As Netflix, Disney, and other media conglomerates battled for streaming TV dominance, another kind of streaming war was raging. And there is a decisive winner in this. Twitch, the Amazon-owned platform for live-streaming gamers while playing video games, is the undisputed champion in its field. It hosts 91% of all video game streams, beating out competitors YouTube and Facebook.
In less than a decade, Twitch has grown to be one of the most popular platforms on the web and it serves over 2 million viewers at any given time of day. Much like Netflix, it reached new heights during the pandemic and became a popular entertainment destination for homebound consumers worldwide. Stream yourself while playing video games.
That’s almost double what it was before the pandemic started. (Amazon doesn’t disclose its Twitch earnings.) Video Game Streaming borrows from reality TV, movies, and podcasts, but it’s a medium in its own right. It’s interactive, unscripted, and messy. It puts a big personality in front of its fans and creates a celebrity-consumer relationship unparalleled across Hollywood. For many of Gen Z, Twitch is the new cinema.
However, their idols aren’t Leonardo DiCaprio or Brad in his pits, but teens and 20-year-olds eating Doritos at home while playing Call of Duty or Fortnite. As streaming grows in popularity, Twitch (and Amazon) will have to contend with a slew of new competitors, much like Netflix has done on TV. But for now, it pretty much monopolizes a growing subset of entertainment, and it’s a name you’ll hear more of.
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