Twitch purchased by Amazon

Mures

Mures

Blackwing Lair Raider
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Yeah, to the people who don't even know what twitch is you need to realize they make a fuck ton off of ads alone because at any given time they have 500,000 people viewing twitch. During big tournaments they can easily have over 1,000,000 viewers. And that is just the number of ips actually viewing a stream. Things like tournaments can/are watched in large groups so you might have 1.2-1.5 million people actually watching at the time. 1+ million viewers is more than what probably 95% cable tv programs pull in. And still more than most basic channel programs. And these are day long tournaments. While a popular show like GoT might bring in 4 million viewers live for one hour, twitch will have a million + viewers for 8 hours. So its easy to see why someone like google or amazon would want a piece of that pie.

As far as paying for subscribing if you choose to do so. If you give people shit for paying $5 bucks to subscribe to something that entertains them how much do you spend in cable every month? $40, $60, $100 a month?
 
yimmien

yimmien

Molten Core Raider
877
668
I don't think it is such a new thing. When I was a kid we would go to each others houses and watch whoever was really good at certain games play sometimes. Especially when someone had a brand new game we wanted to check out. Kinda the same thing in a way.
 
Vitality

Vitality

ＨＵＳＴＬＥ
5,808
30
There's a bar north of seattle that is kind of like a Lan Center / pub (called AFK Tavern), they have LCS weekend viewing parties and serve some thematic dishes. They just put twitch up on the flat screen and surround sound and all that.

They make a shit load on their specialty drinks. I think I ordered a Monster Mundo (some kind of grape Monster energy drink with vodka or rum or something).
 
Haast

Haast

Lord Nagafen Raider
3,281
1,636
Watching competitive games like LoL/StarCraft/etc is no different than watching pros play some sport you play at a recreational level. You're watching the best play a game you are familiar with.

I play rec league soccer, and I watch EPL matches regularly. I play LoL for fun with friends, and I watch the big tournaments with the same friends. SC2 is pretty fun to watch as well, though I am truly awful at SC2 (and pretty bad at LoL, for that matter).
 
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Flank_sl

shitlord
499
0
From what I have heard, the biggest revenue stream for streamers is actually donations. Girls with big tits and 1000 viewers often make more than guys with 20000 viewers, because the girls get large donations. A guy might get a $2 donation when a girl might get $50. And then you get those crazy people who donate four figures to a girl on the internet.
 
Zaphid

Zaphid

Trakanon Raider
5,862
294
mures_sl said:
Yeah, to the people who don't even know what twitch is you need to realize they make a fuck ton off of ads alone because at any given time they have 500,000 people viewing twitch. During big tournaments they can easily have over 1,000,000 viewers. And that is just the number of ips actually viewing a stream. Things like tournaments can/are watched in large groups so you might have 1.2-1.5 million people actually watching at the time. 1+ million viewers is more than what probably 95% cable tv programs pull in. And still more than most basic channel programs. And these are day long tournaments. While a popular show like GoT might bring in 4 million viewers live for one hour, twitch will have a million + viewers for 8 hours. So its easy to see why someone like google or amazon would want a piece of that pie.

As far as paying for subscribing if you choose to do so. If you give people shit for paying $5 bucks to subscribe to something that entertains them how much do you spend in cable every month? $40, $60, $100 a month?
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It's not that simple, depends on where the viewership is from, I never got ads from twitch until like 1,5 years ago, how many ads they serve and most tournaments don't survive on ads alone, they usually run some crowdfunging on the side or have strong sponsors behind them. There's also adblock. I agree though, the viewership keeps growing, so it's understandable that they want a piece of this pie, especially when it's mostly the "valuable" 18-38 males.

As Flank said, donations are big, because they don't get split with twitch.
 
Alex

Alex

Still a Music Elitist
14,512
7,443
I have a friend who used to play SC professionally in South Korea. The amount of fame and money he had was pretty ridiculous. This is nothing new.
 
Zaphid

Zaphid

Trakanon Raider
5,862
294
I don't think any foreigner got rich from SC in South Korea, unless they were also playing poker on the side. The only exception was Idra who just farmed foreign cups for money and Nony, thanks to TSL2
 
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Tenks

Bronze Knight of the Realm
14,163
606
Yeah the only people getting rich in S Korea off SC are the elite tier A teamers. B teamers / practice partners don't even get a salary just free room and board. Luckily whatever psychological profile it takes to be good at poker seems similar to being good at SC.
 
gogusrl

gogusrl

Molten Core Raider
1,359
102
Vitality_sl said:
My Girlfriend watches a couple channels on twitch just because they have cats in the background doing stuff. Also she likes watching mario kart 8 streams. If it's a gateway to playing video games with me or sparking her interest I'm all for it. Means less shit I'll have to take down the road.

I show her the dark side of the site (Kaceytron + other boob shot channels) it's good for a chuckle. Marketing geniuses.
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Boob shot channels are news to me (not sure why) so I had to check it out. Did anyone notice her "resume" ?

Obligatory boob shot :
OyE9hZ1.png
 
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Tenks

Bronze Knight of the Realm
14,163
606
Boob shot channels at least are understandable. For whatever reason on Afreeca (Korea's version of twitch, basically) there are girls who just eat food on cam while talking so guys can tune in and pretend to be on a date with them.
 
Big Phoenix

Big Phoenix

Pronouns: zie/zhem/zer
<Gold Donor>
44,691
93,405
Eomer_sl said:
Wait. Hang on a second. Up until I read a business article on this purchase, I really didn't have much of an idea of what Twitch even was. I just saw it mentioned in the occasional Other Games thread, and ignored it. You're telling me that people are paying monthly subscriptions to watch other people play video games? And that that business is apparently worth close to a billion dollars?

This fucking world, man.
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Dude, they donate hundreds and thousands of dollars to random channels. I cant understand it either.
Watching competitive games like LoL/StarCraft/etc is no different than watching pros play some sport you play at a recreational level. You're watching the best play a game you are familiar with.

I play rec league soccer, and I watch EPL matches regularly. I play LoL for fun with friends, and I watch the big tournaments with the same friends. SC2 is pretty fun to watch as well, though I am truly awful at SC2 (and pretty bad at LoL, for that matter).
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I still dont comprehend it. Ive been a big gamer all my life and never given two shits to watching other people play games in any capacity outside of tutorial/educational/review purposes.
 
Alex

Alex

Still a Music Elitist
14,512
7,443
Zaphid_sl said:
I don't think any foreigner got rich from SC in South Korea, unless they were also playing poker on the side. The only exception was Idra who just farmed foreign cups for money and Nony, thanks to TSL2
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Yeah, he got really hardcore into online poker. I guess that's where he made his money. I remember one time we met up in Vegas and he bought a one way flight from Seoul and packed nothing. He went to Armani and bought $700 pairs of pants and just left them when he decided to go back to Korea. It made me sick.
 
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