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What I don't understand about Twitch is how anyone has time to consume this content. When it comes to sitting on your butt and watching something, the traditi

What I don't understand about Twitch is how anyone has time to consume this content. When it comes to sitting on your butt and watching something, the traditional TV show is moving to an on-demand model. Twitch is a step in the other direction, where if you faithfully consume content from any Twitch channel, you have to sit down and watch for hours every night when the streamer is online. Who does that? I imagine it's mostly students and single young professionals.

qwerty9876 8y ago
It makes sense if the player is REALLY good at the game, ie. in the top 0.1% globally or similar. It serves as a learning experience. You will learn much faster by watching a good player compared to grinding the game and slowly discovering the same mechanics yourself. You probably wouldn't watch some random kids stream of them playing football in their backyard. Now imagine Messi himself doing exactly that and also commenting it live, explaining all his tricks and his reasoning for every move he makes on the field. I bet you would be much more interested.
olliej 8y ago
Streams are stored so you can watch after the fact, in which case it’s basically TV. There’s no requirement that you only watch while they’re online.
invalidusernam3 8y ago
I guess people treat it like sport. Most people wouldn't think it strange for someone to watch a 90 minute football match
- elif 8y ago
  or in the case of american football fans, watch 3 hours and 4 minutes of ads and commentary around 11 minutes of plays.
natural219 8y ago
replace "watching TV" with "hanging out with your friends" and maybe it makes more sense
tjoff 8y ago
So, the same as watching sports? Most need to limit what they choose to watch, you don't have to watch everything.
fullshark 8y ago
I used to watch it before falling asleep, you can start and stop watching at any point without losing much.
deklerk 8y ago
I'm not a twitch streamer/viewer, but I believe a lot of folks are in it for the community aspect. Following your favourite streamers and being a participant in the group chat - especially if your streamer chats with the group - is a way for folks to feel like they're hanging with friends. In contrast, watching TV by yourself can be quite lonely. There are a lot of other differences between TV and twitch; I'm not sure how much worth there is in comparing them. They seem (to me) to mostly be different categories of products that happen to both include a video component.
Twisol 8y ago
Twitch has offered VODs ("videos on demand") for streams for a number of years now, and people who can't see all the streams generally have at least a week to catch up on any content they particularly wanted to see. Skimming works particularly well if you just want the high points. Where Twitch's live model works really well is in having a community of people all watching together. Streamers often engage with their audiences in some way, and Twitch's recent move to offer lower-latency streams is a reflection of that. There's a recent craze for a marble racing game called "Marbles on Stream", which a streamer integrates with their Twitch chat so that viewers can type `!play` to enter a marble into the race. (It's a Skinner box if I've ever seen one, but I like Jelle's MarbleLympics on YouTube, so I'm not one to talk.) You couldn't do that with recorded content.
- emodendroket 8y ago
  Some of them also do Q&A. Fighting game streams have that a lot.
reificator 8y ago
I treat a few recurring streams as podcasts where I just listen to the audio after it's already aired. That's pretty much it, I don't really watch any content and I don't show up to streams while they're live. Twitch's VOD player is not particularly good, I might even say pretty bad, but you can absolutely watch on-demand.
Tactic 8y ago
As someone that views Twitch every day I can say I never watch the entirety of a stream. You drop in and view when you have time. It is less akin to watching a TV show and more like going to your friends house and hanging out to watch some of the game. For the record I'm a 51 year old professional.
- brootstrap 8y ago
  Yeah this is close to what I do as well. I have a few people that i've found on twitch and like to hop on for a little while to say what up. The only time i seriously watched twitch for hours was when hob was doing the dark souls trilogy no hit run. I was watching for hours lol my wife really grew to hate that haha.
- mileycyrusXOXO 8y ago
  I always have a hard time explaining why I enjoy Twitch but I think you just encapsulated it.
- wpietri 8y ago
  Thanks! That really helps me to understand Twitch. For a while I had gamer friends who lived just down the street. It was much more enjoyable to hang out and watch them play than it would have been for me to play their games. I just didn't have the time to invest, so my main experience of AAA games was 20 minutes of flailing at level 1 while asking which buttons did what. It was way more fun to watch them kick ass and zoom through the game.
SaltyBackendGuy 8y ago
As a Twitch consumer (married 'professional' in early 30's). I am a huge video game nerd at heart, so I watch streamers that run games that I am interested in however don't have time to play/master. Often it doesn't involve me sitting down for hours at night (although I am sure there's a huge demographic that does that as well). I usually watch when I am laying in bed before I go to sleep. Same time my wife is usually watching some separate but equally mind numbing content to decompress from a long day. Just another form of entertainment, like tv, but there's nothing I enjoy watching on tv. To each their own.
- alexikes 8y ago
  Isn't there something else you could be doing with your wife?
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- steveklabnik 8y ago
  Another thing about the TV analogy; when TV was only broadcast, many people (well, at least I...) would end up not watching an entire series. You turn on the TV and find out it's episode 3 airing tonight. What do you do? Just watch it and figure out what's going on via context, or try to hunt down someone who has a VCR and already taped episodes 1 and 2? Twitch in some ways is more like those old days. I follow several streamers fairly closely. And by "fairly closely" I mean "they stream several hours a day and I probably watch 20 minutes of it, amortized over time".
  - busterarm 8y ago
    We had VCRs with timed record from the early 80s onward and had a _large_ collection of recorded VHS. We got into the habit of recording a few minutes before and after the show was supposed to air, as things frequently did not run on schedule. Especially recording things on the major TV networks and recording Doctor Who off NJN who would keep the fundraiser drives going as long as they could before starting an episode. The only problem with this was sometimes my brother had a habit of taping public access porn over whatever was in the VCR...but that wasn't exactly a problem either. :)
RandallBrown 8y ago
One of my coworkers keeps a twitch stream running in the corner of his monitor almost all day long.
gitgud 8y ago
The biggest reason in my opinion is that its an interactive and unfiltered experience. Seeing someone on the other side of the world react to a comment you write gives you a huge sense of connection. More than a passive TV show can offer.
lbotos 8y ago
I think there are a few components as someone who was like "how do people watch others play video games" to now a casual gamer/twitch watcher: 1. Some days I wanna play, but I'm not actually on top form, going to twitch and decompressing by watching someone else play, live, has this strange humanness to it. In the most absurd of ways, you build a "friendship" with the streamer, even if only as a voyeur. I hate that reality, but I found myself liking the characters and tuning in to specific streams. 2. A lot of great plays/rounds/etc will get "clipped" and make rounds on various social media so I don't have to keep up 24/7. 3. Big "esports" events are the same things as normal sporting events, people will record/watch live and make time for the things that are important to them. It surprised me too, but being on the "other side" now, it's fun.
tmpz22 8y ago
As someone once part of the communities which represent 'hard core' twitch users, a large demographic is age 16-28 males with one or zero core responsibilities - commonly college or a blue collar job. They go to class or work, then get home and spend 6+ hours gaming and on twitch. Think of it this way, if you only have that one obligation and no social life, what else are you going to do? No, watching twitch streamers or hanging out in ephemeral discord channels is not a true substitute for a "real" social life.
TheAceOfHearts 8y ago
I play Heroes of the Storm, so I sometimes open their esports tournament stream and keep it playing on the side. If a match looks interesting I'll pay attention or note the teams that are playing so I can revisit the VOD later. For big StarCraft tournaments I sometimes tune in to major events as well. You can always watch the VODs later, but it's fun to chat with people during the games, or posting your thoughts while things are ongoing on the appropriate subreddit. So it's similar to keeping ESPN running on your TV, or tuning in to the Superbowl or World Cup finals. People sometimes even go out and meet up at venues to watch these tournaments. For example, in the bay area there are a few gaming lounges / bars that show major game tournaments. That can be a good chance to socialize with people who share a common interest with you.
