Over the past several months many streamers have left Twitch and have moved to live streaming platforms such as Youtube Gaming or Facebook Gaming. With so many streamers leaving many people have started to wonder, “Is Twitch Dying?”

Is Twitch Dying?

According to the numbers, Twitch is actually growing and not dying. Over the past year (Oct. 2020-Oct. 2021) Twitch has seen a 34% increase in minutes watched, 34% increase in average concurrent viewers and a 28% increase in unique creators streaming each month.

When major streamers leave Twitch it may seem like the platform is falling apart, but when you look at the numbers this is just not the case. At least not now.

Although Twitch is not growing as rapidly as it once did, which is expected given the size of the platform, it is still seeing healthy growth from year to year in large part because streaming has become so popular.

And even though streaming platforms such as Youtube Gaming and Facebook Gaming have become bigger players in the live streaming space, they are still no match for Twitch.

In fact, streamers who have left Twitch for lucrative contracts such as Ninja and Shroud, eventually returned to Twitch where they currently stream now.

A large reason for this is that when compared to other platforms, Twitch just has way more ways for streamers to monetize their streams such as Twitch bits, gifted subs and Amazon Prime subs.

For this reason many streamers are very reluctant to leave Twitch for other platforms. Streamers who have left Twitch have been open about how much less they make not being on Twitch.

Even Dr. Disrespect, who was banned from Twitch for unknown reasons, talks about how he makes 25% of what he used to make on Twitch by being on Youtube Gaming.

Now the counter to this is that paltforms such as Youtube have a much larger audience and so the potential for streamers to grow is much greater than it is on Twitch.

This is true; however, unless streamers on Twitch feel secure changing platforms, most of their viewers will stay with them on Twitch.

If you were making a solid income on Twitch, would you switch platforms for the “chance” that Youtube replaces Twitch as the top dog of live streaming? It’s a tough decision and for this reason very few have made the switch.

Although there is no guarantee that an audience will follow a streamer from one platform to another, many people watch streamers because they like the streamer and could care less what platform they are on.

For this reason Youtube Gaming has signed big time streamers such as TimTheTatman and Dr. Lupo to lucrative contracts to stream exclusively on Youtube Gaming.

This is a good move as it should bring a good sized portion of their audiences over to Youtube Gaming, but the issue is most of these people will only come over to watch these big streamers and that’s all. They don’t stick around.

Most of the time when these big streamers that Youtube has signed are not streaming those viewers will just return to Twitch to find another streamer they like.

Twitch has created a culture that is tough to compete against. Even though people can rightfully argue that it is easier to be discovered on other platforms than it is on Twitch, it is tough to replace Twitch culture.

Twitch has memes, they have emotes, they have clips. They basically invented live streaming and it will be difficult for someone to come in and replace their unique brand.

Devin Nash talks a lot more about Twitch and their culture in this video below.

A case can certainly be made that either Youtube Gaming or Facebook Gaming will eventually replace Twitch as the leader in live streaming, but as of now Twitch remains on top and is showing no signs of stopping.

However, if you are new to streaming then I would recommend streaming on several platforms at once so that way no matter which way the industry goes you will be ready.

I wrote an entire article on multi-streaming that you can check out here. In the article I go over some of the pros and cons of multi-streaming and whether I think it is worth it or not.

So Twitch is not currently dying or declining, but realistically how long will Twitch last for?

How Long Will Twitch Last?

There is no way of knowing exactly how long Twitch will last for. Many speculate that within 2-3 years Youtube Gaming will replace Twitch as the leader in live streaming, but this is just pure speculation. As of right now Twitch remains the top live streaming platform in the industry.

Like I mentioned, Twitch has a unique culture that is hard to replicate. But on top of the culture, Twitch also has a much better user interface than any other live streaming platform out there.

I have used both Facebook Gaming and Youtube Gaming and Twitch is by far the easiest to use. Not to mention it is easier to find live streams on Twitch than it is the other platforms.

Obviously it is not impossible to replicate these things, but they do take time. And by that time Twitch may be even further ahead in the live streaming space.

Twitch has also responded to losing some of their top streamers to Youtube by signing some of their own current top streamers such as Nickmercs and XQC to exclusivity deals.

This is a sign that Twitch is serious about live streaming since they are willing to put out money to keep some of their own top streamers.

Another concern that many Twitch users have is that Twitch will get shut down due to DMCA claims and other activity on the platform. Let’s touch on that below.

Will Twitch Get Shut Down?

Twitch recently faced criticism for DMCA claims, gambling and other inappropriate content on their platform. This lead many to wonder if the platform would be shut down. Although there is no guarantee that a platform will last forever, Twitch has made several changes as of late to combat these issues.

Twitch is a multi-billion dollar company and so it is unlikely that a company that big would get shut down. They are also owned by Amazon, one of the biggest companies in the world.

Although it is fair to worry about some of the things occurring on the platform, you should not be worried about them shutting down anytime soon.

And like I mentioned they have recently taken steps to combat some of the things they were catching heat for.

For example, you may have received the following email from Twitch:

This email was sent in response to streamers who were concerned about DMCA takedowns. To ease these concerns Twitch partnered with Warner Music Group to help make music more accessible for streamers.

And regarding gambling and inappropriate content on the platform, Twitch has reinforced some of their guidelines that were already in place and changed some of their rules to make the platform safe and enjoyable for everyone.

Although Twitch is not perfect, it appears as though they are at least trying.

Who knows what the future holds, but as of now Twitch is not dying and may continue to grow even more given how popular live streaming content has become. Only time will tell.

Sources

https://twitchtracker.com/statistics