Abstract
Following the migration of influencers from YouTube to Twitch and the boom in popularity experienced by the latter social network, this paper explores if brands are capitalizing on the influence capacity of streamers or if streamers might be getting money from their own content. In order to investigate this, it was necessary to perform a quantitative analysis on the publication schedules and broadcast formats used by streamers. This facilitated the simultaneous identification of another main finding: Spanish streamers are using a broadcast model on Twitch that resembles that of open linear television. Although they only broadcast content related to videogames, trends towards other types of audiovisual content have already been identified. Moreover, it has been found that influential streamers prioritize Twitch over other social networks even though feedback flows have been detected, especially from Twitch to other platforms. This work represents a contribution to knowledge in terms of understanding Twitch and understanding platforms and influencers. It is important to determine whether these new forms of broadcasting and interaction could be considered a hybrid model between linear television and social media streaming.
Introduction
Live streaming is expanding at great speed in both production and consumption, whilst Twitch and its streamers are at the forefront of that revolution (Johnson and Woodcock, 2019). Digital influencers play a fundamental role for companies because they function as mediators of cultural and social values, as sources of information and advice, as behavioral models and as diffusers of innovation (SanMiguel et al., 2018). They have learned to easily detect the needs of the audiences and to overcome the passivity that some users experience when they connect to social networks (Santamaría and Meana, 2017), so that with the democratization of information and communication, their opinions and takes on events turns them into great advocates (Segarra-Saavedra and Hidalgo-Marí, 2018).
Influencers have always existed, albeit in different forms and under different nomenclatures (Català, 2019). The use of celebrities in advertising is recognized as a strategy to transfer the ideas behind these personalities to the products offered by brands (López and Martínez, 2012). Nonetheless, it was not until the rise of social networks that the figure of the influencer (Castelló & del Pino, 2015) and social media superstars (Budzinski and Gaenssle, 2018) developed within a context characterized by a hyper-connected society, advertising saturation, audience fragmentation, audiences with greater knowledge of marketing and advertising, and an enormous power of the references issued by the user community when making decisions (Gómez, 2018; López and Martínez, 2012), and, now, with the use of the power of live streaming and the formats similar to traditional television. Nothing influences the average person more than a recommendation made by a friend or another trusted person (Ramos, 2019), but also branding and business practices are involved in game live streaming and its hosting communities (Taylor, 2018).
Working closely and directly with their audience, influencers have been gaining ground in the attention economy (Marwick, 2013), first in blogs and then in Twitter, Instagram and YouTube (Muiños, 2017). Following the success of YouTube and Twitch, the number of streamers has multiplied. YouTube paved the way for the transformation of users into content creators and broadcasters of audiovisual products, that is, into youtubers and/or vloggers (Vizcaíno et al., 2019). Their target audience, typically just a few years younger, look to them for their opinions on topical issues because they address current issues in an informal manner (Rego and Romero-Rodríguez, 2016) and also promote products supplied by brands (Tur-Viñes et al., 2018). Many of these opinion leaders began by sharing their experiences of video games, books, clothing, cosmetics or food (Establés et al., 2019), but the landscape seems to be changing and require further research on all social networks and the influence activities that take place on them.
This research is justified by the need to identify the type of content and broadcast Twitch streamers are utilizing. In order to determine this, those influencers who were not previously known outside the Internet, their posting schedules and the contents of their live shows, were all analyzed. The research showed that Twitch has become the main platform for active streamers and that live streaming games are the predominant content trend. The number of promoted posts on Twitch was also compared with those of other social networks and it was found that streamers do not need to associate their image with other brands to boost their profiles. This is one of the main contributions of this paper to the scientific literature, since this analysis shows that streamers are profiting from their own content and that the presence of promotional material is residual on their social networks. Another relevant finding is that the activity carried out on Twitch by streamers led to a tendency toward transforming this social network and its broadcasts into a kind of linear television channel, which is one of the most important reasons for their success. Most live streaming research has focused on English and American speakers, whether implicitly or explicitly. This study provides a Spanish perspective which complements the more global vision already offered by previous authors. Currently, other researchers are focusing on Australian, Japanese and Brazilian streamers, and probably many others, so this paper will sit alongside those other studies as they come out.
