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About Twitch

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Twitch.tv, the official URL of the platform, is a free streaming service that allows mainly video game players, but basically anyone, to share their experience with others by broadcasting their game-play, or any other content, over the internet. The idea is to show real-time game-play footage or real-life content while allowing an instant chat system for viewers to interact with streamers and give immediate feedback. Twitch prides itself in connecting like-minded gamers together and creating a new social network that revolves around fans and professionals of the video-gaming industry. While many broadcasters do this as a passion because they are playing a game many have also used this platform to make money off donations. Streamers on Twitch have also recently begun to use the platform to host podcasts and talk-shows. [1]


History

Twitch.tv created by Emmett Shear and Paul Denino is a live streaming website that focuses on game-play and eSports content. Twitch originally known as Justin.tv was a general interest live-streaming website that allowed users to stream life activities in real-time, sort of like a reality show or video blog. With the lowered cost of broadband and better technological advances in webcams, the creators of the site believed that the internet would enjoy following internet personalities as internet fandom was growing due to the rise of YouTube. Although the idea was fairly unique, the reaction of the community was quite skeptical. Many hated the platform as a reality show however others saw the potential of a live video feed for streaming. Thus, Twitch.tv was founded on June 2011. Since the founding of the platform, Twitch has since been acquired by Amazon in 2014 and is now listed as one of their subsidiaries. [2]

Tags

Like the functions of hashtags on Instagram, Twitch.tv also has system of tags for better accessibility. This allows streamers to get their contents and broadcasts to a wider range of audience and allows viewers to have an easier time navigating through a pool of broadcasts available on Twitch. These tags are categorized in three different categories: Stream Tag, Category Tag, and Automatic Tag.[3] Stream tags are added by streamers and are limited to five tags per stream. Category tags are added automatically based on what the stream is. For example, if the streamer is playing League of Legends, then a tag for League of Legends will automatically be added. Automatic tags are the unique tags that streamers get when certain conditions are met, such as having a win-streak in a game.

Twitch Categories

Just Chatting

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Twitch being the giant platform known to be the home of live streaming for video games is seeing a shift in viewership demands. This change is the rise of their Just Chatting section, a section mostly known for streams of people with exciting personalities and talents, or oftentimes a daily stream of people going out or interacting with viewers. These streams mainly began to grab the attention of viewers from the likes of streamers such as Bob Ross's channel which is a beloved stream where they showcase the tutorials of the famous painter. The modern Just Chatting section is very different, now you can find people who stream many different arts and crafts, simple reactions to videos or even full on game shows. A notable figure is XqCOW who is known for him simply watching and reacting to videos, similarly there are streamers such as JakeNBake who streams himself and his friends going out. Then there are full blown dating shows and game shows hosted by the likes of RajjPatel, all of which is highly monetizable content and has skyrocketed in viewership numbers, this is evident as in 2019 Just Chatting is twitch's most watched category with a whopping 80 million hours watched just in December of 2019. This growth was often hinted and predicted by a well known streamer and viewership analyst Devin Nash, as he mentioned the similarities of new features on twitch to that of eastern streaming websites such as iqiyi and a similar change which took place on HuyaTV where although the main focus was gaming content, the streamers showcasing their personalities housed the most viewers. [4]

Twitch Streamers

Streaming on Twitch has become more than a hobby for gamers. Many, if not most of the users, use this gaming platform as a way of making their monthly income. As of November 20th, 2019, the top ten most followed Twitch streamers are as follows: Ninja, Tfue, shroud, Myth, Riot Games, dakotaz, TimTheTatman, summit1g, DrDisrespect, TSM_Daequan. Tyler Blevins, or more commonly known as Ninja, has the highest amount of followers with over 14.7 million followers, although he no longer streams on the platform. Riot Games ranks as the most watched Twitch streamer, ranked by the total viewership hours in the month of November 2019, with over 10.3 million viewer hours. [5]



Ninja

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Ninja has been arguably the most influential figure for the streaming industry and his journey started on Twitch.tv. Ninja is the gamer tag of Tyler Blevins, an American Twitch streamer of age 26. His career started during the time Halo 3 was popular, playing professionally starting in 2009. Currently, he is a streamer for Mixer.com, where he currently streams Fortnite daily. Ninja’s massive fan base has grown tremendously over the past six months, increasing more than 250 percent, from his 500,000 follower base back in September 2017. He attributes his success to a couple of things that include him offering a combination of high-tier gameplay, along with a combination of entertainment that keeps his fans always wondering when his next stream will be. He also attributes his huge success to the fact that Fortnite is free to play and across all major platforms. Due to the game being easily accessible to everyone, he is able to reach a farther audience and increasing his fan base through every video. He held a live stream event in 2018 known as Ninja Vegas 2018, where he accumulated an audience of over 667,000 live viewers. Streaming on Twitch and creating new content has become a more than a hobby for Ninja, as he has confirmed that he is making more than $500,000 a month streaming on twitch. [6]

