Launched in 2011 and unknown by many outside of the gamer universe, Twitch (twitch.tv) is the world’s leading online streaming video platform and community for gamers. With a primary focus on video games, users can navigate the site and watch video game playthroughs and e-sport competitions either live or on-demand. By mid-2013, Twitch amassed an average of 43 million viewers per month, and by February of this year it was considered the fourth largest source of peak Internet traffic in the United States behind Google, Netflix, and Apple. Earlier this month, Twitch announced that it would be acquired by the world’s largest online retailer, Amazon.com, for a reported $970 million in cash. Read on to find out five things you might not know about the revolutionary online video game streaming service.
5. Twitch Was Merely a Spin-Off
Twitch can trace its origins back to Justin.tv, a site launched in 2007 by Justin Kan and Emmett Shear that was was divided into several different content categories, one of them being gaming. The gaming category grew especially fast and quickly became the site’s most popular feature, leading to shut down of Justin.tv and the spin off now known as Twitch.tv.
4. Charitable Work
Since the site’s official launch in 2007, partners on Twitch.tv have used the website to stream donation drives for a number of different charities. In 2013, Twitch was reported to have hosted events which raised over $8 million in donations for charitable causes such as Children’s Miracle Network Hospitals, Child’s Play Charity, and Doctors Without Borders.
3. Platform Support
Twitch is widely available on a number of different devices and platforms including PCs, gaming consoles, and mobile devices. Key features of the Twitch mobile iOS and Android app include streaming content in high definition and landscape view, a browsing option of the top streamers, and the ability for users to follow their favorite channels and chat with other viewers.
2. Twitch Shares its Advertising
In July 2011, Twitch launched its Partner Program, a program that has since reached 4,000 members. Similar to Partner Programs of other video sites, Twitch’s Partner Program shares the company’s advertising revenue with popular content producers who broadcast over its service. Some broadcasters are said to earn over six figures a year from the program.
1. Twitch Rivals Many Cable Networks
At peak hours, Twitch’s viewership rivals that of many major cable networks and even generates more Internet traffic than HBO GO. Over the course of a week in August, Twitch’s average prime-time viewership was around 567,000 viewers. As a comparison, MTV had 560,000, MSNBC had 607,000, and CNN had 750,000. Not bad for a site that has only been around for three years.
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