Tag: twitch gaming

Twitch continues to dominate the Game Streaming Service

Video game streaming has become a bigger entertainment on the internet. There are so many different games to watch, personalities, and styles of playing. As game streaming has become more popular, more alternate streaming sites have showed up. YouTube Game Streaming has been around for a few years but recently Google shut down YouTube Gaming because it confused users. Facebook Gaming is the newest competitor and it can connect already fans of the games to streamers. Twitch, which is owned by Amazon, is the most popular service. Most of the audience data comes from StreamElements. StreamElements is a new growing streaming service. It started back in late 2017 and it allows streamers to show games through multiple channels; including Twitch, YouTube, and Facebook. It also has a professional interface and helps provide useful data to streamers.

Who has the biggest audience?

According to the Wall-Street Journal, Twitch maintains the highest amount of game audience with 70% of hours watched among all services. 2nd is YouTube which had 19.5% of audiences according to StreamElements. Facebook Gaming has approximately 5% while Microsoft Mixer has 3%.

It will be interesting to see if the other platforms can take more of an percentage from Twitch. The platform still has the easiest streaming service, search functions, and most importantly: a dedicated gaming audience. While there are many people use YouTube and Facebook, a huge percentage aren’t dedicated or people who enjoy games. Twitch started with a core audience in mind and has continually improved their services for viewers. Many online personalities also have their core audience on Twitch. Unless the company does something horrendous that would deter the personalities, I think Twitch will remain top dog.

 

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Can Discord Nitro Games compete with Steam and Twitch Gaming?

Discord, the popular chat, video, and communications app, will begin offering video games with their Nitro services. Nitro is a subscription platform for $4.99/month that offers users more abilities for chat such as gif uploads and custom tags. The price will still be $4.99 per month or $49.99 a year but will soon involve video games! Discord Nitro will have its own library of games available to stream or purchase. The beta will launch to 50,000 Canadians soon but expects to go to more regions at a later date.

How do they compete?

This is direct competition against Steam and Twitch. Twitch is becoming a PC game streaming service and has monthly free games. Discord is trying to differentiate itself by connecting it with their chat platform and community. Discord has always been greatly enjoyed by users because easy to set up and its developers are gamers too. They interact with fans and have a better social media presence than Steam or Twitch. Games are catered to you based on your interest but Discord employees can leave small recommendations about the game.

Hope they didn’t steal this review

While they can’t compete with Steam’s library, Discord will have partnerships with THQ and Deep Silver. Having Nitro will also give you access to games without paying such as Saints Row: The Third, Darksiders: Warmastered Edition, Super Meat Boy and Metro: Last Light Redux. You can buy games at their online stores.

They will start their own exclusives called “First on Discord.” They will be indie games that “pushes the boundary of creative game design and is important to innovation and the long-term health of the industry.” They will also have games from Blizzard (World of Warcraft, Overwatch) and Epic (Fortnite). The split between Discord and game is 30 – 70 which is similar to all platforms.

They won’t have every game out but if you’re looking to have a smaller library, perhaps this is an option for you! Steam is very cluttered in comparison but is widely used by all PC gamers. Whether Nitro can compete with them or Twitch will be interesting as game streaming becomes more popular.

Sources:

Discord Blog

Polygon

Venturebeats

Discord Nitro