- metalliqaz 8y ago
  Yeah tournaments I get. Like sports, it's a big event. I was referring mostly to the nightly gamers that were featured in the article.
  - apocolyps6 8y ago
    You can engage much more directly with smaller streamers. I used to seek out streamers of a certain strategy game with a dozen or so viewers and offer play suggestions. Usually little enough is going on (chat wise) that you can talk to the person about the game and specific decisions. It can also be fun to just chat with like-minded strangers while a game is going on in the background.
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ErikAugust 8y ago
The average person consumes 8 hours of media a day - 5 out of 8 is television but of course, that could start to move towards streams. http://erikaugust.com/thoughts/eight-hours-a-day/ http://erikaugust.com/thoughts/eight-hours-a-day/
Waterluvian 8y ago
Twitch replaces TV and competes with YouTube and Netflix time for me. I watch it in a lossy manner, where it's usually on while I work from home. The only time I'm watching Twitch in a lossless manner is when a Starcraft tournament is on, and in that case it feels exactly like watching back to back hockey games: about 5-6 hours of competition on a weekend.
- cjbprime 8y ago
  Starcraft tournaments replaced traditional sports for me too! So good.
  - arcticfox 8y ago
    Same here, but with Age of Empires II! I still tune in to the biggest SC2 events even though I don't really know what's going on, RTS is just such a sick spectator "sport".
djsumdog 8y ago
Sometimes I see people playing an old indie game I love and watch it for like 20~30 min. I don't want to invest in playing it again; I've already played it several times before..so with twitch I can watch someone play for a few min to burn some time. I worked with one guy who'd keep StarCraft competitions playing in the background on his third monitor while he coded all day.
agumonkey 8y ago
The fruits of the paradox of choice. Many despised (not me) the limited choice of TV curating content. Now every god damn group on earth can have it's tiny little channel in the background.
wott 8y ago
Reading the answers to your comment is kind of depressing (and that's a depressive speaking :-)).
- deleted 8y ago
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JaggerFoo 8y ago
I recently started using Twitch for poker streaming channels, but I also like to watch the video game play, since I don't have to go through any learning/skill curve to play any game myself - I can sit and watch play, and be entertained (team battles) or depressed (Assassin's Creed) with what players are doing with their time. I'm definitely out of the target demographic for Twitch, but I consider it an additional entertainment channel when I'm bored of content in traditional media such as Youtube TV and Netflix. Cheers
shittyadmin 8y ago
Only the most dedicated fans engage in that sort of thing. I think most people use it when they need something low-investment to watch for a bit, pull up a popular stream for whatever game you're interested in and you have something that you can easily step in or out of, switch to a different stream if one gets boring, etc. Same way some people use reality shows and similar such things.
aalleavitch 8y ago
There’s something more there: a desire for community and interaction.
jrockway 8y ago
I moderate a Twitch channel that has about 800 viewers for any given stream. (1100 paid subscribers or thereabout.) I don't do it every day, but I do find the streamer entertaining and I play the game he streams, so it's a somewhat educational (you can apply what you watch to your own gameplay) way to zone out and not do any thinking. Sometimes you feel like watching, sometimes you feel like playing. Since I started watching Twitch streams, I honestly haven't watched normal TV and couldn't name any current TV programs or movies; Twitch has taken that over. (Why watch instead of play? Rank is at stake and if I'm tired and not going to be making good decisions quickly, I'm just going to throw the game and lose my precious precious SR.) You are right that the audience skews very young. Most of the viewers are half my age, and act like it... but we do do a pretty good job keeping the discussion intelligent. Most people write off Twitch chat, but if actively curated it can be educational, interesting, and inviting to more than just the "I'm 15 and my parents won't let me watch TV so I'm watching this on my phone" demographic. Most channels stopped trying; we try and we're doing okay. Some games are easier to watch than others. Overwatch is fine, it's a very action-packed game and there are no boring moments. I play Hearthstone but honestly don't watch any streams because it's just sitting there for 70 seconds waiting for the streamer (or their opponent) to make a decision. I do watch edited videos on YouTube to see how decks I don't play work, however. The downtime can really be a killer, though. I was watching a popular Hearthstone streamer play over the weekend (I was bored) and she spent most of the time playing that game where you draw something and the AI guesses it while waiting for her opponent to take their turn. Not worth my time.
- Twisol 8y ago
  As a once-moderator for a smaller stream, I can definitely confirm that there is gold in them Twitch chat hills. Community shaping is important and often overlooked, and it really does help to have a moderation team that cares! It helps that my streamer is more of a variety streamer than someone who sticks to a single game or two, so he has a large core of viewers who are there for him and his friends, not just for the game at hand.
ezekg 8y ago
I enjoy watching good/pro Halo/COD players. I'm not at that level myself and don't have too much time to play, so it's cool to learn new tricks from the pros.
emodendroket 8y ago
I don't know that anyone faithfully watches every broadcast. You host turn it on if you feel like watching
mbesto 8y ago
> When it comes to sitting on your butt and watching something, the traditional TV show is moving to an on-demand model. Just b/c it's moving that way doesn't mean that behavior is going to go away. People watch CNN/FOX for hours straight (usually not attentively watching it mind you). This is no different.
mlinsey 8y ago
I watch Twitch because I grew up playing lots of video games and now watching is less of a time commitment then playing the games. Streamers aren't meant to be consumed by watching them every day for hours on end. I mean, I'm sure there are core fans who do that, probably students and single young professionals like you say, but my use case for Twitch is "hey, I have 10-20 minutes free; not even enough time for a full DotA game, but I can see which pro players happen to be online now and watch them play for a bit". This gives me (somewhat surprisingly) lots of the same satisfaction that playing games used to give me; plus it's a lot less stressful (I was mostly into competitive multiplayer games) and without any practice required to get good at the game. Meanwhile I wonder how people have time to finish entire seasons of TV shows on netflix, given the modern trend of story-driven shows that assume you've actually seen all the previous episodes instead of pre-internet-era sitcoms that you could jump in and watch any 30-minute episode with little context. Twitch is more of a return to old-school TV in that regard.
- metalliqaz 8y ago
  I think this is a good explanation, however don't you find that you have to be a player of the game in order to enjoy watching it? Not being a MOBA player, I can never understand what is going on when watching games like DotA.
  - neaden 8y ago
    You need to understand it certainly, in the same way you need to understand the rules of Football to really enjoy watching a game. but I haven't played SC or SC2 in years and I still enjoy watching the streams, in the same way that I've never played a real game of hockey but still like watching the NHL.
  - mathgeek 8y ago
    For some people who used to play RTS and MOBA games years ago, they can still understand what's happening in a complex team game, even if they don't actively play the game.
  - gcburn2 8y ago
make3 8y ago
it's fucking addictive. they probably don't have the time to do it, but do it anyways
Kiro 8y ago
I always have a Twitch stream running on my second monitor. The live chat is what makes it different from on-demand.
andrewl-hn 8y ago
There're games I enjoy but not very good at and streamers that play these games that I find entertaining to watch. I usually keep Twitch playing while I do some housekeeping churns or cook. If there's a playthrough I particularly enjoy, I play VOD over a course of a few days for about 30 minutes at a time (usually one or two sessions a day). Otherwise I either watch live if one of my channels is online or pick a VOD from one of them. Basically I treat Twitch channel as a YouTube channel or a podcast with an added bonus that they often broadcast live, too, and I can interact with the channel host.
grogenaut 8y ago
