Timeline of Twitch.tv

This is a timeline of Twitch.tv, a live-streaming platform focusing on video gaming.

Big picture

Time period Key developments at Twitch
2011–2014 Twitch launches as an offshoot of Justin.tv and becomes the most popular e-sports streaming service by a large margin.
2014–2016 By early 2014, Twitch becomes the fourth largest source of Internet traffic during peak times – surpassing MTV at peak times, and MSNBC during non-peak times.[1] Twitch is acquired by Amazon.com. By January 2015, Twitch reaches 100 million viewers per month.[2]

Full timeline

Year Month and date Event type Details
2006 October 1 Company Justin.tv, the parent company of Twitch, is founded.[3]
2007 October Funding Justin.tv raises $8 million in Series A.[3]
2011 June 6 Company Justin.tv spins off its gaming division as Twitch, which officially launches in public beta.[4]
2011 July Product Twitch launches its Partner Program, which allows popular content producers to share in the ad revenue generated from their streams.[5]
2012 September Funding Twitch raises $15 million in Series B.[6][7]
2013 September Funding Twitch raises $20 million in Series C.[8]
2013 October Competition Hitbox.tv, a live-streaming competitor to Twitch, launches.[9]
2014 February 10 Company Twitch's parent company Justin.tv, Inc. is renamed Twitch Interactive, reflecting the increased prominence of the Twitch over Justin.tv as the company's main business.[10]
2014 February 12 Audience Twitch Plays Pokémon, a crowdsourced attempt to play Pokémon Red using a system translating chat commands into game controls, goes viral. The channel reaches over 6.5 million total views on February 17, 5 days since its introduction on February 12, and averages concurrent viewership between 60 and 70 thousand viewers, with at least 10% participating.[11][12]
2014 May Acquisitions Google holds talks about the possible acquisition of Twitch.[13]
2014 August 6 Product Twitch announces it will start deleting archived broadcast recordings from its site after 14 days (60 days for partners or paying Turbo subscribers).[14] Hitbox.tv responds by saying that Twitch is out of touch.[9]
2014 August 25 Acquisitions Amazon announces it will acquire Twitch Interactive for US$970 million. Twitch CEO Emmett Shear says that "We chose Amazon because they believe in our community, they share our values and long-term vision, and they want to help us get there faster".[15][16]
2014 December 9 Acquisitions Twitch announces it has acquired GoodGame Agency, an organisation that owns the esports teams Evil Geniuses and Alliance.[17][18][19]
2015 January Product Twitch introduces a royalty-free music library featuring tracks from various independent labels cleared for use in streams. It starts with 500 songs from labels such as Monstercat and Spinnin Records.[20][21]
2015 January 13 Competition Dailymotion, a French startup, starts streaming live gaming video.[22]
2015 February Popular Use Twitch starts streaming poker, a game where the World Series of Poker drew 1.2 million viewers on average for its most recent live televised event.[23]
2015 March 24 Security Twitch is reportedly hacked, resulting in users’ passwords being leaked.[24]
2015 June 10 Product Twitch rolls out a private messaging system called Whisper, allowing users to send private chat messages without leaving their current chat.[25]
2015 August 26 Competition YouTube launches YouTube gaming, introducing full streaming to YouTube.[26]
2015 October 28 Product Twitch launches a second non-gaming category, "Creative", intended for streams showcasing the creation of artistic and creative works.[27] This starts off with a Bob Ross painting marathon.[28]
2015 November Popular Use Major League Gaming entices Nadeshot, the #1 Call of Duty star and captain of OpTic Gaming, to leave Twitch.tv to exclusively stream on twitch competitor mlg.tv.[29] A year later, he calls the decision a "mistake".[30]
2016 February Integration Amazon debuts a free game engine called Lumberyard that enables developers to create new video games with built-in Twitch integration to more easily connect with gamers.[31]
2016 March Popular Use Twitch begins to stream all episodes of Julia Child's The French Chef, inaugurating the food channel on the site.[32]
2016 March Product Forge raises $4.5 million in funding in an attempt to become the Vine of gaming – a way to broadly disseminate short gaming clips.[33]
2016 April 22 Product Twitch introduces a new 'Friends' feature.[34]
2016 May Popular Use ELeague, a professional Counter-Strike: Global Offensive league, begins pitting well-known gamers against one another on Twitch.[35] ELeague creates the image of successful online e-sports in TV.
2016 May Partnerships Revlo - a service enabling livestreamers to engage with/monetize their fans (founded by a Thiel Fellow and advised by Justin Kan), raises seed round.[36]
2016 May 26 Product Twitch launches clips so gamers can quickly share short videos of moments, allowing users to easily share 30-second portion video from others’ live streams.[37]
2016 August Competition Facebook starts allowing people to livestream their Blizzard-based games off of Twitch on its Facebook Live platform.[38]
2016 August 11 Competition Microsoft acquires Beam, a livestreaming service (founded by a 18-year old Thiel Fellow) that gives viewers the ability to watch and play along with their favorite game streamers in real-time.[39][40]

