Streaming platform Twitch has managed to outperform American cable television stations CNN and MSNBC, proving that esports – and gaming in general – is quickly catching up with mainstream programming.
Last month, the streaming service brought in 962,000 average viewers concurrently – increasing 22% from January of last year, and 26% from last December, according to Street Insider. The report states that CNN and MSNBC raked in 783,000 and 885,000 concurrently viewers respectively.
While it’s great that Twitch is managing to overtake popular cable networks, it’s not quite top dog just yet. Fox News and ESPN both reportedly raked in 1.5 million watchers, but that’s still not taking anything away from the meteoric rise that streaming gameplay is currently going through.
With popular competitions like ELEAGUE and a number of battle royale games flourishing, as well as the now behemoth that is the Overwatch League it’s hard to imagine that Twitch will start going backwards any time soon – nor should it slow down in terms of growth. It’s worth noting that in January, popular streamer Tyler1 made his return to Twitch after a hefty ban from playing League of Legends, resulting in over 300,000 people watching him play all at once. Incidents like this can of course contribute to an unusual spike in viewership that won’t continue month on month, but then that’s not too dissimilar to certain airings on traditional TV channels proving surprisingly popular.
Esports Insider says: This is very encouraging for streamers and tournament organisers, and sends a positive message to businessmen and women who are looking to invest in the scene – subsequently supplementing this growth even further.