Ninja had 14.7 million followers at the time he left Twitch, and he was rumored to be paid 20 million dollars to leave Twitch and stream exclusively on Mixer. [7]

In 2019, Ninja made waves by partnering with sportswear giant Adidas, to launch a new product line. His "Time In" campaign was Adidas' first entrance into the gaming world, and the message of the collection is to recognize the amount of time gamers and eSports professionals put into their craft, just like other professional athletes do. [8]

As of September 10, 2020, Ninja returned back to Twitch with a multiyear deal. Particularly, he returned back to Twitch due to Mixer being shut down. [9]


loltyler1

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Tyler "tyler1" Steinkamp is a 24 year old Twitch streamer who got popular playing mainly League of Legends, but also a variety of other games. He is one of the most popular personalities in the streaming industry, known mainly for his overly aggressive and masculine behavior. His aggressive behavior while playing League of Legends leads to the game's company, Riot Games, banning him from streaming or playing the game from April 2016 to January 2018. Following his ban, he maintained and increased his popularity by streaming a variety of games such as H1Z1: King of the Hill, Overwatch, Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, and IRL streams where he would do things like cooking. [10] His return to the game was streamed on Twitch and broke the viewership record at the time for the largest non-tournament stream at 386,000 viewers. [11] He hosts a year League of Legends tournament, known as the Tyler1 Championship Series (TCS), where he invites popular high ranked League of Legends player to compete in a tournament funded entirely by his own income. In 2017, the winning team was awarded $10,000 and in 2018, the prize pool was increased to $50,000. [12] As of November 2019, he has over 428 thousand Twitter followers and 2.7 million Twitch followers.


Bjergsen

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Bjergsen is the gamer tag for Søren Bjerg, a Danish League of Legends streamer. Born on February 21, 1996, Bjergsen is the mid laner for Team SoloMid. Having won in many tournaments and events people view Bjergsen’s stream because he is considered as one of the best mid laners in the world. [13] As of November 2019, Bjergsen has over 1.36 million Twitter followers and over 80 million views on Twitch.TV. He also has over 573 thousand subscribers on YouTube. [14] From 33 Tournaments, the total prize money Bjergsen earned is $221,972,70. However, this does not include the money he earns on Twitch, YouTube, and other endorsements. [15] Besides league, Bjergsen use to play other games such as Counter Strike Global Offensive, World of Warcraft, Hearthstone, and Diablo 2.



Nightblue3

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Nightblue3 is the gamer tag of Rabia Yazbek, who streams League of Legends gameplay on Twitch.tv. He is a high elo jungler and he was a former substitute for Team SoloMid, which is a competitive eSports association based in the United States. Rabia Yazbek resides in Dearborn, Michigan, USA and he attended the University Of Michigan Dearborn. Nightblu3 currently has 216 informative videos of League of Legends gameplay saved on Twitch. He is well known for his Rammus champion gameplay in League of Legends season 3, and his favorite champion is Elise. [16] As a League of Legends Twitch streamer, Rabia Yazbek has over 2.2 million subscribers and over 190 million views. He is also currently taking a break from streaming and focusing more on uploading content on his YouTube channel, which is also under his gamer tag, Nightblue3. [17]



Imaqtpie

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Imaqtpie is the gamer tag of Michael Santana, who streams League of Legends gameplay on Twitch.tv. He is a high elo AD Carry and a full-time competitive League of Legends player. He was a member of a professional gaming team, Dignitas. Michael Santana resides in Margate, Florida, USA. Imaqtpie currently has 180 informative videos of League of Legends gameplay saved on Twitch. He also has over 2.2 million followers and over 270 million views on Twitch. [18] He has played competitively in tournaments and championships for many years but has been streaming a lot more recently. Michael Santana is a popular League of Legends player with one of the largest followings on Twitch. Not only that but because he is a successful streamer, he makes at least $2 million dollars a year as income. [19]




Doublelift

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Doublelift is the gamer tag of Yiliang "Peter" Peng, who streams League of Legends gameplay on Twitch.tv. He is one of the best AD Carry in North America and he is a full-time competitive League of Legends player. He is currently a part of a professional gaming team, Team Liquid. He was also part of two other professional gaming teams, Team Solo Mid and Counter Logic Gaming. Peter Peng resides in Mission Viejo, California, USA. He has over 1 million followers and over 61 million views on Twitch. [20] He is well known for his Vayne champion gameplay in League of Legends. He has been a League of Legends players for several years now and he has been a part of many League of Legends Championships.


