What is Twitch and how does it work?

• The pandemic was a major catalyst for the explosion of gaming and live streaming into the mainstream culture. Stuck inside their homes, people developed these new hobbies and flocked towards websites like Twitch to watch others play games or do it themselves.
• Early last year, the Amazon-owned company skyrocketed by 82 percent, clocking in at 1.8 billion in terms of hours watched. Its popularity has only continued growing, with major sports companies and politicians using the platform as a way to broadcast their content or ideas.

What is Twitch?

• Twitch is essentially a streaming platform, where people can broadcast themselves live playing video games, cooking, or do pretty much anything that can be filmed via a camera. The concept behind Twitch came from Justin Kan and Emmett Shear, who in 2007 launched a website called Justin.tv, allowing people to stream themselves and chat with a live audience. Thanks to a large gaming based crowd, it was then renamed Twitch Interactive in 2014, with Amazon acquiring the company for $970 million.
• Despite being centred around games, over the years, Twitch has evolved into other categories, where you can see people vlogging live, cooking, creating art, gambling, making music, singing, and much more, making the platform one of the most popular forms of online entertainment. The ‘Just Chatting’ section especially, is the one that gains the most traffic, even though, in most cases, it’s just the streamer casually sitting and talking to their viewers.
• The ‘Just Chatting’ category usually has the highest amount of viewers.
• Esports organisations also use the platform to host tournaments, while others conduct live interviews with sports players (NBA), or even do sponsorship deals with specific streamers to boost their user base. For example, the mobile payment service, Cash App partnered with some streamers last year to give away thousands of dollars to random viewers in chat.

Twitch Subscriptions

• If you happen to enjoy a streamer’s content, you can support them by donating some money, subscribing to their channel for a small monthly fee, or by donating bits, which is an in-platform currency. Earlier, these subscriptions were priced at $5 (about Rs 375), but mid last year, Twitch introduced regional pricing, taking the cost down. Subscribing to someone through the browser will now cost you Rs 110, while on a mobile device you will have to pay Rs 120.
• Subscriptions also come with benefits such as ad-free viewing, a cool badge next to your name, and exclusive emotes that can be used all over the platform. You can also gift them to a specific viewer or dole them out randomly, in custom quantities to a community.
• Additionally, they are available in three tiers, where the latter two grant more emotes and a standout badge, and are meant for those who feel like tipping a streamer more money. Streamers also earn the dough through sponsorships, esports tournaments, affiliate links, and advertisements – which a lot of top streamers avoid running.