Emergence of Twitch in the Gaming Industry : Why people prefer to watch and not to play

Abstract

The study aimed at exploring the viewers of Twitch, a gameplay streaming platform, and their motivations to watch the streams of games instead of playing themselves. Throughout the research phase, academic literature, articles, dissertations, and theses were explored and the gaps in the knowledge of the chosen segment were addressed. The main objective was to obtain a deep understanding of the personal motivations of the viewers to watch streamed gameplay and describe them as broad as possible. The research data was obtained by using two methods: semi-structured interviews and forum observations. For the interviews, 11 respondents, representing the biggest group of viewers by age and gender, were chosen and interviewed. For additional contribution, numerous English and Russian forums were observed, and all the unique answers were recorded. Based on the content analysis, a data matrix was created corresponding to both sources. The results were then compared and represented in 3 groups as follows: similar for both groups, unique for forums, and unique for interviews. This study provided evidence that the motivation behind Twitch users was much more complex than what is presented in the current literature. During the study over 20 different motivations were discovered: socialization and sharing of the experience, E-sports spectating, learning, avoiding technical and personal obstacles, seeing development process of the game and watching a live review of the game are an only tiny part of the motivations discovered during this research. This work can be used for habituation with the streaming world and motives of viewers for a better understanding of viewers by steamers, games and software producers and companies that are currently working with Twitch or planning such cooperation. Furthermore, the information from this research can be used for advanced targeting of the advertisements or streaming content on Twitch.