References

  1. ↑ "Charting the Rise of Twitch". The New York Times. 2014-08-27. Retrieved August 27, 2016.
  2. ↑ "Twitch's Viewers Reach 100 Million a Month - Digits". The Wall Street Journal. Retrieved August 27, 2016.
  3. 1 2 "Justin.TV". Retrieved June 23, 2016.
  4. ↑ Alex Wilhelm (June 6, 2011). "Twitch TV: Justin.tv's killer new esports project". The Next Web.
  5. ↑ Tassi, Paul (July 27, 2011). "JustinTV Lets Gamers Earn Cash with New Twitch Partner Service". Forbes.
  6. ↑ Dean Takahashi (19 Sep 2012). "Making every gamer famous, Twitch raises $15M to expand its eSports webcasts". VentureBeat. Retrieved 1 Oct 2013.
  7. ↑ Alexander Sliwinski (20 Sep 2012). "Twitch receives $15 million investment to expand eSports broadcasts". Joystiq. Retrieved 2 Oct 2013.
  8. ↑ "Twitch". CB. Retrieved June 20, 2016.
  9. 1 2 "Twitch CEO Admits Screw Up, Hitbox Jumps To Acquire Disillusioned Streamers". Inquisitr.com. Retrieved June 23, 2016.
  10. ↑ "AS TWITCH GROWS, JUSTIN.TV INC. IS RENAMED TWITCH INTERACTIVE". Fast Company. 10 February 2014. Retrieved 31 July 2014.
  11. ↑ "How Twitch is crowd-sourcing an amazing Pokémon multiplayer game". Polygon. Retrieved 18 February 2014.
  12. ↑ "Twitch Plays Pokemon captivates with more than 6.5M total views". Polygon. Retrieved 18 February 2014.
  13. ↑ "Google in Talks About Possible Acquisition of Twitch". The Wall Street Journal. Retrieved August 27, 2016.
  14. ↑ "Top Twitch broadcasters are considering livestreaming alternatives -- here's where they may end up". Venturebeat.com. Retrieved June 23, 2016.
  15. ↑ "Amazon, not YouTube, reportedly buying Twitch for over $1 billion". The Verge. 25 August 2014. Retrieved 25 August 2014.
  16. ↑ "Amazon to Buy Video Site Twitch for More Than $1 Billion". The Wall Street Journal. 25 August 2014. Retrieved 25 August 2014.
  17. ↑ Twitch. "Twitch to Acquire GoodGame Agency — Twitch Blog". Medium.
  18. ↑ Te, Zorine (2014-12-09). "Twitch Acquires Evil Geniuses' Agency GoodGame". GameSpot. CBS Interactive. Retrieved 2014-12-10.
  19. ↑ "Amazon Dives Deeper Into Games, Acquiring GoodGame, an E-Sports Talent Agency". The New York Times. December 2014. Retrieved August 27, 2016.
  20. ↑ "Twitch adds a music section, free tracks to make up for copyright crackdown". PC World. Retrieved 15 January 2015.
  21. ↑ "Amazon's Twitch Gaming Unit to Allow Streaming Music - Digits". The Wall Street Journal. Retrieved August 27, 2016.
  22. ↑ "Dailymotion Takes On Twitch and YouTube in Streaming Game Footage - Digits". The Wall Street Journal. Retrieved August 27, 2016.
  23. ↑ "Amazon's Twitch Site Bets on Poker". The Wall Street Journal. Retrieved August 27, 2016.
  24. ↑ "Twitch hacked: game streaming website’s user details compromised". Independent. 24 March 2015. Retrieved 24 March 2015.
  25. ↑ "Twitch rolls out a private-message system called Whisper". Engadget. Retrieved June 20, 2016.
  26. ↑ "Watch Out, Twitch: YouTube Gaming Just Went Live". Wired.com. Retrieved June 20, 2016.
  27. ↑ "Twitch launches "Creative" category, eight-day Bob Ross Painting marathon". Ars Technica. Retrieved 28 December 2015.
  28. ↑ "Bob Ross Painting Marathon Is Coming to Streaming Service Twitch - Speakeasy". The Wall Street Journal. Retrieved August 27, 2016.
  29. ↑ "No. 1 With a Bullet: ‘Nadeshot' Becomes a Call of Duty Star". The New York Times. November 15, 2014. Retrieved August 27, 2016.
  30. ↑ "Competitive Call of Duty Star Says Leaving Twitch Is His "Biggest Regret"". Kotaku.com. Retrieved August 27, 2016.
  31. ↑ "Twitch Could Be a $20 Billion Dollar Company Inside Amazon – Backchannel". Https:. Retrieved August 28, 2016.
  32. ↑ "Julia Child Marathon to Stream on Twitch as Gaming Site Widens Focus". The New York Times. March 15, 2016. Retrieved August 27, 2016.
  33. ↑ "Forge Scores $4.5 Million for Prospect of Being the Vine of Gaming - Venture Capital Dispatch". The Wall Street Journal. Retrieved August 27, 2016.
  34. ↑ "Twitch transforms into a social network with new 'Friends' feature". Https:. Retrieved June 20, 2016.
  35. ↑ "ELeague Adapts TV to the Gaming Sensibility". The New York Times. May 24, 2016. Retrieved August 27, 2016.
  36. ↑ "Revlo raises $1.1 million to let livestreamers engage and monetize their fans". Venturebeat.com. Retrieved August 28, 2016.
  37. ↑ "Twitch launches Clips so gamers can quickly share short videos of their favorite moments". Retrieved June 20, 2016.
  38. ↑ "Forbes Welcome". Forbes. Retrieved August 27, 2016.
  39. ↑ "Microsoft acquires Beam interactive livestreaming service - The Official Microsoft Blog". Financial Times. August 11, 2016. Retrieved August 28, 2016.
  40. ↑ "Microsoft acquires gaming startup Beam run by 18-year-old - Aug. 12, 2016". CNN. Retrieved August 28, 2016.
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