Tfue

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Tfue is another Twitch streamer that is best known for playing the game Fortnite. He was born on January 2, 1998. He is regarded to be one of the best players in Fortnite and was won many tournaments. He had even played in the Fortnite World Cup where 100 of the best Fortnite players compete. He also creates content on YouTube and has also tried playing other games as well, which he exceeds in. He was signed to FaZe Clan, but soon filed a lawsuit against the e-sports organization. He is one of the most followed and viewed streamer on Twitch with almost 10 million followers as of December 2020. He has over 12 million subscribers on YouTube and over 5 million followers on Instagram. His Twitch channel is https://www.twitch.tv/tfue.[21][22]


Dakotaz

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Dakotaz is a Twitch streamer who streams Fortnite gameplay and Playerunknown's Battlegrounds. He was born on July 12, 1986. He has been a part of the twitch community since 2011, and he started streaming in 2012. He is currently a part of a professional gaming team, Team Solo Mid. It has always been a dream of his to join an elite community of dedicated professional gamers who play and stream and also create enjoyable content. He has over 1.2 million followers on Twitch and he has over 1.5 million YouTube subscribers. [23] [24] He doesn't use a facecam and he has built-in channels through his astonishing gameplay and commentary. He has over 1500 wins in the game and he is a humble player who respects others.




Gosu

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Gosu is a Canadian Twitch streamer who streams League of Legends gameplay. He is from Montreal, Quebec, Canada. He is a high elo AD Carry and he is a substitute for Counter Logic Gaming, a professional eSports association. He is known primarily for the montages he places on Youtube of his Marksman plays in action. His montages are often placed on the League subreddit, reaching top charts on the page. He has over 1.4 million followers and over 100 million views. [25]



HandofBlood

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HandofBlood is the #2 most famous ranked Twitch game streamer. He was born on August 1, 1992. On September 17, 2013, he joined Twitch. He has 353,976 followers and average viewers are 51,417. Usually, he streams for 5 hours between 12 PM and 4 PM EDT and Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, Friday and Saturday. He is #71 most-watched overall, and #28 fastest growing streamer. [26]



Faker

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If you are a crazy fan of League of Legend you must know "Faker". He is the famous middle lane player in LoL and is affiliated with the team SK Telecom T1 (SKT) within South Korea. He was born in 1996 in South Korea and he is considered by many as the #1 LoL player.[27] His play is superb and he has a lot of knowledge within the game. His debut game was on April 6th and it was memorable to LoL fans because he did really well against Ambition, who was considered one of the best players in the middle lane role at the time. [28] As of April 6th, Faker has 1,731,904 followers on Twitch and he's nickname is "Senpai" which is Japanese language meaning " Senior" or "Master." [29] In League of Legend he is the "God" because no matter what champion he plays in the middle lane role, he always wins. Because of him, his team "SKT T1" won the League of Legends World Championship in 2013, 2015, and 2016. In addition, they won MSI, which is Mid Season Invitational, in 2016 and 2017.




Shroud

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Michael Grzesiek is as known as Shroud. He is a former professional Counter-Strike: Global Offensive (CS:GO) player and a twitch streamer now. Shroud usually plays FPS game during his stream, such as Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds, Rainbow Six Siege and more recently Apex Legends. Shroud has over 6 million followers in his twitch channel and almost 6 million subscribers on his YouTube channel. [30] [31]


Dr DisRespect

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Herschel Beahm IV, also known as Dr DisRespect first started his career in streaming with Twitch.tv, formerly Justin.tv, back when he was a level designer for Sledgehammer Games, a company that worked on many Call of Duty games. He is most known for his personality resembling that of a WWE character in the professional game streaming world. The Doc, as he is known, also reached a peak of 388,000 viewers after coming back from a hiatus due to personal issues.

