accessing the website or installing their app. When you access their website you can choose your favorite streamer. Twitch gives the possibility for the streamer to categorize their live stream content. If you like the content you can help your favorite streamer by subscribing, donating, or just keep watching their content.
Twitch Growth
In the graphs above we can observe how Twitch is having fast growth in their content supply and the audience. In 2 years from 2019 to 2021 Twitch gained 1.7 million viewers as a consequence of their popularity and also affected by the 2020 pandemic where people had to stay at home leading to more time to consume online content. Also, Twitch worked as a distraction for younger generations from negative news relating to the pandemic and more time for consuming a variety of content relating to video games or just watching the stream chat with their audience. Also, people got motivated to start streaming on Twitch as it provides you the ability to be a source of income in difficult times.
We can observe that in Q3 2020 traditional television in the US has lost audience mainly in young generations, which shows that people are searching for new alternatives of entertainment.
Twitch Content
According to the data, Twitch content still relies on video games, however, as a single category “Just Chatting” is now leading. This is something positive for the company as we can observe that their content is starting to become more diverse and it can attract new users that are not interested in gaming. In the category “Just Chatting” the streamer has the freedom to provide content non-related to gaming such as watching videos on Youtube or just chatting with their viewers.
The Future of Twitch
Twitch has shown to be a strong alternative to live entertainment and becoming a strong competitor for traditional television. However, their content creators are still new in their platform leading to low experience in platform usability. But as time is passing more talent is joining the platform and more experienced streamers are finding ways to create more variety of content leading to new users.
Nowadays we can see cooking live streams, Sports. In Spain, a famous twitch streamer called Ibai introduced new content related to Boxing fights of famous online content creators from Youtube and Twitch, he streamed the whole event in a professional way where before you could see only on television.
As the content and audience increase for the platform the more attractive will be for brands to do sponsorship. However, Twitch still has several challenges in terms of amplifying success to the streamer. We will see how the platform evolves as time passes.
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