Twitch: Looking back at the evolution of streaming in the last decade

Twitch, the streaming platform turns 10. It’s hard to believe but, the platform has evolved tremendously over the last decade. What started as a gamer’s destination evolved to a side gig or music performance space for people from all walks of life.

Twitch celebrates ten years of completion.

“If the first ten years of Twitch was everyone figuring out to crawl and take their first steps… the next ten years are going to be a full-on sprint,” said MarcusGraham, or djWHEAT. Graham is currently the head of community productions for Twitch and has been a part of the platform since its inception in June 2011.

“Service-changing innovation was something that happened once in a blue moon during the early days of Twitch, but in the most recent years, we’re seeing innovation happen on a weekly basis. Ten years ago we wouldn’t have imagined that Drake would play some Fortnite with Ninja, or TwitchPlaysPokemon would be completed by millions of players, so it’s difficult to imagine just what our creators will surprise us within the next 10 years,” he added.

How it all began

A decade ago, Twitch was nothing but an offshoot of Justin.tv, a universal live streaming website founded by Justin Kan. Soon, gamers flocked and started getting viewers streaming and subscribing to their channels. Viewers also had the opportunity to pay for the content they liked. Sean ‘Day9’ Plott became the first Twitch platform and made a subscription channel.

According to reports, the streaming platform now has over 30 million people visiting every single day. It has also had over 67 billion hours of viewing content. Moreover, the platform has seen an increase of 13 million users in the last year alone.

Sure, there are other services like Patreon, OnlyFans, Buy me a Coffee, etc. for content creators to earn money for their work but, Twitch takes the crown. According to its reports over 183 creators make a minimum of $50,000 a year. In the last few years, the platform has been an open space for creators in gaming, comedy, music, and performance.