Photo from Hard2Know.com
The internet has given birth to many things, but online live streaming has been one of the biggest. Streaming is a massive industry where talent can earn up to $30 million in exclusive talent contracts. Now, in the streaming industry, two Titans have stood tall among the rest being the pillars. They have battled and recently stepped up their game in a feud I call… The Streaming Wars.
But who are these two pillars of streaming? First, the pioneers of streaming, the standard, the brand name, it’s Twitch. Second, a video streaming giant that decided why not try and dominate another industry, it’s YouTube. Twitch or YouTube? That has been a topic on the minds of all streamers. Today, I am breaking down this very question of who is better and why. To help me investigate, I have four streamers from all levels of the streaming food chain.
The Streamers
The first is BrodyTheGinger; he streams on Twitch and has been doing so for about six years on and off. When asked about what got him into streaming, Brody said, “I think it was probably just the aspect of growing up watching content creators on YouTube and other platforms like that. It just kind of instilled that itch in me pretty early on.”
The next Streamer is Manzell Hatten; he streams on Twitch. When asked about what got him into streaming, Manzell said, “I got into streaming basically because I’ve always had a passion for gaming. I’ve always wanted to show people my skill or some crazy plays I’ve made in the game. I like having people watch me play or watch any big plays I do. It’s something I’ve always done, my brother and my father always used to watch me play games. It’s something I’ve always fallen in love with.”
The next is Dustin Hafermehl, who is currently streaming over on Twitch. Dustin described his start to streaming, “I’ve been streaming for a good four or five months now. I’m not sure what pulled me into it; I just thought one day, why not try and see if it runs. So I tried Twitch Studios, and it was the easiest thing to start with. The next step that helped me take it to a better level was help from a buddy I met that got me set up and running on OBS Studio.”
The final streamer is Official_Viking6, and he streams on Twitch. Official_Viking6 explains his inspiration behind streaming, “The biggest thing that got me into streaming is because of the whole interactive atmosphere. I love seeing new faces and potentially interacting with somebody that is overseas. You can sit there while you’re live, playing a game, or just chatting, and you can interact with people and get to know them on a personal level through the internet.”
Now you know the streamers, but some of you may wonder how do you stream? Well, all it takes is a compatible device like a laptop, phone, or video game system and an account on a streaming platform. With this, you can go live and broadcast yourself for the world to see.
What Makes A Streamer Great?
Earlier I was talking about pillars in the industry and how some earn a lot of money streaming. Now to give you an idea of how vast this landscape can be. I asked the streamers helping me today who their favorite streamers are, and these are who they mentioned:
- Swagg
- Ludwig
- 10s
- LuluLovely
- JoeWo
- HealthyGamerGG
- JasonR
- Ayden
- Northern Line
- Shazam
- Shroud
- AeroBlue
- Dr. Disrespect
- TankMediaGames
- TimTheTatman
There is something for everyone and someone to watch for every person interested. But what is it about these streamers that make them great? Well, I asked that very question, and these are the answers I received.
Brody shared his thoughts, “I’ve been on the platform for so long that I’ve seen so many different generations of content creators. Right now, what I look for is somebody who’s not really in this league of thinking of content in terms of, like, how do we turn every event that happens on the stream into the content? I like streamers who are a little bit more thoughtful with their content and to their community.”
Manzell shares specifics he looks for in his streamers, “I’m looking for their personalities. If I do not like the person’s personality, I’m not following them. I’m also looking at streamers on my level, I’m going down that very bottom of the list, and I’m like, who’s streaming, what you’re doing?”
There are streamers for every single game and every single kind of entertainment you are looking for. But how did these two platforms, YouTube and Twitch, become the top dogs battling it out today?
The Start of It All
Let’s take a step back; Twitch started in 2011 but didn’t gain traction until 2014. Then, a popular stream titled ‘Twitch Plays Pokemon’ went viral. After gaining some popularity, Amazon swooped in and bought Twitch for about $1 billion. Since then, Amazon has changed and molded Twitch into the gold standard of streaming today.
We all know about the rise of YouTube as a video hosting service, which started in 2005. But the live streaming portion of YouTube first made its debut in 2008. Although it took a while, YouTubes streaming side didn’t gain traction until recent years. So now, some of you may wonder how YouTube gained traction on Twitch when they’re the gold standard?
The Dr. Disrespect Situation/From Tatman to YouTube Man
Photo of Dr. Disrespect – Photo From @drdisrespect Twitter Account
To tell you how I must introduce you to a man who truly needs no introduction, Dr. Disrespect. Dr. Disrespect is a six-foot-eight gaming phenom nicknamed the two-time for gaming tournaments he allegedly won back in 1993-1994. The
Doc has a charismatic persona that makes him a must-watch, and he was a must-watch on Twitch. That is until June 2020, when he mysteriously got banned from Twitch with no reason being given. This has since turned into a lawsuit that is still ongoing today. The Doc then took his talents to YouTube shortly after the ban, which brought many new eyes to the product. But Doc wasn’t the only face moving from Twitch to YouTube.
Recently, ‘The Streaming Wars’ got very interesting when TimTheTatman signed exclusively with YouTube. Most of Tim’s fanbase stayed loyal and moved with him, but some of Tim’s fans were very upset about this. To shed some light on why Brody gives his beliefs on the matter.