I work for Twitch but I'll put it in old man terms: I have a subscription to MLB.tv. I watch EVERY SINGLE game of my team each year, that's 162*3 = 486 hours a year. That's 27% of a 1800 hour work year. If you go in season, that's 54%. It's on all day every day that I'm at my work desk. I watch Twitch the rest of the year. Do I watch it intently? No. Do I know the score and what's going on? Generally. Do I feel I followed the season, YES. Though I have noticed that since I DVR (I watched the world series DURING spring training) a lot I don't keep up with the day to day discussions I actually know less about the team than my brother who watches few games but reads bleacher report constantly. Why do I do it? Well for 8 years I worked in a heavily paired environment, then went to a job with private offices and felt under stimulated. Started watching baseball / twitch just so it felt like others were in the room. Also I have ADD so these things likely help keep me at neutral input levels. I'm sure you have some garbage ass tv you just toss on as well. Home remodel shows, golf, blatheringly repetitive cable news. These things are mildly connected to your interest and are either there to be in the background or they're there to let you just zone out and decompress. When working with amazon I often have to have this conversation with people... it usually goes like this: 55 year old business lead of some VP vertical: It's really wierd to me that people watch hours of other people play video games. It's got to be incredibly boring. Me: I notice you have a "Masters" hat on. Do you watch that? 55: Yes. Me: You realize that like 99% of people think golf puts them to sleep. 55: Touche, how much revenue can we make? Me: XXXXYY 55: I'm interested.
- anoncoward111 8y ago
  It is really regrettable that humans have this incredibly illogical, subconscious algorithm for making otherwise logical decisions. Most of the money and capital in this world are held by the older generations rather than the younger generations. The younger generations have to then spend their time "pitching" the older generations on ideas that, in a vacuum, are logical but not evident to the older generations. As a result, anyone in the younger generations who has a personal relationship with the older generations (such as yourself) will become disproportionately wealthy if their pitch is accepted, compared to say the 27 year old single mother + person of color.
  - 8y ago
jonjojr 8y ago
I mostly watch Twitch during a big title release, just to see if I am interested or not. I also like watching big events like Overwatch League and other competitions. To me it is relaxing to watch people that are very good at the game play because I also learn from them and do that myself in game. some just don't have the money to buy the game they want so they go into Twitch to watch that very game and get their fix until they can purchase that game.
iliasku 8y ago
i do that. the watching is not passive, you can discusss with the streamer and affect his actions or get explanations on a specific question. i use it to get better at go game.
gottam 8y ago
I have it on my other monitor while I develop. I don't divert full attention to it, I'm just listening then periodically tune in when I'm in thought or need a small mental break.
grawprog 8y ago
I'm with you on this. I grew up playing lots of video games. Far too many. I still play the occasional game but not often. I don't mind watching my roommate play sometimes if i'm doing other things. But I could never just sit and watch someone play a game online. It makes no sense to me. You're still spending the same amount of time watching a game as you would be playing it. I dunno personally I would rather do something than watch other people do things. I feel like i've spent more than enough time in my life just watching things. Why would I want to sit and watch someone else do something I could do myself? I think probably the only gameplay videos i've ever watched, other than demos of new games or stuff like that, were some of the old super metroid speed runs way back in the day.
JoshCole 8y ago
A guide to playing many popular games on twitch, written even a few months back, is outdated much faster than even JavaScript framework best practices. As a consequence of this, content which is new has natural advantages over content which is not new. Content even a week old can be so out-dated as to be worthless, not just in theory but frequently in practice. In fact, the strength of the advice and the likelihood that the advice is outdated within a week are actually correlated, because game developers do balance patches. From these observations, if you assume that people are watching gaming content to learn, you should be able to reduce confusion at the popularity of live content on twitch and start to get an understanding of why Twitch does not represent a step backwards.
Fnoord 8y ago
Dual monitor setup, minimised tab being effectively audio only, its also an equiv. to an online howto, cheat, or game mag. Don't underestimate how widely popular certain games such as LoL, SC2, PUBG, and many others are. I also suspect numbers are inflated.
chmars 8y ago
Many folks are obviously not that busy. Simple TV consumption for example is still a few hours a day … And I am not included in that average, so a lot of folks spend a substantial time of their day with passive screen use.
pishpash 8y ago
You can say the same about competitive live sports, and clearly your argument doesn't apply.
deleted 8y ago
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cmsimike 8y ago
Twitch has become my default entertainment at home. What I really enjoy about Twitch is that I can have it on in the background while doing other stuff (coding most of the time). I am a huge video game fan, but as I aged, unfortunately, I found it difficult to dedicate time to video games (and there by taking time away from my coding). Twitch allows me to not only get the story of video games, but enjoy the game along with an entertaining streamer and chat (though I rarely ever pay attention to chat).
aphextron 8y ago
>Twitch is a step in the other direction, where if you faithfully consume content from any Twitch channel, you have to sit down and watch for hours every night when the streamer is online. Who does that? I imagine it's mostly students and single young professionals. Streaming is great "background noise" for when you're bored and sitting around the house. It fills the same niche that I think sports does for sports people. It's live entertainment with no fixed outcome.
Operyl 8y ago
I put it on for noise/background content when cooking/cleaning/working etc.
Nursie 8y ago
I don't understand the drive to watch someone else play, when you could be playing the game yourself!
zouhair 8y ago
A lot of people just put the stream on the background and go about doing their thing, it's like turning the radio while working for some.
kup0 8y ago
Twitch has VODs as well, though, and the majority (but not all) of Twitch I watch is VOD.
hiccuphippo 8y ago
I put twitch in my second screen while playing videogames. I guess it's the same for most watchers.
humbleMouse 8y ago
I've witnessed large groups of programmers in open offices who all have twitch running on their iphones and are listening in with headphones. They literally watch/listen to twitch all day every day at work.
hw 8y ago
The thing is you don't have to sit down and watch a streamer for hours at a time. There's a variety of content that you can just switch over to someone else you follow that's streaming, or just watch the past broadcasts of streams you missed. It's kind of like watching youtube videos, or even traditional couch-surfing. I spend an hour or so every night just browsing through streams to look for interesting content, swapping between games and IRLs. It's a good shift away from production TV content.
Cofike 8y ago
I love having it on when I'm just hanging out at night. I like the background noise, almost kind of like radio I can pay attention to if I feel like it. There are people who will sit down and watch full broadcasts and in that case it can be a lot of time. A lot of streamers are just always on which I'm sure makes it easier.
Kagerjay 8y ago
It depends who you ask I don't play as much video games as much anymore but I had 5000 loyal followers that would take my word as the gospel. I had some offers on a dozen gaming networks, the biggest one was TGN. I would categorize twitch followers based on age demographic, since this is most of the behavioral trends I noticed Young millenials have nothing to better to do sometimes and really enjoy having that "virtual friend" / "virtual older sibling" mentality when it comes to video games. It fills a void they have and its easily accessible, all they need is their phone and internet. No need to schedule things with your buddies who might not be in the mood to game. Example, pewdiepie's viewers are on the younger demographic end General agnostic age categories - I would divide into four areas regardless of age. ------------------------------------------------------------------ - One (like me) who still likes gaming and wants to keep up with some games mostly out of curiosity / bc I don't have time, so I watch gameplay videos mostly on youtube. I skip ahead sometimes and only watch videos here and there, sometimes at 2x speed. - Two, people who have nothing better to do and enjoy watching streamers as a form of entertainment. Sometimes I would fit in this category as well, I watch a few fortnite players (nickeh30) who just have a great personality and are able to pull complex movements that only maybe 0.1% of players could do. - Third, people looking to get better at the game by watching streamers. I sometimes fit in above category - Fourth, we also have the esports area. This is your diehard sports-level fandom and I used to be a huge fan of DoTA partially because I played it for 10+ years and played with some of the top players competing today. It was nostalgia for me if anything, much like people who loved soccer growing up watched the world cup ------------------------------------------------------------------ So there you go, that's how I categorize gamers on twitch. You also have kappa trolls among other things and also softcore porn tailored towards parental controlled networks for kids nearing puberty but that's a totally different story. Then you also have programming streams, we get a largely mostly older / smarter tech audience for that. Twitch does have an API as well if you want to do data analytics on it
