Twitch (service)

Twitch Interactive Inc.
Screenshot
Homepage in November 2024
Type of businessSubsidiary
Type of site
Predecessor(s)Justin.tv[1]
Area servedWorldwide
Founder(s)
Key people
ParentAmazon
URLtwitch.tv
CommercialYes
RegistrationOptional
LaunchedJune 6, 2011; 13 years ago (2011-06-06)
Current statusActive
ASN

Twitch is an American video live-streaming service that focuses on video game live streaming, including broadcasts of esports competitions, in addition to offering music broadcasts, creative content, and "in real life" streams. Twitch is operated by Twitch Interactive, a subsidiary of Amazon.[5] It was introduced in June 2011 as a spin-off of the general-interest streaming platform Justin.tv.[6] Content on the site can be viewed either live or via video on demand. The games shown on Twitch's current homepage are listed according to audience preference and include genres such as real-time strategy games (RTS), fighting games, racing games, and first-person shooters.[7]

The popularity of Twitch eclipsed that of its general-interest counterpart. In October 2013, the website had 45 million unique viewers,[8] and by February 2014, it was considered the fourth-largest source of peak Internet traffic in the United States. At the same time, Justin.tv's parent company was re-branded as Twitch Interactive to represent the shift in focus when Justin.tv was getting shut down in August 2014.[9] The same month, the service was acquired by Amazon for US$970 million,[10][11] which later led to the introduction of synergies with the company's subscription service Amazon Prime.

By 2015, Twitch had more than 100 million viewers per month.[12] In 2017, Twitch remained the leading live-streaming video service for video games in the US, and had an advantage over YouTube Gaming, which shut down its standalone app in May 2019.[13][14][15] As of February 2020, it had three million broadcasters monthly and 15 million active users daily, with 1.4 million average concurrent users.[16][17] As of May 2018, Twitch had over 27,000 partner channels.[16][18] As of October 2023, Twitch was the 37th-most-visited website in the world with 20.26% of its traffic coming from the United States, followed by Germany with 7.08% and South Korea with 5.49%.[19][20] In late 2023, Twitch announced that they would stop operating in South Korea in 2024 because of its network fee policy, citing prohibitive costs.

  1. ^ a b Peters, Jay (November 19, 2020). "Another Twitch co-founder is leaving the company, leaving only one". The Verge. Archived from the original on December 30, 2020. Retrieved January 2, 2021.
  2. ^ "16 Years of Twitch".
  3. ^ "Twitch Hires YouTube Alum Laura Lee as Chief Content Officer". November 3, 2022.
  4. ^ "Amazon's S-team: Meet the 30 members who make up our senior leadership team". July 18, 2024.
  5. ^ Wawro, Alex (August 25, 2014). "Amazon to acquire Twitch". Gamasutra. UBM plc. Archived from the original on August 26, 2014. Retrieved August 25, 2014.
  6. ^ Cite error: The named reference Wilhelm-2011 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  7. ^ Mao, Eric (July 3, 2022). "The effectiveness of event marketing in an attention economy: Findings from Twitch live-stream esports tournament events". Journal of Media Economics. 34 (3): 194–211. doi:10.1080/08997764.2022.2115503. ISSN 0899-7764. S2CID 251830207. Archived from the original on December 1, 2022. Retrieved December 1, 2022.
  8. ^ Cite error: The named reference Ewalt-2013 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  9. ^ Cite error: The named reference Truong-2014 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  10. ^ Cite error: The named reference ceo-letteramazon was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  11. ^ Cite error: The named reference Kim-2014 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  12. ^ Sarah Needleman (January 29, 2015). "Twitch's Viewers Reach 100 Million a Month". The Wall Street Journal. Archived from the original on August 9, 2017. Retrieved August 4, 2017.
  13. ^ Robertson, Adi (May 27, 2019). "The YouTube Gaming app is shutting down this week". The Verge. Archived from the original on May 30, 2019. Retrieved February 1, 2022.
  14. ^ Gonzalez, Oscar (May 28, 2019). "Google to shut down YouTube Gaming app on May 30". CNET. Archived from the original on February 1, 2022. Retrieved February 1, 2022.
  15. ^ Perez, Sarah (September 18, 2018). "YouTube to shut down standalone Gaming app, as gaming gets a new home on YouTube". TechCrunch. Archived from the original on February 1, 2022. Retrieved February 1, 2022.
  16. ^ a b "55 Amazing Twitch Stats and Facts". DMR. June 15, 2015. Archived from the original on July 15, 2018. Retrieved July 15, 2018.
  17. ^ Perez, Sarah (April 26, 2018). "Twitch solidifies its lead with viewership up 21% in Q1, while YouTube Gaming drops". TechCrunch. Archived from the original on September 3, 2018. Retrieved September 2, 2018.
  18. ^ "Audience | Twitch Advertising". twitchadvertising.tv. Archived from the original on December 15, 2018. Retrieved December 11, 2018.
  19. ^ "twitch.tv". similarweb. October 30, 2023.
  20. ^ "Top Websites Ranking". Similarweb. Archived from the original on February 10, 2022. Retrieved December 1, 2021.