3 reasons for the popularity of Twitch

The amount of time people spends on the Internet every day continues to grow. At the same time, the activities that people actually do online are differing more and more. Some use entertainment media like TikTok or Instagram to pass the time while waiting for the next train. Others use Reddit or Twitter to keep up with the latest news and exchange information with friends.

Still, other users are simply for fun on the Internet or playing games on the go. Gamblers enjoy the benefits of gamble safely online in Canada with reputable providers. Meanwhile, many millions of people spend their time every day simply watching others play games in the form of lets plays. One platform has emerged in recent years that is becoming increasingly popular with both the watching user and the creative producer. This popular platform is called Twitch.

The small logo with the speech bubble and the two eyes, which can also be interpreted as quotation marks, stands for one thing above all: diversity. Anyone can start on Twitch without any problems and distribute their own content on the platform. You can find channels that play the same thing for several hours every day, but also those that shine with a lot of variety. Still, others turn the camera on themselves and simply talk to their viewers via Twitch.

What is Twitch anyway?

But let's start from the beginning. Twitch can also be described as a live streaming video platform. As the name suggests, you can film yourself playing games or watch others play. This platform was launched in 2011. After only three years, Twitch was sold to Amazon in 2014.

Today, the platform has up to two million viewers daily. These are distributed across more than three million streaming channels. Calculations have shown that all users together account for 730 million hours of live videos per month. Young users in particular are spending more and more of their free time on the Internet, and many of them are on Twitch.

#1 Popular Streams

Stars that the current generation knows and celebrates are often very well known on Twitch and stream their content there for tens of thousands of viewers every day. The American scene in particular has been able to benefit from the hype and emerging viewers. Popular artists and performers from America on Twitch are called Ninja, shroud, or xQcOW. Many of them even regularly reach an audience of millions from various countries around the world with their streams.

The success of streamers is often reflected in the games they currently like to play online. The most popular game categories often depend on the time of day and also on which streamer is currently playing the game. GTA V, League of Legends, Minecraft, and many other popular games are often at the top of the viewer lists.

But smaller niches with a strong fan base are also very popular on Twitch. Often, these are games that don't yet have a high profile on the current market or story games that are geared towards a very specific audience. Other reasons can be that they are simply not as popular as they used to be and the interests of the viewers and thus the streamers have simply changed.

#2 Interactive Community

Of course, easy access to content always makes for potentially more interested parties and also consumers. You can see this not only with Twitch but also on other platforms that cover a similar market. YouTube's videos, and to some extent television, can often be made to work without much work. But one key difference between these platforms and Twitch becomes clear very quickly.

The interactive exchange between viewer and producer can be served very well in this form, especially on Twitch. Viewers can not only discuss the current content with each other in real-time but also write directly to the streamer himself. Twitch streamers can then, for example, point out their own wishes, make individual suggestions, or support the streamer in the game if they get stuck at a certain point.

So compared to traditional television or even newer YouTube videos, the direct influence on the course of the stream from viewers on Twitch is particularly large. Streamers can also produce more targeted, relevant content if they respond directly to their audience's wishes and suggestions. The content is then even more precisely tailored to their viewers and thus comes across as much more approachable.

But streamers also have an additional incentive with their own payment system in addition to the monetary donations that are common for Twitch. The individual viewer can immediately give something back to the streamer for their service. With so-called bits, a digital currency only on Twitch, viewers can express their appreciation. Afterward, they can convert them back into money and pay them out later.

#3 Anything but boring

Twitch offers a lot of different entertainment due to its large number of streamers. Many of the sometimes quite prominent streamers also bring their special talents to the platform and are even better received by viewers than others. Streamers can elicit a lot of emotions from their viewers.

Competitive pressure on the Twitch platform is the result of how easy it is for anyone to sign up and get started. However, this also makes streamers put a lot more effort into creating exciting and novel content, while always being able to engage viewers better than the competition. But of course, they can also overdo it and get banned from Twit if they don't follow the agreed-upon rules.

But one thing is always certain for the viewers: Boredom is guaranteed not to arise quickly on Twitch! Unlike television, which many people only remember from their childhood, Twitch offers a huge number of channels that always have a certain uniqueness due to their actors, even if they play the same game.

On TV, there are often special shows and movies adapted to the time of day that are aimed at a certain target group. Towards the evening, this is classified as increasingly older, and especially in the morning, there are often shows that are geared to a young audience. Even though you always have the chance to zap to another channel on TV, it happens comparatively often that you just don't find the right program for your taste.

The likelihood of this happening is much lower on Twitch. Even if your favorite streamer is not streaming live, there are always other streamers who provide news or interviews worth watching. The target group on Twitch is very young, which is due both to the games presented, but also to the mostly still childlike nature of the streamers themselves. Generation Z" finds top entertainment on this platform, which is most directly geared towards them and makes them feel comfortable. However, there are of course also older Twitch users who are attracted by the live program or who have found their own favorite streamer who can entertain them well.

(Devdiscourse's journalists were not involved in the production of this article. The facts and opinions appearing in the article do not reflect the views of Devdiscourse and Devdiscourse does not claim any responsibility for the same.)