Twitch (service)

Twitch is a video streaming live service located in the United States that specialises on video game live streaming, as well as broadcasts of esports events. The company also broadcasts live music and provides other types of creative material, as well as "in real life" streaming. Twitch Interactive, a division of Amazon.com, Inc., is in charge of running the channel. It was launched as a spin-off of the general-interest streaming platform Justin.tv in June 2011 and has since gained widespread popularity. The site's content may be watched in real time or on demand through a video on demand service.

Twitch has surpassed the popularity of its general-interest equivalent in terms of audience size. According to the website's statistics, it had 45 million unique visitors in October 2013, and by February 2014, it was deemed the fourth biggest source of peak Internet traffic in the United States. At the same time, Justin.tv's parent business was re-branded as Twitch Interactive to represent the firm's change in emphasis — Justin.tv was shut down in August 2014 – and the company's parent company was re-branded as Twitch Interactive. That same month, Amazon purchased the service for US$970 million, which resulted in the creation of synergies between the service and the company's subscription service Amazon Prime. After acquiring Curse, an operator of online video gaming communities, in 2016, Twitch added a way for viewers to buy games via links shown during broadcasts, as well as a scheme that allows broadcasters to earn commissions on the sales of games that they are currently playing.

Twitch has more than 100 million viewers each month by the end of 2015. While YouTube Gaming, which was shut down in 2018, remained the top live streaming video service for video games in the United States in 2017, Twitch maintained its position as the leading service. As of February 2020, it has 3 million broadcasters each month and 15 million daily active users, with an average of 1.4 million concurrent users on a monthly basis. Twitch has approximately 27,000 partner channels as of May 2018, according to the company.