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The Non-Gamer’s Guide to Twitch, by Patrick Henderson
My favorite Christmas present I’ve ever received was a Nintendo 64 in 1999.
It was the year Donkey Kong 64 was released — I think maybe my favorite video game of all time? — and it came with a yellow controller that I still have. (It no longer works). I remember spending a LOT of time that Christmas break hustling to unlock Tiny Kong. Her overalls are still a style inspiration for me and she could glide by twirling her pigtails. What more could you possibly want out of a character and/or life? That Christmas was a gateway to a whole new kind of culture I hadn’t really experienced before.
I loved video games. I’d play for hours after school, and then sneak back down to the basement and play like two inches from the screen with the volume super low when my parents were asleep. When I couldn’t play myself, I’d spend afternoons in my friend’s basement watching her older brothers play. They wouldn’t let us play because they knew we’d ruin their progress. They were right, of course. This was before memory cards, which have since come and gone as a means for saving progress.
Over time, Kingdom Hearts, The Legend of Zelda: The Ocarina of Time, Harvest Moon, and Paper Mario all informed my personality as much as my favorite reality TV shows (Girlicious, Survivor, Big Brother, and The Search for the Next Pussycat Doll) and books (Harry Potter, The Perks of Being A Wallflower). Playing games could be social (friends could come over to play Mario Kart), or personal (spending WAY too much time trying to beat The Legend of Zelda: Majora’s Mask).
Why am I revealing my trash media consumption habits in a professional blog post? I’m trying to illustrate how gamer culture — the factions of people who casually play or live and breathe a given videogame or video game franchise — are some of the most powerful and active communities online. The characters we grew up playing with have grown up with us. Functionality has evolved a LOT since the N64 days (online gaming, anyone?). In 2017, the video game industry generated $108.7 billion. And this multi-billion dollar industry has found a home online.
Enter Twitch: Amazon’s Live Streaming Video Platform
Twitch is like TV for video games. Originally introduced as a spin-off of the general-interest streaming platform Justin.tv in June 2011, the website focused on video game live streaming and quickly eclipsed its general interest counterpart. By February 2014, Twitch was considered the fourth-largest source of peak Internet traffic in the United States. That same year, Amazon acquires twitch due to its dominance in the livestream market. Twitch then went on to acquire Curse Gaming, a well-known presence in the eSports scene that made its name developing software that enhanced social connectivity.
If you’re not a really a gamer, Twitch may not have been on your radar until Drake and Travis Scott famously broke the streaming record in March 2018, when they popped in to play Fortnite with streamer Ninja, reaching 620,000 concurrent streamers. (The previous record was 388,000).
To date, Twitch has earned:
- 15 million unique daily visitors to twitch.tv.
- 2.2 million creators streaming on the platform.
- 23 billion minutes watched per month.
Source: https://twitchadvertising.tv/traffic/
These are big numbers for a niche platform, and the user base is only growing. So how does one get into Twitch?
How Twitch Works
On Twitch, you find “streams” to watch by searching a specific username (we’ll get into the streamer industry in a second), or a specific game. Like any social network, you can do this from the platform’s mobile app or from your browser. Then you literally watch like you would your favorite TV show. Except the episodes are always changing, and you can talk directly to your characters through the platform’s chat feature.
The most popular categories on Twitch at the time of writing this post include:
- Fortnite (135,389 viewers)
- League of Legends (112,006 viewers)
- The Battle of Olympus (103,801 viewers)
- Just Chatting (80,863 viewers)
- Hearthstone (66,667 viewers)
Users might watch streams to pick up tips or see how notable streamers pass a certain level or map, but honestly, it’s mostly just entertaining. You can watch someone play the same game over and over again and it’s never the same result. Just like you might follow your favorite soccer team, you can watch your favorite streamers team up and face off.
In November, I watched my first-ever Overwatch World Cup with a few friends on Twitch, just like I might go to Halifax Sports Bar to catch a hockey game. (Reader, I am lying to your face. I have never gone to a sports bar to watch a sports game and I don’t plan to. I was told this example might help make Twitch relatable to the unindicted.) Canada placed bronze, not bad!
If gaming’s not really your thing, Twitch has more content for you. There are creators on Twitch who stream about travel, food and drink, art, ASMR, and more. Kind of like YouTube, but live.