Though Beahm's streaming career was successful, there have been two times where his house was shot at.[32] The Doc also had his account suspended on June 11, 2019, due to a violation of Twitch's privacy rules and privacy laws in the California Penal Code, which would eventually be restored on June 25.[33]

XQcOW

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xQcOW also known as Felix Lengyel is a 24-year-old French-Canadian streamer. He played the tank role for the Dallas Fuel during the first half of the Overwatch League Season 1. He was fined and removed from the team and the Overwatch League due to him accused of posting a racist meme on the Overwatch League’s official stream. In 2019 xQc became a substitute main tank player for the Overwatch team “Gladiators Legion” which was an academy team of the “Los Angeles Gladiators” but that quickly ended due to the team announcing that they would not be competing resulting them to dropping out. After he left the pro Overwatch scene, he became a full-time streamer on Twitch. He is now one the top streamers on the streaming platform, entertaining over 20,000 people around the world every time he goes live on Twitch.[34] He has over 452 thousand followers on twitter and 740 thousand subscribers on youtube. He is able to expand his influence through all these various social media websites.


DJs on Twitch

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As COVID-19 has caused different industries to adapt, the music industry has turned to Twitch. Some musicians hope that Twitch can mitigate financial damage from canceled shows as it has the highest earning potential for streams. Some artists are taking part in online concerts, such as Jadetopia, to fundraise. Twitch is more financially focused as it supports different tiers of subscriptions and donations. DJs such as Sam Vogel, or Jauz, hosts events such as “demo roulette” where he works on projects submitted by fans. [35]


Notable Twitch Channels

Twitch.tv also has unique channels that do not feature individual twitch streamers, but rather, foster a community. Twitch Plays Pokemon and Games Done Quick are some examples of unique channels that influenced viewers toward achieving a certain goal.

Twitch Plays Pokemon

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Twitch Plays Pokemon started on Wednesday 12th, 2014 where a developer utilized programs and bots to create a unique form of streaming; the viewers can type commands in the chatbox and the bots will process the commands to play Pokemon. Viewers were able to play Pokemon together which was manageable until the channel became extremely popular. With more than tens of thousands of viewers coming in, the commands started to have time delays.

The channel started with the classic Pokemon Red, and with the time delays, the chat struggled to make the most basic moving functions that people normally took for granted. To help the community progress, the developer created an ongoing voting function that would allow viewers to either choose “Democracy” or “Anarchy” to determine how the bots will read their commands. Democracy would have short time intervals of voting for one command and moving one command at a time whereas Anarchy would process each command written by every user. The community went through many obstacles and even created lore on Reddit to explain all of the unique experiences from playing Pokemon together until they finally beat it on March 1st, 2014. [36]

Since then, the channel has been playing other pokemon games, mainly, Pokemon Stadium games. In Pokemon Stadium games, the viewers lose the ability to input commands to control the game. Instead, the commands were shifted to gambling. Viewers can bet for which team they believe will win between a battle of two computer teams. Viewers receive virtual Pokemon currency which they can use for betting. Each viewer has their own personal balance and viewers can always play since the bots provide 200 for those who lost all their funds. The battles still continue today. [37]

Games Done Quick

Top Twitch Games

As of April 2020, the top ten most watched video games are as follows: Valorant (429,414 viewers), League of Legends (176,376 viewers), Just Chatting (176,309 viewers), Fortnite (114,917 viewers), Counter-Strike: Global Offensive (109,446 viewers), Call of Duty: Modern Warefare (98,100 viewers), Grand Theft Auto V (93,898 viewers), Dota 2 (68,872 viewers), Minecraft (47,796 viewers), and Hearthstone (40,233 viewers). [38]

Valorant

Valorant

As of May 2020, Valorant is the most streamed game on Twitch.tv. There are about 429,414 daily average viewers, with a peak of close to 500,000. Valorant is a free-to-play first person shooter developed and published by Riot Games. The first round of closed-beta access went live on April 7th, 2020 and from there people were given access exclusively through the Twitch Platform. In order to gain access to the beta, people needed both a Riot Games account and a Twitch account. Once they had both, they needed to connect the accounts on Twitch’s website. From there, viewers needed to stream a minimum of two hours of any streamer who was streaming the game and then they would be provided a key in their inbox at random. [39] Valorant is a team-based tactical shooter that consists of ten total players. Players must choose between 9 different agents who all have different strengths and abilities. There are a plethora of weapons to choose from, all geared towards different play styles that gamers encompass. Currently there are 3 different maps, with hopes of more being introduced in the summer of 2020. [40] There are two different teams, one being the attacking team who has a bomb known as the Spike. The attacking team has to plant the Spike and successfully allow it to detonate to gain a point. The defending team has a chance of either preventing the opposing team from planting, or has to defuse the spike once it’s planted to gain a point. After twelve rounds, the teams switch sides and the game continues until a team successfully wins 13 rounds. [41] This game has attracted the likes of some of the top streamers around the world including TimTheTatman, Summit1g, DrDisRespect, Nadeshot, and more. [42]

