Twitch trivia: 55 unknown facts about the live streaming platform!

Twitch is one of the most known live streaming videos platform. Recently it announced a prime membership!

So let’s find out some unknown facts and trivia about it!

1. Twitch is a live streaming video platform owned by Twitch Interactive
2. A subsidiary of Amazon
3. Introduced in June 2011 as a spin-off of the general-interest streaming platform, Justin.tv
4. The site primarily focuses on video game live streaming
5. Including broadcasts of eSports competitions
6. In addition to music broadcasts, creative content, and more recently, “in real life” streams
7. Content on the site can be viewed either live or via video on demand
8. The popularity of Twitch eclipsed that of its general-interest counterpart
9. In October 2013, the website had 45 million unique viewers
10. By February 2014, it was considered the fourth largest source of peak Internet traffic in the United States
11. At the same time, Justin.tv’s parent company was re-branded as Twitch Interactive
12. This happened to represent the shift in focus
13. Justin.tv was shut down in August 2014
14. That month, the service was acquired by Amazon for US$970 million
15. It later led to the introduction of synergies with the company’s subscription service Amazon Prime
16. Twitch later acquired Curse
17. An operator of online video gaming communities
18. It introduced means to purchase games through links on streams along with a program allowing streamers to receive commissions on the sales of games that they play
19. By 2015, Twitch had more than 1.5 million broadcasters
20. And 100 million viewers per month
21. As of Q3 2017, Twitch remained the leading live streaming video service for video games in the US
22. It had an advantage over YouTube Gaming
23. As of May 2018, it had 2.2 million broadcasters monthly
24. Nearly 15 million daily active users
25. With around a million average concurrent users
26. Furthermore, it had over 27,000 Twitch partner channels
27. On August 25, 2014, Amazon acquired Twitch Interactive for US$970 million
28. Sources reported that the rumoured Google deal had fallen through and allowed Amazon to make the bid
29. Forbes reported that Google had backed out of the deal due to potential antitrust concerns surrounding it and its existing ownership of YouTube
30. The acquisition closed on September 25, 2014
31. Take-Two Interactive, which owned a 2% stake at the time of the acquisition
32. It made a windfall of $22 million
33. Twitch is now operated as a wholly owned subsidiary of Amazon.com
34. Emmett Shear remaining as CEO
35. Shear touted the Amazon Web Services platform as an “attractive” aspect of the deal
36. The purchase of Twitch marked the third recent video gaming–oriented acquisition by Amazon
37. It had previously acquired the developers Reflexive Entertainment and Double Helix Games
38. Twitch and Blizzard Entertainment signed a two-year deal in June 2017
39. To make Twitch be the exclusive streaming broadcaster of select Blizzard eSports championship events
40. With viewers under Twitch Prime earning special rewards in various Blizzard games
41. Twitch also reached a deal in 2018 to be the streaming partner of the Overwatch League
42. The site also offering an “All-Access Pass” with exclusive content, emotes, and in-game items for Overwatch
43. In August 2017, Twitch announced it had acquired video indexing platform ClipMine
44. On August 20, 2018, Twitch announced that it will no longer offer advertising-free access to the entire service to Amazon Prime subscribers
45. With this privilege requiring the separate “Twitch Turbo” subscription or an individual channel subscription
46. This privilege ended for new customers effective September 14, 2018
47. For existing customers October 2018
48. In October 2018, Twitch announced Amazon Blacksmith
49. A new extension allowing broadcasters to configure displays of products associated with their streams with Amazon affiliate links
50. On November 27, 2018, Twitch discontinued the Game Store service
51. Citing that it did not generate as much additional revenue for partners as they hoped
52. Users retain access to their purchased games
53. Broadcasters on Twitch often host streams promoting and raising money towards charity
54. By 2013, the website has hosted events which, in total, raised over US$8 million in donations for charitable causes, such as Extra Life 2013
55. As of 2017 the website has raised over US$75 million in donations for charitable causes