The phenomenon of influence on Twitch
The last 2 years have seen a large migration of streamers from YouTube to Twitch (Libo Marketing, 2021; Shared, 2020). One of the biggest drawbacks that creators face on YouTube is the network’s monetization policy, which has led to the flight of several prestigious youtubers such as AuronPlay, Rubius and The Grefg, among others, to Twitch. The reason for this is that while YouTube depends fundamentally on advertising investment, that is, on those profiles that attract advertisers due to their viralization capacity, Twitch’s monetization is based on both the advertising secured and on the number of subscribers attained by the streamers (Abarbanel and Johnson, 2020; Gutiérrez and Cuartero, 2020; Hamilton et al., 2014). In this way, there has been a fragmentation in the consumption habits of users, who now choose Twitch to watch streamed videos, while YouTube mostly exists as a reference platform for all other types of video consumption (We Are Social and Hootsuite, 2021).
Twitch is a streaming video platform mainly focused on video games and eSports, although content on other topics is becoming increasingly popular. This feature makes Twitch an ideal place for all kinds of influencer marketing. Unlike YouTube, subscribers are not necessarily followers, but only paying users. On each channel, users can see who is streaming, the number of viewers and followers, and the category of the game. If the channel is broadcasting at the time of clicking, the user can get access to the live broadcast. This is the most popular format on the network, where live streamers or influencers may unbox promotional items to showcase the products they wish to recommend. Some previous studies highlight that viewers seem to develop parasocial relationships with the streamers, in which the streamer intentionally or unintentionally creates an illusion of intimacy that makes viewers feel special (Wohn et al., 2019).
Although the origins of Twitch date back to 2007, when it was part of a live broadcast project called Justin.tv that was accessible to anyone (Aguilar, 2020), early on the creators realized that what users enjoyed the most were the video game broadcasts that were made from the Twitch section. In fact, the network was really born in 2011, with the aim of supporting e-sports and, in turn, to competing with YouTube in streaming. Since it was bought by Amazon in 2014, Twitch has become the benchmark for video games and for all other cultural products that derive from video games.
Its success is built on a focus on the community of gamers, as well as on gameplays, and audience participation and interaction with users (Carías, 2020; Gutiérrez and Cuartero, 2020). These focuses have made Twitch a window to the privacy of other internet users (GQ Spain, 2018). Nonetheless, Twitch is increasingly offering more diverse content, such as music, talks with users, live sports (Tyreal Yizhou Qian, 2021) and lifestyle content (Queiruga, 2020). Upon observing this, it is safe to say that Twitch’s future development will not be limited to just videogames. For example, ‘spatial switching’ and ‘affective switching’ are some ways in which Twitch introduces new dimensions of flexibility, convenience and user-control to flow, liveness and linear-TV (Spilker et al., 2020).
In this context, brands are showing interest in Twitch influencers as a means through which to capture new promotional opportunities due to the low market saturation compared to other networks such as Facebook or Instragram. These influencers’ continuous growth, self-serving promotion, and the sheer power of interaction of the network also drive this interest (Borrás, 2020). In relation to the migration of influencers from YouTube to Twitch, Aguilar (2020) explains that while the latter pays for the popularity of a channel, the former offers the possibility of subscription (Spilker and Colbjørnsen, 2020).
This model is similar to Netflix, Spotify or Hulu (Sanson and Steirer, 2019), but rather than consuming a movie, users consume streams and streamers. Therefore, streamers who do not rely on advertising contracts, but who have millions of subscribers on their channel, can still receive large dividends (Martín, 2021; Siutila, 2018). In fact, this distribution infrastructure includes features that allow viewers to financially support Twitch streamers (Bingham, 2020). New viewing and audience practices of the streaming platform Twitch (Spilker et al., 2020) start to be used by brands. Additionally, Twitch is becoming the gold standard platform for live broadcasting (Partin, 2020).
