Twitch is the world‘s most popular interactive live streaming platform. It is the place where a global community of over 2.5 million people gathers every day to experience and share moments of live entertainment, not only by passively consuming but also by creating content. Its growth, even and especially during the pandemic, has been dizzying. And that’s also why we had a chat with Damian Burns, Twitch senior VP Emea.
How has Twitch changed during the pandemic? Has there been an increase in viewers and users?
“Well, initially, streamers were mostly gamers. But Twitch is now the home for all kinds of content, where you can enjoy any passion: from art to music, from sports to cooking and so on. And in fact, non-gaming content on Twitch has quadrupled in the past three years. What we are facing now globally is unprecedented. Being at home, people want not only entertainment, but also to feel connected to a community. There has been a tremendous increase in Twitch usage over the past few months. We’ve seen record highs in hours watched and the number of creators and viewers active daily, and we’re proud of the small role we play in enabling people to come together and connect with each other. In fact, in 2020, the minutes watched on the live streaming service exceeded one trillion! On average, there are 30 million daily visitors on Twitch and 2.5 million average viewers at any one time ».
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What are the main trends?
“Much of what we are seeing globally reflects trends also taking place in Italy. Gaming continues to have an extremely high audience, dotted with high-profile releases and content, while the growth of non-gaming categories has been exponential. In Italy female streamers and gamers have always had a great influence (in fact some of the first Italian streamers were women) and the lockdown has not changed this situation. Streamers like CKIBE, Kurolily, Kroatomist, Kodomo, Kafkanya are continuing to build strong communities ».
Twitch is often linked to charity. Why?
«Yes, charity is a central theme for the Twitch community and in particular it was in Italy during the lockdown, with a series of incredible charity events in support of the fight against COVID-19. For example: the Italian Red Cross has worked with more than 30 partners for a charity live stream to raise more than 33,000 euros for the COVID-19 emergency ».
What are you planning to do to make the platform even more mainstream? Esports events, children’s programs, football matches? Are you considering producing original content?
“Twitch is built in such a way that anyone with a passion can find the content they love and share that passion with others. It’s perfect for superfans. Twitch’s early adopters were gamers, and despite popular belief, gaming is actually a hugely mainstream activity. The global gaming sector is much bigger than the music one, for example. At the same time, however, as content on Twitch has grown organically over the years, non-gaming audiences have been drawn to the service. To date, a large part of our community consumes many different types of content, while some come only for gaming or only for non-gaming. Twitch responds to an endless list of interests: from music to sports, from art to fitness, from fashion to cooking. The service already offers original content, such as Twitch Rivals, our esports tournament series dedicated entirely to creators. With Twitch Rivals, we bring together the best esports players to compete in the most popular games in the industry. Our priority is to make Twitch the best place for streamers to develop their careers, and for the community to find the content they love. There are currently over seven million active streamers on a monthly basis. To do this, we continually invest in the service, in our tools, in our rules and in the content available ».