hamandcheese 8y ago
I think you’re missing the entire, huge segment of young non-student non-professionals.
tenaciousDaniel 8y ago
I know a guy who made millions by getting in early on Crypto. I had to room with him for a month, and it wasn't until then that I realized he watched Twitch all day. I mean, literally all day. 95% of the time I saw him that month, he was either watching a stream or playing Fortnite.
eamike261 8y ago
I don't mean to be rude but you are way off course about who/why people watch Twitch streams. Sure some of the Twitch viewerbase fits your description but plenty of people will tune in for a short period of time. ESPECIALLY people who don't have a lot of time because it can satisfy people's video game urges without actual investing tons of time in playing.
Ologn 8y ago
This was pre-Twitch, but I used to work at a company where the tech team after hours would play Age of Empires for fun. We kind of got into it, we would read strategy guides, blog comments over whether it was best to be Assyrians or Babylonians or Choson etc. Some people (not us) would really get into it and spend hours measuring things like how long it took for a catapult to get from one side of the map to the other, measuring each second and pixel carefully. I'm sure if Twitch were around and some of the best players broadcast their games with live commentary we would have watched them for pointers. I used to play Quake and remember watching a pre-Twitch video of one of the best Quake players, "Thresh", and observing how one of the best (perhaps the best) Quake players played the game. In terms of time, it's like people taking golf lessons to get a better swing and get their par down, or people reading chess endgame books to learn how to properly do a bishop and knight checkmate, or what have you. I guess you're right about students and single young professionals, as that is when I had the time to spend on improving my skill at various games.
AnIdiotOnTheNet 8y ago
I feel there's a few things worth mentioning that either haven't been mentioned or I have a different take on. For me, Twitch is background a lot of time. I have 3 monitors, so I often have youtube or twitch up on one while I work on something, and it has a chat, so you can interact with other people watching it and their conversation if the whole thing isn't just a giant meme-blast-fuckathon like it is on so many popular streams. In this era of marathon-oriented Netflix shows, Youtube and Twitch are surprisingly reminiscent of old-school TV in how little attention they demand.
Ataraxy 8y ago
Background noise while working.
_raoulcousins 8y ago
This is very frustrating for me. I like to watch skilled players who explain their startegy to improve my own game play, but streams are a slog to watch live. Some streamers archive their streams, but big chunks of their recordings are muted because they play copyrighted music. I know I'm in a tiny minority of people that watch streamers as a learning tool and not as a source of entertainment. No reason to cater to people like me.
- thomastjeffery 8y ago
  > but big chunks of their recordings are muted because they play copyrighted music. It's ridiculous that Twitch mutes audio, even if it's only a few seconds. Fair use is being totally ignored.
  - Alex3917 8y ago
    > Fair use is being totally ignored. It might be fair use for the streamer, but it almost certainly isn’t for Twitch.
    - thomastjeffery 8y ago
      That's nonsense. What you are saying is that Fair Use cannot be utilized, because the hosting company is somehow violating copyright. That is the same nonsensical logic that is used against MegaUpload and bittorrent; the same nonsensical logic that Youtube's Content Protection system is based on; the same nonsensical logic that drives DRM. The world is not better when copyright holders are able to compel a third party to win their disputes. Unfortunately, that is the world we live in.
trevor-e 8y ago
Most streamers have a fixed schedule so it's not that difficult to catch them online. I'm not sure why you think it's for students and single young professionals or that you need to spend hours of time online, you can watch whenever and for however long you want.
paulie_a 8y ago
I honestly don't understand how twitch even exists. I play video games on occasion but can't imagine wanting to watch someone else play.
- anonytrary 8y ago
  I thought the same thing when I learned of all the "Let's Play" content on YouTube. There are probably millions of hours of videos of funny people casually playing video games on YouTube. The content comes out so fast, and you can only consume so much of it.
gameswithgo 8y ago
you can watch twitch on demand too. its like sports, sports is more fun live.
walshemj 8y ago
Depends I have watched / listened to say critical role whilst chilling in the evening and also whilst working at home. Though this is partially to pick up tips for when I GM IRL though my players aren't as well behaved :-)
munchbunny 8y ago
I watched a lot of Twitch while I was playing video games myself. The slower paced games (Cities Skylines, Factorio, Minecraft, Civ 5, etc.) have occasionally monotonous periods where having something in the background is nice filler.
Vektorweg 8y ago
I watch streams to socialize, thanks to the chat function. I usually don't care much about the game they play and I only watch streams with less than 30 viewers.
throwawaylalala 8y ago
I'm a business owner, dad, amatuer athlete, and watch a LOT of Twitch. It plays in the background when I'm grinding on work stuff late at night, or when I want to do SOMETHING that isn't watching TV. Much less commitment and effort than the games themselves, and feels about the same.
madrox 8y ago
I'm in my late 30s, and my girlfriend and I are currently streaming more Twitch than Netflix. There's a use case where sometimes you want something on in the background while you're doing other things. Usually we'd stream Netflix shows we've watched already, but after doing that the 10th time for a show, it gets stale. When you find a streamer you like, it can be very relaxing. It's also introduced us to games we wouldn't play otherwise. My girlfriend hates anything scary, but we found a great stream of Last Of Us that made it really fun. I've also discovered new games to play through it. So much depends on the streamer, though. If you don't get it, you probably haven't found the right one for you.
- voltagex_ 8y ago
  I can't do scary either - what's the Last of Us stream and can I start from the beginning?
profalseidol 8y ago
I've enjoyed watching long streams of MP Hearts of Iron 4. At least before I mastered the mechanics of that game.
skate22 8y ago
For competitive games, watching a rank 1 player do their thing will save you much more time when climbing rating than trying to figure it out alone. Sure there are guides and videos, but that really doesnt do the same justice. Even just watching how a high performing esports team communicates in real time is pretty interesting. It's down right impressive at how much some people can process in real time. Also, i find it super entertaining to watch very skilled people do somthing that they enjoy. I might watch 1 hour of tv a week, but probably 2-3 hours of twitch in small intervals (30 mins here and there)
tomcooks 8y ago
Stoners.
Froyoh 8y ago
Actually it's mainly kids, teens
paidleaf 8y ago
> What I don't understand about Twitch is how anyone has time to consume this content. Who has time to write comments on an anonymous forums? Who has time to watch TV? Listen to music? Who has time to watch a couple of men kick a ball around? People make time if it is something that interests them. > you have to sit down and watch for hours every night You don't have to. You could just check in for a few minutes while you are eating or programming or cleaning or anything really. Also, many streams are available for viewing "offline". You don't have to be there for the stream. You could watch it later. > Who does that? Tens of millions of people? > I imagine it's mostly students and single young professionals. Probably. It's usually the younger generation that adopts tech and then slowly the older generation follows. Not sure why you are so shocked? What's the difference between twitch and TV or watching the world cup? At least with twitch there is interaction via chat.
naravara 8y ago
>What I don't understand about Twitch is how anyone has time to consume this content. My impression is that most people are just having it on in the background while they do other stuff. If this sort of thing was around back when I was in college I can definitely imagine myself streaming something on Twitch while I studied. The overall vibe seems to be analogous to having someone keeping you company while you work. Not that different from talk radio shows, only more interactive.
ahallock 8y ago
Twitch is more like live-sports, at least the streams I watch, which are Soulsborne (Dark Souls, Bloodborne, etc) speedruns. I'm self-employed, so it makes watching easier, but definitely not every night. Some of these streamers will play the same game for 8+ hours a day... for years. It's insane.