Depending on the type of subscription, users can access ad-free streams, subscriber-only streams, can talk privately with the streamer, or access subscriber emoticons and badges. Queiruga (2020) highlights other income mechanisms on Twitch. (1) Through donations via PayPal or a donation panel; (2) using the affiliate program for those who have broadcasted more than 8 h in the last 30 days, or who have done so for seven different days in the last 30 days with an average of three or more simultaneous viewers in the last 30 days and maintain at least 50 followers; (3) using bits that users can buy to send cheers; (4) via the Twitch partner program with more customization options than affiliate programs, which is accessible to those who have broadcasted 25 h in the last 30 days, or 12 different days in the last 30 days, while averaging 75 viewers in the last 30 days; (5) through commissions for sales of games and related items; (6) via advertising.
The main factor that allows brands to develop strategies with influencers on this platform is the engagement that creators get from users. Twitch is a social network designed for interaction and where users can actively participate with streamers (Leith, 2021). Regarding the most successful formats on the platform, SocialPubli (2020) notes the following trends: (a) product placement in the streamer’s set up, (b) associating the brand name with the competitions that take place in the creators' own channels, (c) the branded content in e-sports and (d) the storytelling of product operation explanations with direct resolution of user doubts.
Hypothesis and objectives
This research sets out the following initial hypothesis: That Twitch streamers generate income mainly from their own content, as there aren’t yet many brands that are turning to these influencers to advertise their products.
To confirm or refute this hypothesis, it is necessary that we consider the following research objectives: O1. Determine the level of influence of these streamers according to the number of followers and views of their audiovisual productions. O2. Identify the posting schedules of these influencers on Twitch, with particular emphasis on the type of broadcast and the type of content. O3. Compare the number of promoted posts with other social networks to determine if brands prioritize the influence of these streamers on Twitch compared to other social networks.
Methodology
The 10 most followed Spanish streamers on Twitch.
*The subscribers’ figure for IamCristinini was extracted from the 29 April 2021 livestream.
Source: Own elaboration. Data extracted from TwitchTracker on 1 May 2021.
Profiles and followers of the 10 main Spanish streamers on other social networks.
Source: own elaboration with data extracted from each social network on 1st May 2021.
Analysis variables in each of the social networks.
Source: Own elaboration.
Results
Streamer activity on Twitch.
Source: Own elaboration.
The content of the live shows (Table 4) has been classified into three categories: (1) exclusive broadcasts of video games, (2) live broadcasts exempt from gameplay and (3) mixed broadcasts (in which gameplay is combined with conversation with followers, giveaways, video comments or unboxings). There is a clear difference between the streamers that take the top five positions and those that are in the last five. That is, that while the top five dedicate a greater percentage of their live broadcasts to producing non-video game content, the bottom five, excluding Reborn, focus primarily on gameplay, either exclusively or combined with other activities.
The practice of combining gameplay with conversation with followers has also been standardized, since one of the main reasons for Twitch’s success is its conversational nature. It operates as an open space for any users’ comments to be read out by one of their idols, a potential that streamers are aware of and which they dedicate time and importance to in their live shows.
The evolution of streamers’ number of followers and views.
Source: Own elaboration, data from TwitchTracker (1st April 2021 – 30th April 2021).
However, streamers such as Ibai Llanos are making the network evolve towards spaces other than video games. This creator conducts interviews, broadcasts soccer matches and freestyle competitions, and performs magic shows. Other streamers have taken similar steps to diversify. Indeed, it is not strange to see El Rubius broadcasting a live cooking session, or to see TheGrefg skiing or Alexby11 narrating football matches.
Streamers’ activity on YouTube.
*Main channel and **secondary channel. Source: own elaboration.
Streamers’ activity on Twitter.
Source
Based on the promoted publications, these influential figures do not need to spend much time advertising brand collaborations to further their platforms. Promotions for new video games such as Knockout City prevail, which both AuronPlay and Perxitaa announced with the hashtag #SponsoredbyEA are more prevalent. The same is true in regards to technology companies such as Samsung, Logitech (both on Cristinini’s profile) or NVIDIA (on Vicens’s profile). El Rubius, TheGrefg, Ibai, Reborn and bysTaXx did not register any advertising posts on Twitter.
