Twitch (service)

Twitch is an American video <a href="/facts/Live-streaming/rsFwFXrD">live-streaming</a> service popular in <a href="/facts/Video_game_live_streaming/CB43hEW6">video games</a>, including broadcasts of <a href="/facts/Esports/HJHyo3bC">esports</a> competitions. It also offers music broadcasts, creative content, and "in <a href="/facts/Real_life/a34ebUXs">real life</a>" streams. Twitch is operated by Twitch Interactive, a subsidiary of <a href="/facts/Amazon_(company)/YzUTUVE8">Amazon</a>. It was introduced in June 2011 as a spin-off of the general-interest streaming platform <a href="/facts/Justin.tv/lDkucSYl">Justin.tv</a>. 
Content on the site can be viewed either live or via <a href="/facts/Video_on_demand/jWQq1o80">video on demand</a>. The games shown on Twitch's current<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Twitch_(service)&action=edit">[update]</a> homepage are listed according to audience preference and include genres such as real-time strategy games, fighting games, racing games, and first-person shooters.
The popularity of Twitch eclipsed that of Justin.tv. In October 2013, the website had 45 million unique viewers, and by February 2014, it was considered the fourth-largest source of peak <a href="/facts/Internet/Xw1rVvJU">Internet</a> traffic in the United States. At the same time, Justin.tv's parent company was re-branded as Twitch Interactive to represent the shift in focus when Justin.tv was getting shut down in August 2014. The same month, the service was acquired by <a href="/facts/Amazon_(company)/YzUTUVE8">Amazon</a> for US$970 million, which later led to the introduction of synergies with the company's subscription service <a href="/facts/Amazon_Prime/wnoY4K67">Amazon Prime</a>.
By 2015, Twitch had more than 100 million viewers per month. In 2017, Twitch remained the leading live-streaming video service for video games in the US, and had an advantage over <a href="/facts/YouTube_Gaming/db276jst">YouTube Gaming</a>, which shut down its standalone app in May 2019. As of February 2020,<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Twitch_(service)&action=edit">[update]</a> it had three million broadcasters monthly and 15 million active users daily, with 1.4 million average <a href="/facts/Concurrent_user/2p2V47pn">concurrent users</a>. As of May 2018,<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Twitch_(service)&action=edit">[update]</a> Twitch had over 27,000 partner channels. As of January 2025,<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Twitch_(service)&action=edit">[update]</a> Twitch was the <a href="/facts/List_of_most-visited_websites/sjsmVHdz">30th-most-visited website in the world</a> with 23.46% of its traffic coming from the United States, followed by Russia with 8.87%, Germany with 7.08% and France with 6.26%. In late 2023, Twitch announced that they would stop operating in South Korea in 2024 because of its <a href="/facts/Internet_in_South_Korea/Tl4kcRCR">network fee policy</a>, citing prohibitive costs.

Twitch (service) open-in-new

Twitch (service)