qwerty9876 8y ago

It makes sense if the player is REALLY good at the game, ie. in the top 0.1% globally or similar. It serves as a learning experience. You will learn much faster by watching a good player compared to grinding the game and slowly discovering the same mechanics yourself. You probably wouldn't watch some random kids stream of them playing football in their backyard. Now imagine Messi himself doing exactly that and also commenting it live, explaining all his tricks and his reasoning for every move he makes on the field. I bet you would be much more interested.

olliej 8y ago

Streams are stored so you can watch after the fact, in which case it’s basically TV. There’s no requirement that you only watch while they’re online.

invalidusernam3 8y ago

I guess people treat it like sport. Most people wouldn't think it strange for someone to watch a 90 minute football match

elif 8y ago
or in the case of american football fans, watch 3 hours and 4 minutes of ads and commentary around 11 minutes of plays.

natural219 8y ago

replace "watching TV" with "hanging out with your friends" and maybe it makes more sense

tjoff 8y ago

So, the same as watching sports? Most need to limit what they choose to watch, you don't have to watch everything.

fullshark 8y ago

I used to watch it before falling asleep, you can start and stop watching at any point without losing much.

deklerk 8y ago

I'm not a twitch streamer/viewer, but I believe a lot of folks are in it for the community aspect. Following your favourite streamers and being a participant in the group chat - especially if your streamer chats with the group - is a way for folks to feel like they're hanging with friends. In contrast, watching TV by yourself can be quite lonely. There are a lot of other differences between TV and twitch; I'm not sure how much worth there is in comparing them. They seem (to me) to mostly be different categories of products that happen to both include a video component.

Twisol 8y ago

Twitch has offered VODs ("videos on demand") for streams for a number of years now, and people who can't see all the streams generally have at least a week to catch up on any content they particularly wanted to see. Skimming works particularly well if you just want the high points. Where Twitch's live model works really well is in having a community of people all watching together. Streamers often engage with their audiences in some way, and Twitch's recent move to offer lower-latency streams is a reflection of that. There's a recent craze for a marble racing game called "Marbles on Stream", which a streamer integrates with their Twitch chat so that viewers can type `!play` to enter a marble into the race. (It's a Skinner box if I've ever seen one, but I like Jelle's MarbleLympics on YouTube, so I'm not one to talk.) You couldn't do that with recorded content.

emodendroket 8y ago
Some of them also do Q&A. Fighting game streams have that a lot.

reificator 8y ago

I treat a few recurring streams as podcasts where I just listen to the audio after it's already aired. That's pretty much it, I don't really watch any content and I don't show up to streams while they're live. Twitch's VOD player is not particularly good, I might even say pretty bad, but you can absolutely watch on-demand.

Tactic 8y ago

As someone that views Twitch every day I can say I never watch the entirety of a stream. You drop in and view when you have time. It is less akin to watching a TV show and more like going to your friends house and hanging out to watch some of the game. For the record I'm a 51 year old professional.

brootstrap 8y ago
Yeah this is close to what I do as well. I have a few people that i've found on twitch and like to hop on for a little while to say what up. The only time i seriously watched twitch for hours was when hob was doing the dark souls trilogy no hit run. I was watching for hours lol my wife really grew to hate that haha.
mileycyrusXOXO 8y ago
I always have a hard time explaining why I enjoy Twitch but I think you just encapsulated it.
wpietri 8y ago
Thanks! That really helps me to understand Twitch. For a while I had gamer friends who lived just down the street. It was much more enjoyable to hang out and watch them play than it would have been for me to play their games. I just didn't have the time to invest, so my main experience of AAA games was 20 minutes of flailing at level 1 while asking which buttons did what. It was way more fun to watch them kick ass and zoom through the game.

SaltyBackendGuy 8y ago

As a Twitch consumer (married 'professional' in early 30's). I am a huge video game nerd at heart, so I watch streamers that run games that I am interested in however don't have time to play/master. Often it doesn't involve me sitting down for hours at night (although I am sure there's a huge demographic that does that as well). I usually watch when I am laying in bed before I go to sleep. Same time my wife is usually watching some separate but equally mind numbing content to decompress from a long day. Just another form of entertainment, like tv, but there's nothing I enjoy watching on tv. To each their own.

alexikes 8y ago
Isn't there something else you could be doing with your wife?
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steveklabnik 8y ago
Another thing about the TV analogy; when TV was only broadcast, many people (well, at least I...) would end up not watching an entire series. You turn on the TV and find out it's episode 3 airing tonight. What do you do? Just watch it and figure out what's going on via context, or try to hunt down someone who has a VCR and already taped episodes 1 and 2? Twitch in some ways is more like those old days. I follow several streamers fairly closely. And by "fairly closely" I mean "they stream several hours a day and I probably watch 20 minutes of it, amortized over time".
- busterarm 8y ago
  We had VCRs with timed record from the early 80s onward and had a _large_ collection of recorded VHS. We got into the habit of recording a few minutes before and after the show was supposed to air, as things frequently did not run on schedule. Especially recording things on the major TV networks and recording Doctor Who off NJN who would keep the fundraiser drives going as long as they could before starting an episode. The only problem with this was sometimes my brother had a habit of taping public access porn over whatever was in the VCR...but that wasn't exactly a problem either. :)

RandallBrown 8y ago

One of my coworkers keeps a twitch stream running in the corner of his monitor almost all day long.

gitgud 8y ago

The biggest reason in my opinion is that its an interactive and unfiltered experience. Seeing someone on the other side of the world react to a comment you write gives you a huge sense of connection. More than a passive TV show can offer.

lbotos 8y ago

I think there are a few components as someone who was like "how do people watch others play video games" to now a casual gamer/twitch watcher: 1. Some days I wanna play, but I'm not actually on top form, going to twitch and decompressing by watching someone else play, live, has this strange humanness to it. In the most absurd of ways, you build a "friendship" with the streamer, even if only as a voyeur. I hate that reality, but I found myself liking the characters and tuning in to specific streams. 2. A lot of great plays/rounds/etc will get "clipped" and make rounds on various social media so I don't have to keep up 24/7. 3. Big "esports" events are the same things as normal sporting events, people will record/watch live and make time for the things that are important to them. It surprised me too, but being on the "other side" now, it's fun.

tmpz22 8y ago

As someone once part of the communities which represent 'hard core' twitch users, a large demographic is age 16-28 males with one or zero core responsibilities - commonly college or a blue collar job. They go to class or work, then get home and spend 6+ hours gaming and on twitch. Think of it this way, if you only have that one obligation and no social life, what else are you going to do? No, watching twitch streamers or hanging out in ephemeral discord channels is not a true substitute for a "real" social life.