Table eight shows that, with the exception of AuronPlay, these content creators are less active on Instagram. AuronPlay’s only published post, a photograh explaining that his pet, Don Gato, had passed away, reached very high engagement figures. As on Twitter, his publication was flooded with likes and messages of encouragement. More promotional content is evidenced on Instagram than on Twitter. On the former, El Rubius promoted the ASUS computer brand under the hashtag #Ad), TheGrefg uploaded a promotional poster of the new Adidas campaign, Alexby11 promoted a Barcelona based business called Chelios Props, Cristinini announced a Chollometro raffle and promoted NVIDIA and the Coolmod IT company, and Perxitaa promoted the new Warner Bros. movie.
Streamers’ activity on Instagram.
Source: Own elaboration.
Streamer activity on TikTok.
Source: Own elaboration.
Lastly, Facebook is the social network that is least used by these streamers. Only the veteran streamers have a Facebook page (El Rubius. AuronPlay. TheGrefg and bysTaXx), and even then, they have not been active on their accounts for months. This may in part be due to the competition between Twitch and Facebook Live.
Discussion and conclusions
As other previous studies had already concluded (Johnson and Woodcock, 2019; Spilker et al., 2020), the potential of Twitch in the digital field is defined by new ways of interaction. The influence is no longer limited to more traditional social networks such as Twitter, Instagram or YouTube (Muíños, 2017), but Twitch has become an ideal platform for social media superstars (Budzinski and Gaenssle, 2018) of live streaming. In this research, the activity of the 10 most prominent Spanish streamers was studied in depth. Also in Spain, and according to Taylor (2018), live streaming games are the predominant trend of content on Twitch. It has been found that it is the four creators with the most followers – El Rubius, AuronPlay, TheGrefg and Ibai Llanos – who have set the bar for streamers today.
All these streamers achieved notoriety on the networks due to their number of followers and were not already known outside the internet. El Rubius and AuronPlay are old school content creators who cultivated their personal brands on YouTube and have continued to further them on Twitch. Nonetheless, Ibai Llanos has done the most groundbreaking work of the group. Although he also previously had close links with the gaming world, he has decided to turn his Twitch channel into what is practically a television network. This amounts to a totally new approach too, and a new way of understanding streaming. It remains to be seen whether this approach will set a new trend for the coming years. TheGrefg exists somewhere between the other three accounts. Younger than Ibai, he maintains that attachment to the gaming world, but increasingly diversifies his brand. He is a master of drawing attention to himself and fostering curiosity. Through this kind of self-promotion, TheGrefg is able to generate expectation and intrigue among his followers to encourage them to enter his live shows.
Despite the fact that also branding and business practices are also involved in game live streaming and its hosting communities (Taylor, 2018), the starting hypothesis is confirmed that streamers generate income mainly from content created by themselves, and that the presence of promotional content is residual on all their social networks. They do not need to associate their image with another brand or a gameplay in order to maintain or increase their profiles, although when they publish advertising content they do so with transparency and honesty.
Regarding O1, it has been proven that Twitch has become the main platform for streamers to carry out their work. In fact, the global activity of content creators on other social networks revolves around content created for Twitch. Even though they all have more than a million followers on Twitch, streamers like ElRubius, AuronPlay, TheGrefg, Alexby11 or bysTaXx were already well known thanks to their prior work on YouTube, something that made their transition over to Twitch much more fruitful. Today, their YouTube channels exist mostly as a repository of their best moments on Twitch, producing very little original content (the migration from YouTube to Twitch is confirmed once again). Only Cristinini, Reborn and Vicens have done the opposite that is, transferring their influence from Twitch to the other platforms.
In relation to publishing schedules (O2), there is a clear tendency towards transforming Twitch and its broadcasts into a kind of linear television channel. Streamers’ activity on Twitch is characterized by an almost daily broadcast routine. Indeed, all creators, except bysTaXx, put out daily broadcasts with one or 2 days off per week. It has been determined that content creators follow defined broadcast guidelines with delimited time slots. It is only a matter of time until streamers start to follow the path laid out by Ibai Llanos, opting for weekly formats in the vein of ‘Chatting Quietly’ style, that creator’s standout program. Regarding the content of the streams, it can be confirmed that they only upload content related to video games.
