• by Joe Mandese  @mp_joemandese, February 20, 2020

Online gaming community content publisher Twitch is poised to top 40 million U.S. users, according to new estimates released this morning by eMarketer.

The report, the first from eMarketer to benchmark Twitch, projects Twitch's user base will grow nearly 10% to 41.2 million users in 2021 from 37.5 million at the start of this year.

While that's still a fraction -- 15.5% -- of the total U.S. digital viewers universe, Twitch dominates the market of video covering online gaming, which itself has emerged into a major spectator "sport."

“Twitch is by far the largest platform for streaming video game content, well ahead of YouTube, Mixer and Facebook Gaming,” eMarketer Forecasting Analyst Peter Vahle states, noting: “As the pioneer in this space, Twitch has built a loyal and engaged audience by allowing viewers to directly interact with their favorite streamers.”

In a related insight, Ipsos released findings of its 2019 Kids & Family study, which shows kids and teen usage of all forms of social media trending downward with the exception of two platforms: TikTok and Twitch.

The study, which is conducted in the Fall of each year, found both those platforms now are used by 11% and 10% of kids and teens, respectively.

Ipsos analysts said Twitch skews more toward males, while TikTok indexes more female.