Author Archives: jc093527

What do you get when you cross an underground gamer with Netflix? The golden child of online game streaming, Twitch. For those of you who do not know, “Twitch is the world’s leading video platform and community for gamers with more than 45 million visitors per month.” You might say to yourself well, “How about Youtube or Netflix?”Twitch stands out by having the website purely lead by your “Average Gamer/Professional Player.” We as a civilized society feed on the interactions of others. Why else has the past decade, the Internet has grown so fast. Social networking websites such as Twitter, Facebook, and Myspace have revolutionized the way we socialize and interact with others.

“Your so entertaining that people can’t help but watch you, or you have to be so good that no matter how fucking boring you are, people want to watch you to learn.” – MadamStarr

Twitch’s Official Logo

Twitch literally brings interaction between others to the forefront of the 20th century. According to Matthew DiPietro, the VP of Marketing at Twitch said, “ When video game historians look back on gaming a decade from now, 2013 will be the year they cite as the tipping point of streaming.” Just as fast as the Internet has grown big businesses also saw this as an opportunity to also “Cash In” on the deal. Brand names like Coca-Cola, Monster Energy Drink, Intel, Asus, Hyper X, and many other businesses are literally hopping on the bandwagon to get a slice of this so called proverbial cake.

“Every major even, 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.” also said by Matthew DiPietro.

Regardless, Twitch’s success last year is more evidence of the on-going ascendancy of Esports, which remain Twitch’s bread and butter. League of Legends viewership rose by nearly 300% over 2012, while Dota 2 viewership rose over 500%. The most watched Esports tournament of the year, the Season 3 World Championship of League of Legends drew in at about 32 million viewers, which was more than Game 7 of last year’s NBA Finals.

According to Twitch’s 2013 end-of-year report, Twitch averages over 900,000 unique broadcasters per month, and a recent peak of about 10,000 concurrent live broadcasters. Of that 5,100 people are members of the company’s partner program, which gives them a cut of ad revenue gained for each viewer. One person who is trying to make it in this new Internet phenomenon is a young woman who goes by the Twitch handle of MadamStarr.

The rags to riches story doesn’t end here for the young Tiffany Williams. People like TrumpSC who has about 30+ million views or MaSsanSC who has 6+ million views make streaming their career. On stream Crs_saintvicious emitted to have a 6 figure salary, all through streaming, sponsorships, and general ad revenue. TrumpSC who goes by the name Jeffrey Shih, age 26, makes streaming his occupation. With a bachelor’s in Management and finance from New York University, he spends his days streaming daily from his home in San Francisco, California. Streaming to Jeffrey is a job, you do your best everyday to teach and entertain your viewers.

    “Streaming in general isn’t a way to get rich in my honest opinion, it’s a way to interact with my viewers.” – Madamstarr

I am not really a reporter. This is for a Journalism Class.

This is for a Journalism Class, and I am not actually a reporter for ESPN.