STREAM REPORT NEWSLETTER
Twitch Takes First Steps to Boost Discovery for Small Streamers
We explore Twitch's new "Featured Clips" feature, reflect on the responsibilities of creators following a chaotic giveaway in NYC, and discuss Discord's latest game streaming feature for Xbox users.
#101
August 9, 2023
Welcome to Stream Report, a newsletter from Gaming Careers covering important news and updates in streaming and content creation.
Twitch's Featured Clips: Your Key to Better Discovery
Twitch has launched a new feature called Featured Clips to boost streamer visibility and improve user discovery. This feature grants streamers and their editors control over which clips are showcased across Twitch and in the upcoming Discovery Feed.
Why are Featured Clips important?
- Your channel page will default to showing only your Featured Clips.
- The “Clips We Think You’ll Like” shelf on the Twitch homepage will be replaced with a “Featured Clips We Think You’ll Like” shelf.
- Featured Clips will be prioritized in the Mobile Discovery Feed. Experiments for Twitch’s new scrollable clips viewer begin later this month.
- Twitch will roll out a new “Featured Clips from Smaller Communities” shelf on the Twitch homepage.
- Viewers will see a new “Recently Featured Clips” shelf on the mobile Following tab from streamers they follow.
- Users will also be able to add your Featured Clips to their Twitch stories, rolling out later this year.
The roll-out of the Discovery Feed experiment on Twitch, originally scheduled to start on August 8th, has been delayed. It will now begin later this month. Selected users will be part of this initial roll-out, with a full launch planned for later in the year.
Currently, only streamers and their editors can feature Clips, but plans are in place to allow streamers to grant featuring permissions to other community members in the future. Streamers and their editors can feature any Clips of their channel created by any viewer on Twitch.
Twitch has also added Featured Clips views to the Overview chart in Analytics, helping streamers to understand how their Featured Clips are performing compared to non-featured Clips.
The Power of Influence: The Chaos of Kai Cenat's NYC Giveaway
A giveaway event hosted by popular streamers Kai Cenat and Roberto “Fanum” Gonzalez in New York City’s Union Square Park turned into chaos, leading to injuries, arrests, and traffic disruption.
The event was announced just 24 hours before to their combined 17+ million followers across Twitch, Instagram, and Twitter, promising PlayStation 5 consoles and $100 gift cards.
The disorder escalated to the point where city authorities had to divert subway trains from Union Square. By 6pm, around 65 people had been arrested, including Kai Cenat, who was charged with inciting a riot and unlawful assembly.
The incident has sparked discussions about the responsibilities of influencers and the potential negative impacts of their influence. Amid the chaos, Cenat’s team released a statement, acknowledging their growing influence and responsibility and expressing their disheartenment over the disorderly conduct that affected innocent people and businesses.
This incident serves as a crucial reminder for streamers and content creators about the power and responsibility that comes with their influence.
Discord Levels Up: Introducing Xbox Game Streaming
Discord has announced a new feature that allows Xbox users to stream their games directly to Discord. This highly requested feature, previously exclusive to PC and mobile users, will initially roll out to Xbox Insiders before becoming widely available to all users.
This development is a significant leap in the live streaming industry, as it expands Discord’s capabilities to include game streaming for Xbox users. Last year, Discord introduced the ability to use Voice Chat with friends using Xbox. This could potentially increase the number of streamers and viewers on Discord, impacting the overall livestreaming landscape.
While Twitch remains the dominant platform for broadcasting gameplay to a wide audience, Discord’s update signifies its potential growth in the livestreaming industry. However, Discord’s strength lies in its community-building tools and its ability to facilitate close-knit, private interactions.
If Discord were to try and compete directly with Twitch, they would need to implement more public-facing features, like a discovery algorithm for finding new streamers, more robust chat moderation tools, and a monetization system for streamers.
⚡ News Highlights
- Twitch revises its Prohibited Gambling Content policy, putting a ban on CSGO Gambling Sponsorships.
- Twitch updates its chat replies, now only showing the person or message you’re responding to.
- YouTube allows creators to monitor new and recurring viewers across various formats such as videos, livestreams, and shorts.
- YouTube is collaborating with Ludwig to host the “YouTube World’s Greatest” gaming tournament.
- Kick has introduced gifted subs on iOS (with Android coming soon) but added a 30% charge to cover Apple’s processing fees.
- An independent security audit of Kick revealed security vulnerabilities.
- TikTok is testing a new feature allowing creators to post full-length podcasts to the platform.
- Minecraft modifies its guidelines, bringing about changes that will impact content creators.
Newsletter edition:
#101
Written by:
The founder of Gaming Careers with a borderline unhealthy obsession for cameras, microphones, and all things streaming. He gets mistaken for Stephen Merchant at least 5 times a day.
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