What is it?
Founded in 2011, Twitch is a platform for live video streaming, offering nearly anything you’d want to watch, from cooking, music, chat sessions, and the leading driver of traffic, video games. It originally started as a spinoff division of Justin.tv, with gaming as the main priority. Twitch became so popular, it led to an entire rebrand of Justin.tv, which changed its name to Twitch Interactive in 2014. Then, later that year, Twitch Interactive was acquired by Amazon.
Twitch broadcasters, perhaps most famously Ninja, have featured on the cover of ESPN. E-sports tournaments on games such as FIFA and Call of Duty have drawn hundreds of thousands of viewers, with millions of pounds in prize money funded partly through the huge audience on Twitch.
Twitch key statistics
- In 2021, Twitch had an average of 2.84 million concurrent viewers
- Nine million Twitch users stream on the platform once a month
- 30 Million average daily visitors
- 70% of Twitch viewers are between the ages of 16 and 34.
- 1 trillion minutes watched in 2020
- In June, Twitch reached approximately 1.2 million monthly active users in the United Kingdom via iOS devices, and a further 97 thousand MAU via Android.
Why Twitch should be included in your channel mix
Video advertising remains the perfect format to raise awareness and convey overarching brand messages. This explains why in 2020, online video accounted for 82% of all consumer traffic, meaning video content is as popular as ever, but the ways we consume it is changing.
Amongst all audiences, in particular Gen Z and millennial demographics, traditional broadcast viewing is being replaced by subscription video and other online video platforms such as Amazon Prime and Netflix. This is great news for advertisers, as it provides more opportunities to combine data and creativity to ensure content is reaching the right audience in the right context.
For brands targeting a millennial or Gen Z audience that has even the mildest interest in gaming, the platform is a potential goldmine. As mentioned above, the majority of viewers engage with streamers on a daily basis. A similar percentage support them monetarily either through donations or product purchases.
While Instagram might be known as the hub of influencer marketing, Twitch is home to tens of thousands of live streaming influencers with enthusiastic audiences.
How can Twitch be utilised?
Twitch offers a range of different advertising opportunities through premium media products, including native site integrations such as high impact display units or Cross Screen and unskippable video ads, and brand partnerships or sponsorships which gives brands access to inherent credibility and influence through live streamers and engaged audience.
A full list and description of each format can be found on the Twitch website: https://twitchadvertising.tv/ad-products/
Conclusion
With any new advertising platform, it is imperative that your campaigns are highly targeted and effective. MintTwist have already run successful campaigns on Twitch for some of our higher education clients. If you are interested in learning more about Twitch and running a campaign on the platform, you can contact us here.
