Twitch and Video Gaming as a Spectator Sport

Watching others play has always been part of the gaming experience -- and online video has turned video gaming into a growing entertainment sector.

Video Gaming

As online video viewing has become a staple of Internet behavior, YouTube and Twitch have facilitated the growth of video gaming as well. And this is a case where correlation is in fact causation: Twitch grew out of Justin.tv, specifically because there was a need for a dedicated gaming channel. Gaming was dwarfing the rest of Justin.tv.

Watching others play video games has always been part of the gaming experience. Emmett Shear, co-founder of Justin.tv and Twitch, traced the origin to the video arcade: “That was where the first video games were.

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