Twitch Hits Over 45 Million Monthly Viewers

Videogame streaming platform Twitch currently has more than 45 million viewers and more than 900,000 unique broadcasters per month, the company stated in a first-ever brand retrospective summary.

In March last year, the Twitch community surpassed 30 million monthly views. By September, that number had increased to 45 million unique visitors. The site currently averages 12 billion minutes of videos watched per month, which has doubled since 2012. Twitch also stated that 6 million videos are broadcast per month, which also represents a doubling of last year's figures.

“When videogame historians look back on gaming a decade from now, 2013 will be the year they cite as the tipping point of streaming,” said Matthew DiPietro, VP of Marketing at Twitch. “Every major event, publisher, developer, and media outlet in the gaming industry had a presence on Twitch, and streaming became an ever-present piece of the gaming experience. And it’s only going to get bigger.”

In July 2013, Steam accounts were made accessible to Twitch. In November, Sony’s PlayStation 4 launched with Twitch capabilities, though Microsoft’s Xbox One streaming capabilities were delayed. “In terms of Microsoft’s road map, that is a question for them to field,” DiPietro told us when asked about the inability of the Xbox One to stream gameplay. In mid-November, Microsoft announced that the streaming option for its newest console wouldn’t be available until early 2014. On Jan. 8, Twitch’s support Twitter feed announced that streaming would be delayed “a few more months.”

Twitch currently has more than 5,100 partners, players who can earn money through high viewership. “In addition to working closely with our partners to ensure their integrations are as smooth as possible, we have put a lot of work into our infrastructure. This has enabled us to scale up to handle the massive amount of console broadcasters,” DiPietro told us.

He also had a few ideas on why Twitch has become a major platform for casual and professional gamers. “Twitch has been successful for several reasons. The first is that we are a platform geared solely toward the videogame community, so the tools we offer broadcasters are tailored just for them. Secondly, we represent the entire videogame ecosystem which no other platform does. This includes videogame publishers and developers, all of the top videogame media outlets, all major conventions and press conferences, and the entire eSports scene. Lastly, our success is dictated by our users, so if there are tools they need or issues they face, we want to address those challenges.”

Twitch revealed that a majority of viewers watch live gaming streams, while others chat with the online community, watch video highlights and broadcast gameplay. The company also stated that their average viewer is 21 – and 68% of those users are watching less television.

Twitch was founded by Justin Kan and Emmett Shear as a subsidiary of Justin.tv and launched in 2011. Last month, it became the world’s largest gaming video site.

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