Twitch streaming and streaming in general has become the wave of the future. Or so it would seem.
Video game streaming has gone from being a hobby and a sort of competitor to YouTube to now being celebrity levels of media coverage and offering huge amounts of money for big creators.
Streaming has blown up in particular over the course of 2019 and into this beginning month of 2020.
Fortnite Has Arguably Become a Media Sensation
Fortnite being one of the biggest examples of this new status. Not only have content creators for Fortnite like Ninja been invited onto talk shows and hosting huge events like the New Year’s Eve Times Square party.
Fortnite has had two in game events that were the first of their kind. first they had the hugely popular DJ Marshmello held a live concert inside the video game itself!
Second, when The Rise of Skywalker was gearing up for its premiere week. JJ Abrams and crew organized for Fortnite players to be the first to see a never before seen scene of the movie. Turning Fortnite into a Star Wars event.
Things really started to shake up when Ninja announced that he would be accepting a multi million dollar contract to leave Twitch and stream on Mixer, Microsoft’s native streaming service. This was followed up by Shroud, Courage and Disguised Toast leaving the streaming website.
Is The Competition Really That Fierce?
While a lot of questions were raised about why content creators seemed to be abandoning Twitch, it could come down to one simple answer; money. With companies like Microsoft offering huge payouts to people to come stream native content for them, and still allowing them to keep their donations.
Does this put Twitch in a bad place? Not really no. Even after massive migrations, Twitch is still the leading entity in streaming views, as well as having a partnership with Amazon. Now however, Twitch has to actively pay attention to people trying to claim that hilltop.
After all, Twitch is a multi billion dollar business. With top streamers making upwards of forty five thousand dollars an hour for their services.
Streaming in general is clearly the way that things will be going for some time. With services like Disney+, HBO Max, DC Universe and more getting into the game every year.
Love it or hate it, streaming is here to stay. And if you’re really good at marketing and gaming, then it is a hugely successful route to get into.
