According to TwitchTracker, which plots the real-time activity of the Amazon-owned live streaming platform, the average daily viewership in August 2023 stood at approximately 2,384,000. At the time of looking at the data, almost 86,000 Twitch channels were live streaming worldwide. However, these figures are somewhat diminished from the recorded peak of May 2021, when average viewership surpassed 3,100,000 users.
In fact, elsewhere on TwitchTracker’s site is a graph which shows a steady decline in viewers since May 2021, although the number of streamers activating accounts for the first time has held firm. What this tells us is that more people are interested in live streaming on the platform, but Twitch needs to work harder at engaging and retaining viewers.
Despite its bumps in the road, Twitch is firmly established in popular culture
There’s no doubting the power of Twitch and its ability to build and engage niche communities for enthusiasts online. Whether it’s tuning in to watch a live stream of someone’s Football Manager or Counter-Strike: Global Offensive session, or interacting in real time with fun Twitch personalities live streaming ‘shows’ about their life and the world in general, Twitch can be a hive of immersive content. It’s one of the main reasons why well-established brands have their own ‘official’ Twitch channels to target specific audiences.
WildEarth is a prime example for nature lovers, live streaming their adventures in the South African wilderness. Conversely, the game of poker has maintained an online community of professionals and amateur enthusiasts. Leading online poker rooms like PokerStars have their Twitch channel proudly displayed on their homepage, with live streams of their biggest tournaments and events to double-up as marketing and educational material. PokerStars also use their Twitch channel as a platform for their brand ambassadors at Team PokerStars, to showcase their skills and connect with the next generation of online poker enthusiasts.
Twitch has made life difficult for itself in 2023 so far
Despite the variety of live streamed content within the Twitch community, the platform has endured a tough 2023 to date. Its revenue split has long been a bone of contention for streamers, which is still set at 50/50 between the streamer and Twitch. That’s poorer than other competitor streaming platforms, where streamers can bag 70/30 revenue splits for their content.
Twitch has sought to bridge the gap of late by unveiling a Partner Plus programme with an increased revenue split for high-value streamers. However, the programme has already come in for fierce criticism as the threshold for entrants to the programme has been set too high and described by some as “anti-community”.
There was also significant backlash from streamers after unveiling a string of new Branded Content Guidelines. The platform was forced to make an embarrassing U-turn, acknowledging the vital role sponsorships play in the make-up of streamer income. As if that wasn’t enough, Twitch was forced to make 400 staff redundant as part of a restructuring move in March.
Last month, Mary Kish, director of Twitch’s community marketing and production, was present at TwitchCon Paris and admitted the platform was doubling down on a “trust building period” to try and restore user sentiment once again.
Looking at Twitch’s user data longer term, it’s clear the platform’s metrics are still heading in the right direction. Just four years ago, Twitch’s streaming audience in Europe was 100 million users but this had risen four-fold by 2022. In 2022, a total of five billion hours of live streamed content was consumed.
TwitchCon Paris was also an event where the platform launched a host of new features, designed to underpin its community of streamers. A new Discovery Feed is to be unveiled, making it easier for first-time viewers to get the gist of streamers and their content via scrollable short clips of past streams. Meanwhile a new Stories section is aimed at building the personal brands of the biggest and best Twitch streamers, which should also improve viewer discovery.
Twitch still has ambitions to compete in the mobile streaming space too, although its vice-president of product, Jeremy Forrester, insists it remains “very much a desktop platform”.
