As Twitch continues to expand and diversify it’s content beyond gaming, one specific non-gaming category has been making monumental strides in terms of viewership and popularity, according to the Business Insider’s Mariel Soto Reyes.
Twitch’s “Just Chatting” category may not steal the Twitch news headlines as often as gaming-related content may, but the numbers indicate a vastly growing interest in the non-gaming category, so much as that it was the 2nd most watched category on Twitch last month.
The infusion of more music-related content, such as live concerts on stream, have certainly helped the boost recently, but there is no denying the year-over-year growth, which climbed by a whopping 138%, per the report.
The “Just Chatting” category saw around 1.65 billion total hours watched during the month of April, which is three times more than the viewership of Twitch’s biggest competitor, YouTube Gaming.
Furthermore, Twitch music is proving to be the next powerhouse for the platform. The report indicates that the cancellation of live performances, due to COVID-19, caused Twitch’s Music and Performing Arts category to more than quadruple in the month of April, going from 3.6 million hours watched in 2019 to 17 million this year, a marked spike in view and interest.
Twitch has continued to diversify their content offerings, with a number of original series from reality tv shows to talk shows, being launched recently. However, it may be on the verge of a major industry-changing shift with it’s increased focus on music.