Influencers are people with the necessary potential to generate engagement (IAB, 2019), but being creators who began developing their activity by publishing famous gameplays, they limit their range of action to that field and discard other creative possibilities. In the Spanish case, there is no coincidence with other previous studies (Spilker et al., 2020). It can be confirmed here that the broadcast of content on Twitch is limited to video games. Nonetheless, the linear nature of the broadcasts could be seen as a revival of linear television on social networks, following the line of research that Spilker and collaborators (2020) had already initiated. The findings also highlight the percentage of broadcast time spent talking with their followers and commenting on videos of various kinds. The latter has become a common pursuit for streamers, who see it as a straightforward way to interact with their viewers, regardless of the monetary donations obtained (Bingham, 2020; Partin, 2020; Siutila, 2018). It was found that the practice of combining gameplay with conversation with followers has also been standardized, since one of the main reasons for Twitch’s success is its conversational nature.
All the streamers studied here operate similarly on other social networks. However, Twitch is the quintessential space (Castelló and del Pino, 2015) for their influence. Also, according to O3, though the promotional content they share is not greater on other networks, they do prioritize Twitch for both organic and promotional broadcasts. While on Twitter they mainly focus on interaction with users, on Instagram content of a more personal nature predominates, although on all other networks they make constant references to their activity on Twitch. That one may share more content than another on a specific network can only be considered a reflection of an individual streamer’s own personal strategy and their betting on one social network over another. With that being said, the Instagram swipe up feature is widely used because it allows a direct link that connects both platforms. In fact, Twitter and Instagram are the networks in which the most activity is registered, followed by YouTube. On the contrary, presence on TikTok remains low and Facebook seems to have been completely disregarded. On the latter network, content creators have been completely inactive. There is a clear trend of content creators using YouTube to distribute content that was originally generated on Twitch live streams.
Finally, there is no evidence of a correlation between the number of followers an account has and its number of subscribers. For example, the active subscriptions of AuronPlay (30,395) and Ibai Llanos (27,147) practically double those of El Rubius (14,607), yet it is the third content creator that has the most followers on Twitch. Conclusive reasons for this cannot be provided here. Indeed, subscriptions provide the same advantages across the board. It can only be speculated that factors such as the personality of the streamer, the relationship the streamer has with the followers, the collaborative feeling of each online community of fans, as well as the type of content provided, may or may not encourage users to activate a subscription.
While Twitch is intended for those who aim to spend long periods of time in direct contact with their favorite streamers, YouTube remains the go-to portal for those seeking smaller doses of entertainment without the need for the kind of instant consumption that is intrinsic to a stream. Nonetheless, one of the success factors of Twitch is that relationships between streamers and viewers seems special because a place of intimacy is created (Wohn et al., 2019), something that transcends the traditional models of subscription to on-demand television channels (Sanson and Steirer, 2019; Spilker and Colbjørnsen, 2020).
In conclusion, it has been demonstrated that brands have not yet picked up on the power of Twitch influencers (granted by their number of followers and views) as a tool to implement influencer campaigns. From a different perspective, the analysis of publication schedules shows that these streamers are developing a type of broadcast that is increasingly similar to regular online television, although the content remains almost monothematic and centered around video games. However, in the coming years, it is likely that other kinds of content beyond gameplay will become more prominent on Twitch. This includes interviews, the narration of different types of events, live sports, debates, and cooking. Therefore, the scientific community must pay special attention to the coexistence of influence with new types of emerging contents and the preferred broadcast models.
Footnotes
Declaration of conflicting interests
The author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.
Funding
The author(s) disclosed receipt of the following financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article: This work has been developed within the project Digital-native media in Spain: Strategies, competencies, social involvement and (re)definition of practices in journalistic production and diffusion (PID2021-122534OB-C21), funded by the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation, the Spanish State Research Agency and the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) and Department of Education, University and Professional Training of the Xunta de Galicia (Spain). Consolidation 2020 GPC GI-1641 New Media (Trends, Cybermedia, Printed) - NEW MEDIA (2020-PG027) (ED431B2020/20).