TheAceOfHearts 8y ago

I play Heroes of the Storm, so I sometimes open their esports tournament stream and keep it playing on the side. If a match looks interesting I'll pay attention or note the teams that are playing so I can revisit the VOD later. For big StarCraft tournaments I sometimes tune in to major events as well. You can always watch the VODs later, but it's fun to chat with people during the games, or posting your thoughts while things are ongoing on the appropriate subreddit. So it's similar to keeping ESPN running on your TV, or tuning in to the Superbowl or World Cup finals. People sometimes even go out and meet up at venues to watch these tournaments. For example, in the bay area there are a few gaming lounges / bars that show major game tournaments. That can be a good chance to socialize with people who share a common interest with you.

metalliqaz 8y ago
Yeah tournaments I get. Like sports, it's a big event. I was referring mostly to the nightly gamers that were featured in the article.
- apocolyps6 8y ago
  You can engage much more directly with smaller streamers. I used to seek out streamers of a certain strategy game with a dozen or so viewers and offer play suggestions. Usually little enough is going on (chat wise) that you can talk to the person about the game and specific decisions. It can also be fun to just chat with like-minded strangers while a game is going on in the background.
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ErikAugust 8y ago

The average person consumes 8 hours of media a day - 5 out of 8 is television but of course, that could start to move towards streams. http://erikaugust.com/thoughts/eight-hours-a-day/ http://erikaugust.com/thoughts/eight-hours-a-day/

Waterluvian 8y ago

Twitch replaces TV and competes with YouTube and Netflix time for me. I watch it in a lossy manner, where it's usually on while I work from home. The only time I'm watching Twitch in a lossless manner is when a Starcraft tournament is on, and in that case it feels exactly like watching back to back hockey games: about 5-6 hours of competition on a weekend.

cjbprime 8y ago
Starcraft tournaments replaced traditional sports for me too! So good.
- arcticfox 8y ago
  Same here, but with Age of Empires II! I still tune in to the biggest SC2 events even though I don't really know what's going on, RTS is just such a sick spectator "sport".

djsumdog 8y ago

Sometimes I see people playing an old indie game I love and watch it for like 20~30 min. I don't want to invest in playing it again; I've already played it several times before..so with twitch I can watch someone play for a few min to burn some time. I worked with one guy who'd keep StarCraft competitions playing in the background on his third monitor while he coded all day.

agumonkey 8y ago

The fruits of the paradox of choice. Many despised (not me) the limited choice of TV curating content. Now every god damn group on earth can have it's tiny little channel in the background.

wott 8y ago

Reading the answers to your comment is kind of depressing (and that's a depressive speaking :-)).

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JaggerFoo 8y ago

I recently started using Twitch for poker streaming channels, but I also like to watch the video game play, since I don't have to go through any learning/skill curve to play any game myself - I can sit and watch play, and be entertained (team battles) or depressed (Assassin's Creed) with what players are doing with their time. I'm definitely out of the target demographic for Twitch, but I consider it an additional entertainment channel when I'm bored of content in traditional media such as Youtube TV and Netflix. Cheers

shittyadmin 8y ago

Only the most dedicated fans engage in that sort of thing. I think most people use it when they need something low-investment to watch for a bit, pull up a popular stream for whatever game you're interested in and you have something that you can easily step in or out of, switch to a different stream if one gets boring, etc. Same way some people use reality shows and similar such things.

aalleavitch 8y ago

There’s something more there: a desire for community and interaction.

jrockway 8y ago

I moderate a Twitch channel that has about 800 viewers for any given stream. (1100 paid subscribers or thereabout.) I don't do it every day, but I do find the streamer entertaining and I play the game he streams, so it's a somewhat educational (you can apply what you watch to your own gameplay) way to zone out and not do any thinking. Sometimes you feel like watching, sometimes you feel like playing. Since I started watching Twitch streams, I honestly haven't watched normal TV and couldn't name any current TV programs or movies; Twitch has taken that over. (Why watch instead of play? Rank is at stake and if I'm tired and not going to be making good decisions quickly, I'm just going to throw the game and lose my precious precious SR.) You are right that the audience skews very young. Most of the viewers are half my age, and act like it... but we do do a pretty good job keeping the discussion intelligent. Most people write off Twitch chat, but if actively curated it can be educational, interesting, and inviting to more than just the "I'm 15 and my parents won't let me watch TV so I'm watching this on my phone" demographic. Most channels stopped trying; we try and we're doing okay. Some games are easier to watch than others. Overwatch is fine, it's a very action-packed game and there are no boring moments. I play Hearthstone but honestly don't watch any streams because it's just sitting there for 70 seconds waiting for the streamer (or their opponent) to make a decision. I do watch edited videos on YouTube to see how decks I don't play work, however. The downtime can really be a killer, though. I was watching a popular Hearthstone streamer play over the weekend (I was bored) and she spent most of the time playing that game where you draw something and the AI guesses it while waiting for her opponent to take their turn. Not worth my time.

Twisol 8y ago
As a once-moderator for a smaller stream, I can definitely confirm that there is gold in them Twitch chat hills. Community shaping is important and often overlooked, and it really does help to have a moderation team that cares! It helps that my streamer is more of a variety streamer than someone who sticks to a single game or two, so he has a large core of viewers who are there for him and his friends, not just for the game at hand.

ezekg 8y ago

I enjoy watching good/pro Halo/COD players. I'm not at that level myself and don't have too much time to play, so it's cool to learn new tricks from the pros.

emodendroket 8y ago

I don't know that anyone faithfully watches every broadcast. You host turn it on if you feel like watching

mbesto 8y ago

> When it comes to sitting on your butt and watching something, the traditional TV show is moving to an on-demand model. Just b/c it's moving that way doesn't mean that behavior is going to go away. People watch CNN/FOX for hours straight (usually not attentively watching it mind you). This is no different.

mlinsey 8y ago

I watch Twitch because I grew up playing lots of video games and now watching is less of a time commitment then playing the games. Streamers aren't meant to be consumed by watching them every day for hours on end. I mean, I'm sure there are core fans who do that, probably students and single young professionals like you say, but my use case for Twitch is "hey, I have 10-20 minutes free; not even enough time for a full DotA game, but I can see which pro players happen to be online now and watch them play for a bit". This gives me (somewhat surprisingly) lots of the same satisfaction that playing games used to give me; plus it's a lot less stressful (I was mostly into competitive multiplayer games) and without any practice required to get good at the game. Meanwhile I wonder how people have time to finish entire seasons of TV shows on netflix, given the modern trend of story-driven shows that assume you've actually seen all the previous episodes instead of pre-internet-era sitcoms that you could jump in and watch any 30-minute episode with little context. Twitch is more of a return to old-school TV in that regard.

metalliqaz 8y ago
I think this is a good explanation, however don't you find that you have to be a player of the game in order to enjoy watching it? Not being a MOBA player, I can never understand what is going on when watching games like DotA.
- neaden 8y ago
  You need to understand it certainly, in the same way you need to understand the rules of Football to really enjoy watching a game. but I haven't played SC or SC2 in years and I still enjoy watching the streams, in the same way that I've never played a real game of hockey but still like watching the NHL.
- mathgeek 8y ago
  For some people who used to play RTS and MOBA games years ago, they can still understand what's happening in a complex team game, even if they don't actively play the game.
- gcburn2 8y ago

make3 8y ago

it's fucking addictive. they probably don't have the time to do it, but do it anyways

Kiro 8y ago

I always have a Twitch stream running on my second monitor. The live chat is what makes it different from on-demand.

andrewl-hn 8y ago

There're games I enjoy but not very good at and streamers that play these games that I find entertaining to watch. I usually keep Twitch playing while I do some housekeeping churns or cook. If there's a playthrough I particularly enjoy, I play VOD over a course of a few days for about 30 minutes at a time (usually one or two sessions a day). Otherwise I either watch live if one of my channels is online or pick a VOD from one of them. Basically I treat Twitch channel as a YouTube channel or a podcast with an added bonus that they often broadcast live, too, and I can interact with the channel host.