A popular streamer outside of the gaming category is Kitboga, who goes live to “scambait”. You know when you get those phone calls from unknown numbers about winning a free cruise in exchange for your personal information? Kitboga streams his calls with these scammers by assuming ridiculous fake identities. Basically, he’s scamming a scammer. The name of the game is to see how long he can string a scammer along them along before they realize he isn’t who he says he is. It is endlessly entertaining. He could stream these on Instagram Live or on Facebook, but he found his home on Twitch.
Streamers Make the Platform
Just like Instagram has its influencers, and YouTube has its vloggers, a number of Twitch streamers have gained popularity (and sometimes notoriety) over time. It makes sense, right? You like a streamer’s personality or their playing style, so you tune in for more.
Eventually, these streamers develop a fan base and, with the help of brand sponsorships and tournaments, playing video games becomes a streamer’s full-time job. Just like a travel photographer might find fame on Instagram.
Many popular streamers in 2018 play Fortnite (a consistently streamed game that also inspired the most-searched Halloween costumes last year). But many other streamers have found fame, and fortune, by doing what they do best: playing video games and cracking jokes. League of Legends, first released in 2009, has amassed a huge following in the streaming and eSports space. Twitch also hosts community events like “Twitch plays Pokemon” where viewers could steer a trainer by entering comments into the chat, until the viewers beat the game. Participants in these events and games build an audience through an engagement, just like any Instagrammer or YouTuber you know and love.
The streamer industry is growing large enough that influencer marketing agencies are taking note, and are starting to recruit and specialize in Twitch streamers.
The value proposition of Twitch streamers is bigger than you think. Many streamers do extrenely well because Twitch facilitates or empowers multiple streams of revenue at once. A single stream can:
- Get donations from viewers (often)
- Earn subscribers, which generates revenue
- Secure revenue through advertisements
- Secure YouTube revenue by uploading clips of their stream to YouTube (think: content distribution).
How Brands Can Use Twitch
Twitch might be niche, but the platform and its streamers are influential. What the platform might lack in terms of users compared to more mainstream social media platforms, it more than makes up for in a hyper-engaged, passionate fan base. Smart marketers should pay close attention to the platform’s cultural currency.
Brands can use Twitch in a few ways, depending on your investment level. Advertising options include:
- Purchasing ad space directly on the Twitch platform with placements like pre-roll.
- Influencer programs, including branded, promoted broadcasts with Twitch’s biggest influencers.
- Custom commercials, using Twitch talent to create custom ads.
- Custom tournaments featuring multiple Twitch influencers in a digital or physical setting.
Brands need to tap into the culture of Twitch to succeed on the platform. Users are online to consume a very specific kind of content, and to use the pre-roll you’d run on more mainstream news websites would be a waste of your media dollars.
Tapping into the culture of Twitch also means understanding you are on the streamer’s home turf. They know their audience and what they respond to, so select streamers that represent your values and brand personality, and let them do their thing.
I’d ask the following questions before advertising on Twitch:
- How does my brand relate to the platform? Is it a natural fit? Or is it so unexpected, it’d be pretty funny or memorable? Watch a few streams and get a feel for how the platform operates.
- Who am I trying to influence and are they using the Twitch platform?
- What am I trying to say, and who on the Twitch platform can I trust to relate this message?
- How comfortable am I with my brand creative being served before, after, or during streams of video games that don’t align with my brand values?
For travel brands specifically, I wouldn’t count Twitch out right away. There are many opportunities to sponsor tournaments physically in your destination, hotel, or resort. A good place to start would be video games featuring your destination and determining if there’s enough interest on the platform to leverage this in some way.
Every time I visit Twitch, I sort of feel like I’m back in my friend’s basement again, watching her brothers play. Though I can’t help but feel robbed of a career twirling as Tiny Kong, I’ll accept that we are in the Fortnite era and maybe advertising is a little more stable. In the meantime, as a consolation, I’ll turn to Twitch and watch Smash Bros. Happy streaming!
Patrick is a Social Team Lead at VERB Interactive — a leader in digital marketing, specializing in solutions for the travel and hospitality industry. Find out more at www.verbinteractive.com.