Fortnite

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As of May 2020, Fortnite is the third most streamed game on Twitch.tv. There are about 170,000 daily viewers daily, with a peak of 860,000 viewers. Fortnite is a co-op sandbox survival game developed by Epic Games and People Can Fly. It was released on July 25, 2017, as early access available for Windows, macOS, Playstation 4, and Xbox One. It was released as a free-to-play game in early 2018. Twitch has increased in popularity due to Fortnite play as well as provides various incentives to Fortnite players. For example, by connecting your Amazon Prime account to your Twitch account and connecting your Twitch account to your Epic Games account, you can receive two free cosmetic skins for your character in Fortnite. This has led many people to create a Twitch account in order to receive the skin. Additionally, one of the most infamous streamers on Twitch, Tyler 'Ninja' Blevins, has been extremely influential in Twitch's popularity by playing the game Fortnite. Although many watch Ninja for his talent in Fortnite, some viewers join his streams for his celebrity guests. For example, Ninja has played with Drake, Travis Scott, Witt Lowry, and many more. Fortnite is similar to the other games such as Player Unknown Battle Grounds and H1Z1, where it would be a survival game where you would have to keep adapting to your surroundings as the map shrinks. But, recently in the past few months, Fortnite has become more popular than its competitors. [43] [44] [45]

PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds

PUBG

PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds or abbreviated to PUBG is multiplayer competitive shooter battle royale developed by PUBG Corporation, a subsidiary of publisher Bluehole. Released on March 23, 2017, PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds is available for Microsoft Windows and Xbox One for $29.99. However, a mobile version of the game has been released for Android and iOS on March 19, 2018. [46] PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds drops 100 players on a remote island where players fight until there is only one person left. Randomly generated vehicles, weapons, and supplies are available for players to use all while the battlefield shrinks. [47] Even though PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds is not free and a fairly new game, it already has over 2.5 million players. [48] With such a big player base, tournaments for PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds will become more wide stay and will continue to be streamed on Twitch. Some of the most popular PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds streamers include Shroud, TSM Viss, Summit1g, DrDisRespect, and Lirik. [49]

League of Legends

League of Legends

As of May 2020, League of Legends is the second most viewed game on Twitch.TV. [50] League of Legends or abbreviated into LOL is a multiplayer online battle game published by Riot Games. Available for Microsoft Windows and macOS, League of Legends was first released on October 27, 2009. As of 2018 League of Legends have over 100 million registered players. [51] According to Riot Games, League is “a fast-paced, competitive online game that blends the speed and intensity of an RTS with RPG elements.” [52] Players compete with each other in a 3v3 or 5v5 scenario. Currently, players can choose from 134 champions and 3 different maps to play with. Recently, League of Legends offers a variety of new game modes such as Ascension, Ascension, Snowdown Showdown, Black Market Brawlers, Doom Bots, and One For All. [53] League of Legends tournaments are one of the most widely streamed events on Twitch.TV. In fact, the 2017 League of Legends World Champions had over 73 million viewers. [54] The most popular League of Legends streamers include imaqtpie, Nightblue3, loltyler1, TSM_Bjergsen, Gosu, BoxBox, Faker, and Sneaky. [55]

CS:GO

CS:GO

Counter-Strike: Global Offensive is the fifth most-viewed game on Twitch.TV. CS:GO is a team-based first-person shooter game that launched over 12 years ago. The game was developed by Hidden Path Entertainment and Valve Corporation. There are about 37,000 daily active viewers who watch others play this game. During peak times for competitions, viewership can run from 250,000 - 2 million views. The game consists of several different game modes. The most popular ones are Classic, Competitive, Danger Zone, Arsenal, Deathmatch, and Co-op Strike. However, there are many third-party platforms that match competitive players against each other in a 5 versus 5 fashion.

Hearthstone

Hearthstone

As of May 2018, Hearthstone is the eleventh most viewed game on Twitch.TV.[56] Hearthstone also known as Hearthstone: Heroes of Warcraft is a free-to-play digital collectible card game created by Blizzard Entertainment. The closed beta phase of the game was first released in America on August 26, 2013, and went on to its open beta phase on January 21, 2014. Hearthstone was fully released on March 11, 2014. [57]. Hearthstone is currently available on Mac and Microsoft Windows operating systems, as well as on iOS and Android phones. As of 2018, Hearthstone has over 80 million players registered. [58] Players of the game can choose between facing an AI opponent or each other. There are over 800 cards available with many different play styles and difficulties. Also, various game modes have been added over the years such as the Arena, Tavern Brawl, Practice, Friendly Challenge, Spectate and Adventures. Hearthstone is set in the Warcraft universe, with the vast majority of cards drawn from World of Warcraft of other related games. [59] Various Hearthstone tournaments are held all around the world and can be viewed through Twitch streams. The most popular Twitch streams include DisguisedToastHS, nl_Kripp, ThijsHS, and armatvhs.[60]

Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six Siege

Rainbow Six Siege

Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six Siege is a video game of tactical shooter developed by Ubisoft. It released on December 1, 2015; available with Windows, Playstation 4, and Xbox One. If you're not over 18 you cannot download this game. The price range is various, the starter edition is $14.99, the standard edition is $39.99, the advanced edition is $59.99, the gold edition is $89.99, the complete edition is $129.99 and bundled with a discount is $71.95. This game is quarters combat tactical decision-making team play and explosive action within every moment. [61]

Dota 2

Dota 2

Similar to League of Legends, DoTA 2 is a multiplayer online battle arena video game, or MOBA created and published by Valve Corporation. Two teams of 5 players play against each other with the goal of destroying the other teams home base, or Ancients. A major component of Dota 2 coverage is through Twitch.tv for its events and players to share their gameplay. Quite a few number of personalities have large followings on the site, with players like Dendi having upwards of 675,000 followers. [62] A major event for Dota 2 and twitch is The International. A yearly Dota 2 tournament, The International is a competition where players from around the world come together to compete for massive grand prizes. Qualifier tournaments are held in the largest Dota 2 player bases in the world and they include North America, South America, Europe, CIS, South East Asia, and China. An interesting thing about The International is the prize pool. Being one of the largest prizes rivaling most traditional sports, it topped $30 million for the 2019 tournament.[63] The funding of the prize pool are the players who play the game and purchase in-game items such as cosmetics and compendiums to track players. 25% of all revenue generated from within the game is added directly to the prize pool in one of the world's largest crowdfunding systems.

World of Warcraft

World of Warcraft

As one of Blizzard's most notable games, World of Warcraft has had a loyal following since its release back on November 23, 2004. World of Warcraft is an MMORPG that takes place in the world of Azeroth with players being able to create a class and customizable race of their own. Though the player base was rather stagnant during the time leading up to World of Warcraft Classic, the release of any DLC would help bring a few players back to the game.

At BlizzCon 2017, an annual gaming convention held by Blizzard, they announced the release of World of Warcraft Classic, which surprised everyone as a way to let players experience the original game before any of the DLCs.[64] It would also bring players to challenge themselves to level up to the max level of 60 before everyone else, leading to an influx of streamers streaming nonstop until someone until level 60. This would be eventually achieved by JokerdTV. [65][66]

Overwatch

Overwatch

Overwatch is another one of Blizzard's creations featuring an array of characters that a player can choose from. The game consists of multiple game modes, most notably the competitive, classic, and arcade mode. The arcade mode is a unique game mode that changes on a regular basis that consists of a rotating set of maps, characters, and game rules. Started back on May 24, 2016, Overwatch has become one of the most heavily played games and has even gone into the professional gaming scene, with players, such as xQc[67] and Seagull [68], making a name for themselves and eventually breaking into the streaming world.

With Overwatch's success in the past 5 years, there have been rumors of a sequel, Overwatch 2, coming out. There has even been a community-driven Reddit post dedicated to providing known details about the upcoming sequel.[69] Blizzard has even released a trailer for Overwatch 2. [70]

Among Us

Among Us

Among Us was released on steam for only windows devices in 2018. The popularity of the game skyrocketed once-popular streamers such as XQC, OfflineTV, and more played it. The game peaked during the pandemic in summer 2020 when most people had to stay home.

Among Us is a multiplayer game that takes place on a space ship. The game can have 4-10 players. Each player is given the role of either crewmate or imposter. The goal for crewmates is to finish a set list of tasks on the space ship before the imposters kill all the crewmates. Therefore, the goal of an imposter is to kill all crewmates without being caught. Discussions are held in the center of a ship when someone discovers a dead body. The crewmates have to discuss if they want to eject someone among them off of the ship. The goal is to eject the imposters before they kill you. Non-imposters (regular crewmates) can also be thrown out if the crewmates have a majority vote of ejecting them. All in all, find the imposters or finish every task before the imposter kills you.

