Stream, streaming, and streamer are all terms circulating much in today’s online world and are becoming increasingly important. Netflix streams movies, Spotify streams music, Google Stadia streams video games, and Twitch streams streamers. Today we are dealing with the latter phenomenon: The transmitted by games and yourself and thus become a streamer.
Streamer: meaning and translation
In short, a stream continuously transmits a moving image and sound. A streamer, in this context, is the person who is not only responsible for the broadcast but who broadcasts a video of himself in real time. A streamer, therefore, sits in front of the camera and films himself and usually a particular activity that the streamer is currently carrying out.
The Twitch platform has developed into an absolute top dog in the field of live streams in recent years. With over 15 million users worldwide, in 2019, over 80 million hours of content were broadcast live, and a whopping nine billion hours of video were watched. The market is gigantic, and many a streamer has already developed into an authentic influencer, such as the Swedish gamer PewDiePie, who made a career with YouTube and reached millions of followers on Twitch.
Become a streamer with Twitch
But what exactly does a streamer do on Twitch? The platform has focused on the world of games since 2011. Streamers transmit so-called Let’s Plays (translated: let’s play) on Twitch. The film both themselves and their screen, on which they are currently playing a video game.
In real-time, fans can watch what the streamer is doing within the game and what strategies and approaches they choose. In the meantime, the range of games broadcast live on Twitch is gigantic. While games such as League of Legends and Fortnite are real top dogs among the most watched video games on Twitch, many other areas of the entertainment world have now also established themselves on the platform.
There is a category for online poker, for example, where poker pros can show off their skills on the virtual green felt, and beginners can learn the game’s subtleties. There is also a separate area for slots. Here, players transmit videos while they play slot games in the online casino and let the reels spin virtually.
Viewers can see how a particular slot machine works and feel the excitement of the game. Video content extends even further, as Twitch has now introduced IRL categories, such as Just Chatting, where streamers and viewers can chat about all sorts of things. The variety of streaming content continues to snowball.
What makes a streamer?
But it is not just silently watching how the streamer plays his game; he also loosens up the video with comments, explanations, questions, jokes, and humor. It’s not just a one-way broadcast; it’s an interaction between streamer and viewer. The latter can use the chat function at any time to ask questions and make comments, to which the streamer answers live directly in the video. To achieve a large following on Twitch, charisma, personality, and humor are essential.
If you personalize your game with funny comments, stories, and anecdotes, make a name for yourself and provide entertainment with your authenticity and extraordinary personality, you can do it manage to inspire many viewers and be successful on Twitch. A streamer is not just a gamer; they must also have fundamental entertainer skills to make the live video broadcast entertaining and generate fans. While it’s essential to be good at a game, without charisma, even the best gamer will struggle to thrive on Twitch.
Streaming on Twitch is a new activity in today’s digital world. Who would have thought that gamers could one day become influencers by live streaming video games? Twitch makes it possible.