Twitch Users Surge Amid Shelter-At-Home

Live video-streaming service Twitch is “benefiting hugely” from the overall spike in live video viewers driven by the coronavirus shelter-at-home mode, reports eMarketer.

The researcher’s new forecast for Twitch projects that U.S. usage of the platform, known mainly for video-game live streaming, will jump 26.2% this year, to 41.5 million. That’s up from 37.5 million predicted as of February.

The forecast also projects that 17% of digital video viewers in the U.S. will watch content on Twitch this year—a year-over-year increase of 13.9%.

And the increase isn’t all due to video games.

“While more people are watching video-game livestreams on the platform, the rise of nongaming channels like Music and Just Chatting is attracting many first-time viewers,” noted eMarketer forecasting analyst at Insider Intelligence Peter Vahle.

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A general increase in online gamers is also driving Twitch’s growth.

The number of U.S. gamers is expected to reach 174.7 million this year. That would represent an increase of 5% — the highest growth rate since 2015.

If a vaccine is approved and things return to normal in 2021, eMarketer expects the growth of Twitch users and gamers in general to slow considerably.

1 comment about "Twitch Users Surge Amid Shelter-At-Home".
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  1. John Grono from GAP Research, September 3, 2020 at 5:58 p.m.

    One wonders when the digerati will mature enough to walk away from the "at least once per month" metric.

    When it was a nascent industry, say, a quarter of a century ago, that was fair game.   But being the 'always on' medium why not start talking about more meaningful time frames such as 'weekly' or 'daily'.

    I won't be holding my breath.

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