Video streaming platforms such as Twitch, YouTube and TikTok have changed the way that we consume content and have become a key player in the growth of the gaming industry. In this article we take a closer look at video streaming platforms and analyse their profound effect on the gaming sector.
What are Video Streaming Platforms?
If you’ve chosen to read this article freely then we suspect that you have more than a working knowledge of video streaming platforms. If not, what we’re referring to when we use this term are services like Twitch and YouTube gaming, where people can watch other people playing video games.
We’re aware that when we put it like that we sound like a 50-year-old Dad complaining about his teenage sons, but that’s the best way to describe it unfortunately. Although it’s a lot more than just watching other people play games.
The people streaming on these platforms are entertainers and creators. Their fans tune in to get the latest tips and tricks so that they can learn to be better at their favourite game, or simply from some entertainment escapism.
In recent times the former has seen a huge spike with British gambling fans tuning in to watch professional gamblers in the hopes of learning strategies that can help them take advantage of the bonuses and offers at any of the new online casinos in the UK.
The Most Popular Content Themes
According to the statistics, the three most popular content themes on streaming sites are:
Video Game Entertainment: Your straightforward funny, light-hearted gaming content. This might be someone like NickMercs or Expel playing Call of Duty whilst joking around with their viewers or a dramatic play through of a single-player game like Red Dead Redemption 2.
Sports Watchalongs: Content creators like Mark Goldbridge utilise streaming platforms to stream themselves watching live sports action. Viewers tune in to either feel like they are watching the game with someone or, in Mark Goldbridge’s case, to laugh until they wet themselves.
(Schadenfreude is one of the main things that drives people to Mark Goldbridge’s content.)
Tutorials: As mentioned above, tutorials are becoming increasingly popular on streaming platforms, especially with the rise of online casino gambling. Then of course there are tutorial videos for strategy games and first-person shooters, all of which seem to be incredibly popular with viewers.
Do Streaming Sites Attract Many Viewers?
In short, yes. Twitch on average has 140 million active viewers a month. To put that into perspective, ITV claims to reach 19.9 million viewers in an average month. Twitch’s rival YouTube gaming also has over 100 billion hours of gaming content watched a year, which to put that into perspective is… a lot!
The Impact on the Gaming Industry
The impact of streaming services on the gaming industry is wide and varied. Below however are a collection of some of the most tangible:
Community Building
An online community is a valuable commodity in modern gaming and streaming platforms help to create them. If a game becomes popular on Twitch or YouTube Gaming, it’s only a matter of time before it develops a cult following.
Market Expansion
Smaller games sometimes only have marketing budgets that restrict them to certain geographic locations. For example, a number of independent mobile games will only focus on their country of origin. Streaming platforms act as organic ways to market smaller productions to wider audiences
Crash a Game’s Prospects
Controversial as this may seem it is grounded in truth. Streamers can ruin games. The best example of which would be Call of Duty Warzone, by far the most popular game of the 2020s thus far. Whilst streamers played a role in building the profile of the game, they also played a massive role in ruining it.
Using their platforms to pressure developers into making changes to the game, gradually the title began to cater more for players in the top 5% skill brackets than the remaining 95%. As such the game has suffered a stunning fall from grace, one from which it looks unlikely to recover.
(Creators like Expel have been producing videos complaining about Warzone for years, not realising that they’re contributing to falling playing numbers.)
Make a Game
Whilst streamers have the ability to crash a game, they also have the ability to make it. When a top streamer decides to play something new, sales of that game invariably skyrocket. The best example of this was the brief moment in time when streamers from all around the globe became fascinated with Fall Guys, making it one of the most popular games on the planet.
In Summary
Watching people you don’t know play video games seemed an odd concept when it was first launched and is still one that a lot of Dads will never fully come to terms with. That’s despite it being a thriving industry in its own right and one that has a huge commercial impact on gaming.
Written by Jo Walker