TwitchCon

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TwitchCon is a convention that is devoted to the culture of video game streaming. It allows Twitch viewers and fans to meet and interact with their favorite streamers and content creators in one designated place. The event also has intense gaming competitions and hands-on demos of the latest games. People can buy exclusive TwitchCon merchandise during the event. At the end of the events, there is usually a party scheduled for ticket holders. The first TwitchCon was held in Moscone Center in San Francisco from September 25–26, 2015 and over 20,000 people attended. With the success of the first event, TwitchCon is now an annually scheduled event. The second TwitchCon was held from September 30 to October 2, 2016, in the San Diego Convention Center. Around, 35,000 people attended that year's event. The most recent TwitchCon was held in Long Beach Convention and Entertainment Center from October 20–22, 2017. Over 50,000 people attended that year's event. Finally, on February 28, 2018, Twitch announced that TwitchCon 2018 would be held at the San Jose McEnery Convention Center from October 26-28, 2018. It is expected that there would be a higher turnout this year than any other year. [71]

Donations & Sponsorships

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Many Twitch streamers treat this social media as their source of income whether it be full-time or part-time. Their income comes in many different forms such as cash donations, game donations, subscription income, sponsorships, and many more. Furthermore, Twitch streamers use other social media to help promote their stream channel sort of like YouTubers. They have social media like Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram for their subscribers and followers to stay up to date to any news streamers would like to share. In order for streamers to be successful enough to receive donations and sponsorships, they usually have a set schedule for when they will be online to stream and interacts with their viewers well. After companies and corporations see the streamer's channel growing, they might sponsor gaming equipment, merchandise or even money just to mention them during their stream. That said, it is definitely not easy to receive a lot of donations and sponsorships. [72] But many streamers just like to interact with others via social media(Twitch) and consider this their full-time job. There are seven methods of monetization that successful streamers utilize. These methods include subscriptions, donations, and bit cheers, advertisements, sponsorships, running competitions with targets, giving out unpredictable rewards, and implementations of mini-games into the stream.

Competitors

Mixer

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Microsoft invested in Mixer early on in 2016. However, the service was generally unknown. Microsoft focused more on incorporating the service into their Xbox One Gaming System, as a way for people to share their gameplay as they play on their console. Mixer Share was a useful tool for people to show off to their friends, but the service never had any streamers that pulled numbers anywhere close to Twitch’s streamers. The reason for this is that it was strictly gameplay; there is a lot more than goes into a quality stream. Microsoft finally started to go after Twitch’s main business in 2019, where they launched a new website for the streaming service and disrupted Twitch by poaching one of their most popular streamers, Ninja. Ninja had 14.7 million followers at the time he left Twitch, and he was rumored to be paid 20 million dollars to leave Twitch and stream exclusively on Mixer. [73] Soon following, another streamer, Shroud, jumps ship to Mixer as well. He had been streaming for numerous on Twitch and had 7 million followers. [74] He was also rumored to have gotten a similar contract to Ninja and was set to stream exclusively on Mixer for 3-5 years. While Mixer expected a large amount of traffic to transfer over from its contracted streamers, statistics show that Shroud lost 85% of his original viewers from Twitch, and only retained 15% of viewership. [75] The same thing can be said for Ninja. Despite Mixer's investment to bring multiple streamers from different platforms to their own, they still lack in viewership in their main focus which is the gaming scene. Currently they retain about 3% of the total viewership in the video game streaming market in total as of Q2 2019, and have to yet beat out Facebook gaming and Youtube gaming before it can take on Twitch. [76]

YouTube

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YouTube has been a popular place for gamers to post gameplay videos for years. After seeing Amazon's success with Twitch, Google decided to go after the live streaming market and launched the YouTube Gaming app in 2015. In 2018, YouTube decided to bring YouTube Gaming back to the main YouTube app to reduce confusion and increase viewership. Like Mixer, YouTube has been on the hunt for streamers to poach and audiences to steal. In 2019, YouTube signed an exclusivity deal with popular twitch streamer CourageJD, who brought his army of the "courageous" over to YouTube. [77] In 2020, YouTube signed Pewdiepie to an exclusive streaming deal. Pewdiepie is the second most subscribed YouTuber with over 104 million subscribers, but he still streamed on Twitch and posted clips to YouTube. Now, Pewdiepie will both stream and post videos on his YouTube page. [78]

Facebook

Facebook Gaming

Facebook gaming launched in 2018, competing with Twitch and YouTube gaming. The main focus of individual streams being broadcast to friends took a shift when people with large followings could stream to their audiences. Although it had a very minimal impact, things began to speed up in 2019 as Facebook took a page out of Mixer's book and decided to buy out streamers. Soon after Ninja and Shroud's move to Mixer, another notable figure famous in Twitch's just chatting and gaming scene DisguisedToast announced he was soon moving to Facebook. Although there has been some criticisms and he has seen a considerable drop in average viewers similar to what Ninja and Shroud have experienced his move has definitely brought a lot of traffic to Facebook streaming. In 2019, Facebook had a 210% increase in viewership hours and many of this is attributed to Toast's move to Facebook. Facebook streaming might look tiny when compared to the giant that is Twitch, but it definitely has the potential to become a major success in the future. [79]

