Twitch

Twitch is an American video live-streaming service that focuses on video game live streaming, including broadcasts of esports competitions, in addition to offering music broadcasts, creative content, and "in real life" streams. Twitch is operated by Twitch Interactive, a subsidiary of Amazon.com, Inc. It was introduced in June 2011 as a spin-off of the general-interest streaming platform Justin.tv. Content on the site can be viewed either live or via video on demand. The games shown on Twitch's current homepage are listed according to audience preference and include genres such as real-time strategy games (RTS), fighting games, racing games, and first-person shooters.

The popularity of Twitch eclipsed that of its general-interest counterpart. In October 2013, the website had 45 million unique viewers, and by February 2014, it was considered the fourth-largest source of peak Internet traffic in the United States. At the same time, Justin.tv's parent company was re-branded as Twitch Interactive to represent the shift in focus—Justin.tv was shut down in August 2014. That month, the service was acquired by Amazon for US$970 million, which later led to the introduction of synergies with the company's subscription service Amazon Prime.

By 2015, Twitch had more than 100 million viewers per month. In 2017, Twitch remained the leading live-streaming video service for video games in the US, and had an advantage over YouTube Gaming, which shut down its standalone app in May 2019. As of February 2020, it had three million broadcasters monthly and 15 million daily active users, with 1.4 million average concurrent users. As of May 2018, Twitch had over 27,000 partner channels. As of October 2023, Twitch was the 37th-most-visited website in the world with 20.26% of its traffic coming from the United States, followed by Germany with 7.08% and South Korea with 5.49%. In late 2023, Twitch announced that they would stop operating in South Korea in 2024 because of its network fee policy, citing prohibitive costs.

In January 2024 well-known Twitch streamer Pokimane announced that she was leaving Twitch due to the rise of red pill and manosphere content.