Online gaming has been elevating to a completely new level for the past few years, and from just being a player of games – a new market has emerged of an audience which wants to view games played by the top teams in the world.
That’s right – just like regular sports such as Cricket and Football, a whole new audience is emerging which watches their favourite CS:GO, DOTA and other players playing online – perhaps to learn a trick or two. Some of them also use it to bet on their favourite esports betting sites.
A new set of “Live-Streaming” platforms has been emerging, perhaps not as big as Netflix or Amazon Prime, but certainly no less in quality. These streaming platforms offer top-notch HD quality live-streaming of players playing online games. Facebook recently launched its own gaming platform on Android App.
Along with live-streaming, it offers user engagement through other mediums as well such as recording and posting on respective channels of the teams.
As per one of the latest reports, millions of viewers have been thronging to these streaming sites, and is a market that is poised to grow for the next few years. As streaming becomes increasingly popular, having a convenient viewing experience is becoming more and more important. If you have a Samsung TV or any other type of smart TV there are apps that allow you to screen mirror your phone onto your TV. This allows you to watch programs that may be more easily accessible on your phone and view them on a larger, more luxurious screen! Furthermore, just like regular movie streaming platforms such as Netflix, Amazon Prime, and Apple TV – many of these sites have exclusive deals to tournaments that they offer live-streaming / broadcasting to.
Some of them are also organizing tourneys to compete and offer the best to their viewers.
Amongst the top game streaming platforms present right now, we have listed few that would be worth a note.
- Twitch
- Mixer
- Facebook Gaming
- YouTube Gaming
Twitch:
Chances are you might not have heard of Justin.tv. Launched in 2007, it was to be used by gamers to broadcast online gaming videos. After some partnerships and investments, Twitch TV was ultimately launched as a spin off with gaming focused content in 2011. It is said that in 2014, it was the fourth largest source of peak traffic in the United States. Such was the success of game streaming platforming.
Twitch is also a content curator, and boasts of a high user’s engagement community with multiple rewards on offer. It continues to work on upgrading itself, presently having created a directory that will help the users to easily track and navigate about live matches and events.
One of the most popular games, CS:GO is also available for streaming. Sites such as 1xBet confirm that a lot of customers visit their site to check current odds for favourite teams.
Mixer:
Launched as Beam originally in 2016, Mixer was launched after the acquisition of Beam by Microsoft.
The strategic acquisition was for Microsoft’s Xbox division for game streaming. The USP of the platform is usage of a low-latency streaming protocol called FTL (Faster Than Light) and results in delays of less than a second for game streaming – vs the 10-20 seconds elsewhere. This makes it essential for real time interactivity between a streamer and their viewers.
While the viewership compared to other platforms is low, but with real features and technology behind, we are sure it is only going to pick up going forward.
Facebook Gaming:
Still, in its inception stage, having been launched on Android platform, Facebook Gaming is again trying to focus on this niche space.
It holds an edge over existing players, as it has a vast user database interacting on its social channel already. The current feature sets allows a user to “Go Live” where they can directly stream live mobile games without installing any additional software.
We figure that Facebook Gaming will appeal to a much wider audience who might want to live stream games such as Teen Patti, Rummy, Poker, and other casual games.
YouTube Gaming:
YouTube has been following a success formula in streaming since years. Owned by Google, and having a perfected revenue model, it was but natural for them to explore the gaming space.
With Stadia already coming soon, YouTube Gaming already has some of the best technology infrastructure required in order to live stream games. Also, unlike the other platforms, it enables streamers and creators to also create good relevant content which would be of interest to wider community and not only to hardcore gamers.
An essential feature is the gamers can actually go through videos that provide end-to-end guidance allowing amateur gamers to become professionals.
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