grogenaut 8y ago

I work for Twitch but I'll put it in old man terms: I have a subscription to MLB.tv. I watch EVERY SINGLE game of my team each year, that's 162*3 = 486 hours a year. That's 27% of a 1800 hour work year. If you go in season, that's 54%. It's on all day every day that I'm at my work desk. I watch Twitch the rest of the year. Do I watch it intently? No. Do I know the score and what's going on? Generally. Do I feel I followed the season, YES. Though I have noticed that since I DVR (I watched the world series DURING spring training) a lot I don't keep up with the day to day discussions I actually know less about the team than my brother who watches few games but reads bleacher report constantly. Why do I do it? Well for 8 years I worked in a heavily paired environment, then went to a job with private offices and felt under stimulated. Started watching baseball / twitch just so it felt like others were in the room. Also I have ADD so these things likely help keep me at neutral input levels. I'm sure you have some garbage ass tv you just toss on as well. Home remodel shows, golf, blatheringly repetitive cable news. These things are mildly connected to your interest and are either there to be in the background or they're there to let you just zone out and decompress. When working with amazon I often have to have this conversation with people... it usually goes like this: 55 year old business lead of some VP vertical: It's really wierd to me that people watch hours of other people play video games. It's got to be incredibly boring. Me: I notice you have a "Masters" hat on. Do you watch that? 55: Yes. Me: You realize that like 99% of people think golf puts them to sleep. 55: Touche, how much revenue can we make? Me: XXXXYY 55: I'm interested.

anoncoward111 8y ago
It is really regrettable that humans have this incredibly illogical, subconscious algorithm for making otherwise logical decisions. Most of the money and capital in this world are held by the older generations rather than the younger generations. The younger generations have to then spend their time "pitching" the older generations on ideas that, in a vacuum, are logical but not evident to the older generations. As a result, anyone in the younger generations who has a personal relationship with the older generations (such as yourself) will become disproportionately wealthy if their pitch is accepted, compared to say the 27 year old single mother + person of color.
- 8y ago

jonjojr 8y ago

I mostly watch Twitch during a big title release, just to see if I am interested or not. I also like watching big events like Overwatch League and other competitions. To me it is relaxing to watch people that are very good at the game play because I also learn from them and do that myself in game. some just don't have the money to buy the game they want so they go into Twitch to watch that very game and get their fix until they can purchase that game.

iliasku 8y ago

i do that. the watching is not passive, you can discusss with the streamer and affect his actions or get explanations on a specific question. i use it to get better at go game.

gottam 8y ago

I have it on my other monitor while I develop. I don't divert full attention to it, I'm just listening then periodically tune in when I'm in thought or need a small mental break.

grawprog 8y ago

I'm with you on this. I grew up playing lots of video games. Far too many. I still play the occasional game but not often. I don't mind watching my roommate play sometimes if i'm doing other things. But I could never just sit and watch someone play a game online. It makes no sense to me. You're still spending the same amount of time watching a game as you would be playing it. I dunno personally I would rather do something than watch other people do things. I feel like i've spent more than enough time in my life just watching things. Why would I want to sit and watch someone else do something I could do myself? I think probably the only gameplay videos i've ever watched, other than demos of new games or stuff like that, were some of the old super metroid speed runs way back in the day.

JoshCole 8y ago

A guide to playing many popular games on twitch, written even a few months back, is outdated much faster than even JavaScript framework best practices. As a consequence of this, content which is new has natural advantages over content which is not new. Content even a week old can be so out-dated as to be worthless, not just in theory but frequently in practice. In fact, the strength of the advice and the likelihood that the advice is outdated within a week are actually correlated, because game developers do balance patches. From these observations, if you assume that people are watching gaming content to learn, you should be able to reduce confusion at the popularity of live content on twitch and start to get an understanding of why Twitch does not represent a step backwards.

Fnoord 8y ago

Dual monitor setup, minimised tab being effectively audio only, its also an equiv. to an online howto, cheat, or game mag. Don't underestimate how widely popular certain games such as LoL, SC2, PUBG, and many others are. I also suspect numbers are inflated.

chmars 8y ago

Many folks are obviously not that busy. Simple TV consumption for example is still a few hours a day … And I am not included in that average, so a lot of folks spend a substantial time of their day with passive screen use.

pishpash 8y ago

You can say the same about competitive live sports, and clearly your argument doesn't apply.

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cmsimike 8y ago

Twitch has become my default entertainment at home. What I really enjoy about Twitch is that I can have it on in the background while doing other stuff (coding most of the time). I am a huge video game fan, but as I aged, unfortunately, I found it difficult to dedicate time to video games (and there by taking time away from my coding). Twitch allows me to not only get the story of video games, but enjoy the game along with an entertaining streamer and chat (though I rarely ever pay attention to chat).

aphextron 8y ago

>Twitch is a step in the other direction, where if you faithfully consume content from any Twitch channel, you have to sit down and watch for hours every night when the streamer is online. Who does that? I imagine it's mostly students and single young professionals. Streaming is great "background noise" for when you're bored and sitting around the house. It fills the same niche that I think sports does for sports people. It's live entertainment with no fixed outcome.

Operyl 8y ago

I put it on for noise/background content when cooking/cleaning/working etc.

Nursie 8y ago

I don't understand the drive to watch someone else play, when you could be playing the game yourself!

zouhair 8y ago

A lot of people just put the stream on the background and go about doing their thing, it's like turning the radio while working for some.

kup0 8y ago

Twitch has VODs as well, though, and the majority (but not all) of Twitch I watch is VOD.

hiccuphippo 8y ago

I put twitch in my second screen while playing videogames. I guess it's the same for most watchers.

humbleMouse 8y ago

I've witnessed large groups of programmers in open offices who all have twitch running on their iphones and are listening in with headphones. They literally watch/listen to twitch all day every day at work.

hw 8y ago

The thing is you don't have to sit down and watch a streamer for hours at a time. There's a variety of content that you can just switch over to someone else you follow that's streaming, or just watch the past broadcasts of streams you missed. It's kind of like watching youtube videos, or even traditional couch-surfing. I spend an hour or so every night just browsing through streams to look for interesting content, swapping between games and IRLs. It's a good shift away from production TV content.

Cofike 8y ago

I love having it on when I'm just hanging out at night. I like the background noise, almost kind of like radio I can pay attention to if I feel like it. There are people who will sit down and watch full broadcasts and in that case it can be a lot of time. A lot of streamers are just always on which I'm sure makes it easier.

Kagerjay 8y ago

It depends who you ask I don't play as much video games as much anymore but I had 5000 loyal followers that would take my word as the gospel. I had some offers on a dozen gaming networks, the biggest one was TGN. I would categorize twitch followers based on age demographic, since this is most of the behavioral trends I noticed Young millenials have nothing to better to do sometimes and really enjoy having that "virtual friend" / "virtual older sibling" mentality when it comes to video games. It fills a void they have and its easily accessible, all they need is their phone and internet. No need to schedule things with your buddies who might not be in the mood to game. Example, pewdiepie's viewers are on the younger demographic end General agnostic age categories - I would divide into four areas regardless of age. ------------------------------------------------------------------ - One (like me) who still likes gaming and wants to keep up with some games mostly out of curiosity / bc I don't have time, so I watch gameplay videos mostly on youtube. I skip ahead sometimes and only watch videos here and there, sometimes at 2x speed. - Two, people who have nothing better to do and enjoy watching streamers as a form of entertainment. Sometimes I would fit in this category as well, I watch a few fortnite players (nickeh30) who just have a great personality and are able to pull complex movements that only maybe 0.1% of players could do. - Third, people looking to get better at the game by watching streamers. I sometimes fit in above category - Fourth, we also have the esports area. This is your diehard sports-level fandom and I used to be a huge fan of DoTA partially because I played it for 10+ years and played with some of the top players competing today. It was nostalgia for me if anything, much like people who loved soccer growing up watched the world cup ------------------------------------------------------------------ So there you go, that's how I categorize gamers on twitch. You also have kappa trolls among other things and also softcore porn tailored towards parental controlled networks for kids nearing puberty but that's a totally different story. Then you also have programming streams, we get a largely mostly older / smarter tech audience for that. Twitch does have an API as well if you want to do data analytics on it

hamandcheese 8y ago

I think you’re missing the entire, huge segment of young non-student non-professionals.

tenaciousDaniel 8y ago

I know a guy who made millions by getting in early on Crypto. I had to room with him for a month, and it wasn't until then that I realized he watched Twitch all day. I mean, literally all day. 95% of the time I saw him that month, he was either watching a stream or playing Fortnite.

eamike261 8y ago

I don't mean to be rude but you are way off course about who/why people watch Twitch streams. Sure some of the Twitch viewerbase fits your description but plenty of people will tune in for a short period of time. ESPECIALLY people who don't have a lot of time because it can satisfy people's video game urges without actual investing tons of time in playing.

