Game lovers are probably already well aware of this fact, but here it is: Amazon is now the owner of the game streaming service Twitch.  And what exactly is Twitch? It is a service that allows users to watch others play, as well as discuss different games.  And it has been a hot topic for acquisition rumors: in May, YouTube/Google was rumored to be picking up the service.  However, according to Re/Code and Mashable, Amazon stepped in after the Google possibility passed.  It is clear to see why a Twitch acquisition generated so much interest: with 55 million active users, Twitch is growing into a media powerhouse.

Twitch started in 2011 as a spin-off of Justin.tv by Justin Kan and Emmett Shear.  In spite of the technical obstacles and high costs of live streaming at the time, Twitch grew rapidly.  Nine months after its inception, it had 16 million unique visitors on a monthly basis, and was growing by roughly 11% each month.  September 2012 saw $15 million invested in Twitch by a few venture capitalists, with another $20 million raised for funding exactly a year later.  

This raises the question though: do people REALLY want to watch while others play video games?  Let’s take a look at the numbers: 

Twitch now has 55 million monthly, active users, and gets more traffic during peak hours than Facebook, Amazon, Pandora, Valve, Hulu, and Tumblr.  In addition, approximately 540,000 primetime viewers use Twitch on average, beating many popular cable networks, such as MTV and SyFy.  Not to mention that 58% of its viewers spend an average 20 hours per week watching the stream.  

Considering the numbers, the answer seems to be a resounding “Yes”: clearly, people do enjoy watching others play video games.  

Twitch offers many different games for viewing.  With competitive gaming in its heyday, it is not surprise that E-sports is an incredibly popular category, featuring games such as Call of Duty, DOTA 2, and League ofLegends.  In fact, the League of Legends championship, which took place in October, drew 32 million viewers, with  8.2. million viewers watching concurrently.  Compare that to YouTube’s biggest streaming moment, Felix Baumgartner’s space jump, which attracted 8 million viewers.  

Minecraft is another top draw.  This is hardly surprising, since Minecraft has over 50 million downloads across Xbox, PS3, PC, and mobile.  That being said, 10,000 broadcasters a day is nothing to sneeze at.  

Another popular category is speedrunning.  Here, you can watch a highly experienced player wiz through games as quickly as possible, making it look like a new art form. 

The last one definitely worth mentioning is the ability for creative experiments.  In February, over 10,000 people collaborated to play a single game of Pokémon, an event which took nearly 3 weeks to finish.  Twitch’s streaming services were utilized to allow viewers to direct the action as they inputted commands for the main characters of the games.  The end result was both wildly chaotic and fascinating.  The interactive streams are definitely an interesting way to blur the lines between watching and playing.  

In what may come as a surprise, video game companies in general have both embraced and adopted to Twitch as a way to communicate and interact directly with fans.  Both Minecraft and League of Legends have used the platform to host community events, streamline announcements, stream panels, as well as debut new game footage.  

One of the most interesting aspects of Twitch is the incentives they give their broadcasters.  Users can opt to simply share with their friends, but those who have more of as “master” skill level can apply to be one of Twitch’s few thousand partners who are paid a share of the advertising revenue.  In order to be a partner, your channel needs to reach a minimum number of viewers.  It is also possible for players to earn money through asking fans to pay a subscription fee of $5 a month, half of which the players are allowed to keep.  Many players also post unofficial tip jars through services such as PayPal.  In the end, a few, lucky streamers can even make a comfortable living solely by streaming games and producing content for YouTube.  

So what can you expect to see after this Amazon acquisition?  Well, thus far, Amazon has not made any statements, nor dropped any hints to what potential changes could be in store.  But the fact that there hasn’t been a lot of backlash and rumors surrounding the business transaction is a good sign.  When rumors were circulating of the possible YouTube acquisition, the Twitter hashtag #RIPTwitch started trending with the concern that YouTube’s zealous ContentID claims would start to infringe on user’s sharing ability.  Thus far, no angry riots or melodramatic hashtags have been created against Amazon.  Only time will tell how much independence Twitch is able to maintain, although, with the high level of cache the Twitch brand has amassed among its followers, it could very well be to Amazon’s advantage to let that remain separate. 

Source: Mashable