Twitch Bits

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On July of 2016, Twitch.tv announced a new way to support their streamers: Bits.[80] Bits are a virtual good that a viewer can purchase to support their favorite streamer. Once bits are purchased, the viewer can “cheer” on the streamer’s chat to give it to them.” Cheered “bits are usually animated and can be customized by both the streamer and the viewer."Cheered" bits can also appear as a notification on the stream as well. After the bits are received by the streamer, it can be converted to a currency of the streamer's choosing. Bits are used as a fun and interactive way to support a favorite streamer instead of subscribing.[81]

Twitch Drops

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Twitch drops allow viewers of certain streams to earn in-game loot by watching sponsored or streamers who have drops enabled. Whether the drops are exclusive to partnered streamers, or all streamers are decided by twitch and the game developers who are hosting these drops. All the viewers need to do in order to receive this loot is to link their twitch account with a specific account that is related to the game they are watching and by a random chance algorithm, the drop will be given to a random viewer. This functionality can also be modified, for example, if the streamer completes a quest in a game drops can be dropped accordingly. An early implementation of the drop system in 2019 was by the game Escape from Tarkov, it resulted in a huge surge of new players, along with huge amounts of viewership. It is essentially cross-promotion for twitch, the game developers, and the streamers. However, the very successful recent implementation of the drops system has received some criticism when the brand-new game Valorant decided to promote itself by using drops. Twitch received a whopping 1-2 million viewers on the Valorant category for almost a week straight and gained large amounts of new user traffic, and the game became globally known as one of the most successful for the respective month. [82] Valorant, being a popular game formula of 5v5 competitive tactical shooter, is now expected to become the most successful in its genre at least for this whole year. However, streamers see it as only a short-termed view spike as these viewers tend to only watch their streams for the drops and tend to leave after the event has finished. [83]

Twitch Prime

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Twitch Prime is a premium membership on Twitch.tv where users connect their Amazon Prime and Prime video memberships to their twitch account. This was possible for users when Amazon brought Twitch.tv for 970 million dollars on August 2014. [84] Both Google and Amazon tried to acquire the streaming site but were not successful. Having over 40% of all live-streamed content, the acquisition of Twitch.tv was one of the most beneficial deals for Amazon. [85] Twitch Prime members have a multitude of benefits. Members have an ad-free viewing experience and a free subscription to any Twitch channel every 30 days. Channels will still get ad revenue and add to their subscription count even if viewers use Twitch Prime. Members also get access to select games and in-game content at no additional cost. This includes things such as exclusive skins, items, and even merchandise. Finally, members get exclusive emoticons, expanded chat color options, and a member-only prime chat badge. Twitch Prime is included with Amazon Prime in the US, Mexico, Canada, Italy, France, Germany, Belgium, Austria, Spain, Japan, Singapore, Netherlands, and the United Kingdom. Twitch Prime is included with Prime Video in over 200 other countries and territories. However, it is not available yet in India, China, and some embargoed territories. If users are unsure of joining Twitch Prime, they can start a free 30-day membership after linking a valid payment option. [86]

Recent Twitch Issues

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Twitch DMCA bans

Over the years streamers on Twitch have played music on background on their streams for various reasons. Record labels have asked Twitch to take down some streams over the past few years but in 2020 the issue of DMCA bans have exponentially grown. This has led to a Twitch organization which was not prepared for this to face an issue that damaged a blow to a lot of streamers. Twitch also wanted it streamers to follow these guidelines regarding issue:

  • if you play recorded music on your stream, you need to stop doing that and
  • if you haven’t already, you should review your historical VODs and Clips that may have music in them and delete any archives that might. [87]

It was an unexpected situation that the Twitch company was not ready to face and they ended producing a mass deletion program which deleted thousands of streams the streamers built over the year without an option to back it up. This has caused a massive backlash in the Twitch community with streamers sarcastically making background music for the games streamed on Twitch. [88] Twitch has recommended streamers to play Soundtrack by Twitch or other music libraries that is cleared by Twitch. It will be an interesting development for Twitch as there will be a chance for a lawsuit against Twitch for mass deletion of streamers video without a warning and not enabling them to backup their work.

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