Ologn 8y ago

This was pre-Twitch, but I used to work at a company where the tech team after hours would play Age of Empires for fun. We kind of got into it, we would read strategy guides, blog comments over whether it was best to be Assyrians or Babylonians or Choson etc. Some people (not us) would really get into it and spend hours measuring things like how long it took for a catapult to get from one side of the map to the other, measuring each second and pixel carefully. I'm sure if Twitch were around and some of the best players broadcast their games with live commentary we would have watched them for pointers. I used to play Quake and remember watching a pre-Twitch video of one of the best Quake players, "Thresh", and observing how one of the best (perhaps the best) Quake players played the game. In terms of time, it's like people taking golf lessons to get a better swing and get their par down, or people reading chess endgame books to learn how to properly do a bishop and knight checkmate, or what have you. I guess you're right about students and single young professionals, as that is when I had the time to spend on improving my skill at various games.

AnIdiotOnTheNet 8y ago

I feel there's a few things worth mentioning that either haven't been mentioned or I have a different take on. For me, Twitch is background a lot of time. I have 3 monitors, so I often have youtube or twitch up on one while I work on something, and it has a chat, so you can interact with other people watching it and their conversation if the whole thing isn't just a giant meme-blast-fuckathon like it is on so many popular streams. In this era of marathon-oriented Netflix shows, Youtube and Twitch are surprisingly reminiscent of old-school TV in how little attention they demand.

Ataraxy 8y ago

Background noise while working.

_raoulcousins 8y ago

This is very frustrating for me. I like to watch skilled players who explain their startegy to improve my own game play, but streams are a slog to watch live. Some streamers archive their streams, but big chunks of their recordings are muted because they play copyrighted music. I know I'm in a tiny minority of people that watch streamers as a learning tool and not as a source of entertainment. No reason to cater to people like me.

thomastjeffery 8y ago
> but big chunks of their recordings are muted because they play copyrighted music. It's ridiculous that Twitch mutes audio, even if it's only a few seconds. Fair use is being totally ignored.
- Alex3917 8y ago
  > Fair use is being totally ignored. It might be fair use for the streamer, but it almost certainly isn’t for Twitch.
  - thomastjeffery 8y ago
    That's nonsense. What you are saying is that Fair Use cannot be utilized, because the hosting company is somehow violating copyright. That is the same nonsensical logic that is used against MegaUpload and bittorrent; the same nonsensical logic that Youtube's Content Protection system is based on; the same nonsensical logic that drives DRM. The world is not better when copyright holders are able to compel a third party to win their disputes. Unfortunately, that is the world we live in.

trevor-e 8y ago

Most streamers have a fixed schedule so it's not that difficult to catch them online. I'm not sure why you think it's for students and single young professionals or that you need to spend hours of time online, you can watch whenever and for however long you want.

paulie_a 8y ago

I honestly don't understand how twitch even exists. I play video games on occasion but can't imagine wanting to watch someone else play.

anonytrary 8y ago
I thought the same thing when I learned of all the "Let's Play" content on YouTube. There are probably millions of hours of videos of funny people casually playing video games on YouTube. The content comes out so fast, and you can only consume so much of it.

gameswithgo 8y ago

you can watch twitch on demand too. its like sports, sports is more fun live.

walshemj 8y ago

Depends I have watched / listened to say critical role whilst chilling in the evening and also whilst working at home. Though this is partially to pick up tips for when I GM IRL though my players aren't as well behaved :-)

munchbunny 8y ago

I watched a lot of Twitch while I was playing video games myself. The slower paced games (Cities Skylines, Factorio, Minecraft, Civ 5, etc.) have occasionally monotonous periods where having something in the background is nice filler.

Vektorweg 8y ago

I watch streams to socialize, thanks to the chat function. I usually don't care much about the game they play and I only watch streams with less than 30 viewers.

throwawaylalala 8y ago

I'm a business owner, dad, amatuer athlete, and watch a LOT of Twitch. It plays in the background when I'm grinding on work stuff late at night, or when I want to do SOMETHING that isn't watching TV. Much less commitment and effort than the games themselves, and feels about the same.

madrox 8y ago

I'm in my late 30s, and my girlfriend and I are currently streaming more Twitch than Netflix. There's a use case where sometimes you want something on in the background while you're doing other things. Usually we'd stream Netflix shows we've watched already, but after doing that the 10th time for a show, it gets stale. When you find a streamer you like, it can be very relaxing. It's also introduced us to games we wouldn't play otherwise. My girlfriend hates anything scary, but we found a great stream of Last Of Us that made it really fun. I've also discovered new games to play through it. So much depends on the streamer, though. If you don't get it, you probably haven't found the right one for you.

voltagex_ 8y ago
I can't do scary either - what's the Last of Us stream and can I start from the beginning?

profalseidol 8y ago

I've enjoyed watching long streams of MP Hearts of Iron 4. At least before I mastered the mechanics of that game.

skate22 8y ago

For competitive games, watching a rank 1 player do their thing will save you much more time when climbing rating than trying to figure it out alone. Sure there are guides and videos, but that really doesnt do the same justice. Even just watching how a high performing esports team communicates in real time is pretty interesting. It's down right impressive at how much some people can process in real time. Also, i find it super entertaining to watch very skilled people do somthing that they enjoy. I might watch 1 hour of tv a week, but probably 2-3 hours of twitch in small intervals (30 mins here and there)

tomcooks 8y ago

Stoners.

Froyoh 8y ago

Actually it's mainly kids, teens

paidleaf 8y ago

> What I don't understand about Twitch is how anyone has time to consume this content. Who has time to write comments on an anonymous forums? Who has time to watch TV? Listen to music? Who has time to watch a couple of men kick a ball around? People make time if it is something that interests them. > you have to sit down and watch for hours every night You don't have to. You could just check in for a few minutes while you are eating or programming or cleaning or anything really. Also, many streams are available for viewing "offline". You don't have to be there for the stream. You could watch it later. > Who does that? Tens of millions of people? > I imagine it's mostly students and single young professionals. Probably. It's usually the younger generation that adopts tech and then slowly the older generation follows. Not sure why you are so shocked? What's the difference between twitch and TV or watching the world cup? At least with twitch there is interaction via chat.

naravara 8y ago

>What I don't understand about Twitch is how anyone has time to consume this content. My impression is that most people are just having it on in the background while they do other stuff. If this sort of thing was around back when I was in college I can definitely imagine myself streaming something on Twitch while I studied. The overall vibe seems to be analogous to having someone keeping you company while you work. Not that different from talk radio shows, only more interactive.

ahallock 8y ago

Twitch is more like live-sports, at least the streams I watch, which are Soulsborne (Dark Souls, Bloodborne, etc) speedruns. I'm self-employed, so it makes watching easier, but definitely not every night. Some of these streamers will play the same game for 8+ hours a day... for years. It's insane.