Every year Twitch streaming is becoming increasingly popular. And the audience of this platform is constantly growing. Many users around the world are watching live streams of their favorite streamers. Besides, the revenue of top streamers is also increasing. As a matter of fact, between 2020/21, Twitch’s audience grew by more than 20% and professionals predict could reach 2023 about 1 billion people!
But how long can this continue? People are starting to question. What is the future of Twitch streaming? Earlier we wrote two articles about Twitch’s plans for 2023. Now let’s try to understand the near future…
Do not forget about factors such as Covid, the fall of the economy in the world, and so on. It is difficult to say what awaits Twitch streaming in these unpredictable conditions. Only time will show the truth of our reasoning. But what can we predict now, surely Twitch will remain one of the largest platforms in the online entertainment industry. And Twitch shows no signs of slowing down. It’s only getting better. Twitch tries to innovate, adapt to changing trends, and provide a unique experience to its numerous army of users.
One thing is clear the future of Twitch streaming directly depends on new trends. It is the growth of mobile gaming, virtual reality, esports, IRL, etc.
Next, consider some of these trends
Mobile streaming
It is no secret that for a long time, mobile games remained undervalued. But in recent years their popularity is growing rapidly. After all, not everyone has a powerful gaming PC, but almost everyone has a smartphone. More gamers around the world now prefer to play (stream) games on their mobile devices. This is of great importance for streaming games because it has touched an entirely new audience.
Twitch realizes that the future is behind this trend. And have also begun to focus on mobile streaming. Three years ago, Twitch launched its mobile streaming app, which allows streamers to stream from Android or iOS devices.
According to the latest statistics, the estimated value of the world mobile gaming market in 2023 is 152.50 billion dollars (which is 12.8 billion dollars more than the previous year). In 2023, the US user penetration in mobile gaming by the percentage of the population is 44.90%.
It is not surprising that Twitch competitors like the Chinese platform Trovo are already working in the mobile gaming area.
VR streaming & Esports
Although VR (virtual reality) technology has long been discovered, it has not yet become mainstream. But it is safe to say that virtual reality will very soon become commonplace.
Today we see that many streamers use this technology. For example, virtual reality streams can run using platforms such as Bigscreen or VRChat. And we think that this trend will continue to grow in the future.
Analysts predict that by 2025, the global virtual reality market will grow to $20 billion (compared to $7 billion in 2018).
Do not forget about such a profitable industry as esports. Twitch is a major player in this industry. The platform hosts big tournaments and events. For example, Twitch watched over 1.4 billion hours a month in 2020. And according to new data, in 2023, the revenue from the esports market could reach about 1.6 billion dollars! These are media rights, streaming, sponsorship & advertising publisher fees, merchandising & ticketing. And be assured that the growth of this industry will continue. After all, esports is becoming more and more popular.
IRL streaming
We are already witnessing history and rapid diversification of content. While Twitch has always been associated with game streaming, the new streaming category as Twitch IRL already is gaining momentum. Now more creative streamers are using the platform to share their talents with viewers.
The growing popularity of the Twitch “Just Chatting” category indicates that users are interested not only in gaming streams. After all, many viewers want to see the human side of their favorite streamers. And IRL meets all these requirements. Gamers gradually give way to artists, vloggers-travelers, musicians, ASMR artists, fitness trainers, mukbangers, etc. Undoubtedly Twitch IRL changed streaming trends for many years to come. That is why since 2016 Twitch pays attention to this rapidly developing category.
In conclusion
After analyzing the various data, we can see that Twitch is doing quite well. So most likely they will have a good future. This is evidenced by the continuing growth of the audience, new opportunities for streamers, and the continuous improvement in the quality of services. Of course, these trends will continue in the coming years. More experiments with new content genres will appear. As a result, the Twitch audience worldwide will continue to grow…