“Some people will phrase it being sniped, or grabbed up by other competitors. YouTube’s signing on more exclusive deals with some of the bigger names on Twitch, and it isn’t stopping anytime soon. It’s super interesting to see how things go based on these huge deals that are happening behind closed doors. Some of these streamers fans are feeling like their streamer is not being loyal to them by leaving.”
Manzell also experienced this before with some of his favorite streamers, Ninja and Shroud.
“When Ninja and Shroud left Twitch, I missed watching Shroud so much. I wasn’t a Ninja fan at that time, but I went out of my way to watch him a little bit. We know we can easily get to them and watch them, but it’s not where everybody else is. I guess it makes it harder to go to those platforms and want to watch them because then I got to get used to another interface and pop in between two different apps.”
Breaking Down The Platforms
We were talking specifically about the platforms themselves. We need to look at their pros and cons and break them down.
Starting with YouTube, TimTheTatman shares his thoughts on a video on his channel below:
Brody also believes YouTube is just overall a more enjoyable atmosphere currently.
“YouTube just seems a bit friendlier towards streamers at the moment and mixer, when it was starting to make a little bit of noise here and there, it seemed like it had better discoverability. If it didn’t have better discoverability, there were at least fewer people on it. So kind of inherently within that system, there was a bit better discoverability.”
A consistent viewer of streams, Andrew Griese, explains how YouTube explicitly benefits him in his lifestyle with their Video on Demand feature.
“Since I work the night shift, I miss like 90% of the streams except for on weekends. So having streams go right to Video on Demand is just a great watch back feature.”
Andrew also shares his thoughts on why YouTube still does need some work in certain areas.
“YouTube is still a bit behind. Twitch seems a bit more interactive compared to YouTube. But, YouTube is just starting to rise in popularity and get more things as we speak. So they’re probably adding more things right now.”
So with YouTube, some good and some bad. With Twitch, there have been very mixed opinions about its current state. Twitch has been the gold standard for a while, having features that stand out amongst the competition. Manzell Hutton has one part he especially loves.
“Whenever a viewer comes into your chat, and they’re like a first-time viewer, it’ll highlight that, and you’ll probably pay a little bit more attention to that viewer to try and win that follow. Twitch has got the game in a headlock; as I like to say, they are the pioneers of it. I don’t know what it would take for Twitch to be taken down. I guess they would have to have some huge pillars move to a different platform. TimTheTatman is one of those pillars, but they need more pillars from Twitch to move.”
Brody also highlights an evolution of Twitch that has benefited streamers on the platform.
“This isn’t necessarily through Twitch, but Twitch is allowing it. For example, their channel point system allows individual streamers to set up ways to automate different responses for channel point redemptions. So let’s say if you redeemed a 500 channel point redemption to physically interact with the streamer or have some interaction with the stream and the production quality as a whole, Twitch’s started to allow that kind of stuff.”
Official_Viking6 believes a different part of this evolution has made a massive difference in his stream.
“Others can interact with emotes and sound alerts that you can bring into streams. For some, you can have people pay to use them, or you can have a couple of free sounds that your fanbase can interact with.”
Now looking at the cons of Twitch, Brody believes as a whole the platform could step their game up.
“Twitch says they have been in the forefront as far as making sure that their content creators are in the best spot, but that is not true. They tend to lag on a lot of things.”
Brody continues with a change YouTube is making that Twitch currently lacks.
“When it comes to a lot of these platforms, they’re inferior at moderation, especially a platform as large as Twitch. YouTube is currently working on this right now by getting rid of dislikes. People are doing these big bombardments of dislikes on videos for people in communities that they dislike. So taking out the dislikes is the best way they can moderate this.”
Dustin also believes there is a significant problem with the search engine in Twitch.
“For Twitch itself, it just doesn’t feel like it’s the easiest thing to get discovered off of. I find Twitch doesn’t help those small beginner streamers get their name out there. So you have to get your name out over Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, anything you can try to build your name. Twitch doesn’t help put your name out there at all.”
Twitch and YouTube have their pros and cons, but the idea of switching platforms is always going to be there. Brody believes every streamer, no matter who you are, has had the thought cross their mind.
“I think most people on Twitch consider switching to a different platform.”
Manzell thinks that YouTube is not that far from taking over Twitch.
“If YouTube were to unveil that they had a platform that rivals Twitch, essentially all they would need to do is separate their YouTube streaming platform and actual YouTube. Do what they do with their music platform, but do it with streaming because, as it is right now, looking up a streamer with one or two viewers on YouTube is impossible. So, if they were to shift focus and create a separate application or webpage that focuses on streaming, then you are destroying Twitch.”
Twitch’s Boost Feature/YouTube’s Response
With the idea of switching to YouTube becoming more enticing every day, Twitch needed to make a change to lure their talent back. The only problem is the change they made didn’t get the reaction they expected. Brody explains twitches new Boost feature while Manziel argues why it’s so bad for streamers below:
YouTube has since responded to this new Twitch feature with some announcements of their own, giving potential future streamers a taste of what they want to do for their creators.
Twitch and YouTube are still battling head to head, and where the future of this war leads will depend on the talent themselves. It all depends on whether they choose to look to the future with YouTube or remain with the gold standard in Twitch. Without the streamer themselves, these streaming platforms have nothing, so the decision in this war is all in the hands of the streamers.
Comments