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. Twitch is acquired by Amazon.com. By January 2015, Twitch reaches 100 million viewers per month. |
Full timeline
Year |
Month and date |
Event type |
Details |
|---|---|---|---|
2006 |
October 1 |
Company |
Justin.tv, the parent company of Twitch, is founded. |
2007 |
October |
Funding |
Justin.tv raises $8 million in Series A. |
2011 |
June 6 |
Company |
Justin.tv spins off its gaming division as Twitch, which officially launches in public beta. |
2011 |
July |
Product |
Twitch launches its Partner Program, which allows popular content producers to share in the ad revenue generated from their streams. |
2012 |
September |
Funding |
Twitch raises $15 million in Series B. |
2013 |
September |
Funding |
Twitch raises $20 million in Series C. |
2013 |
October |
Competition |
Hitbox.tv, a live-streaming competitor to Twitch, launches. |
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. |
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. |
2014 |
May |
Acquisitions |
Google holds talks about the possible acquisition of Twitch. |
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). Hitbox.tv responds by saying that Twitch is out of touch. |
2014 |
August 25 |
Acquisitions |
Amazon announces it will acquire Twitch Interactive for . 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". |
2014 |
December 9 |
Acquisitions |
Twitch announces it has acquired GoodGame Agency, an organisation that owns the esports teams Evil Geniuses and Alliance. |
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. |
2015 |
January 13 |
Competition |
Dailymotion, a French startup, starts streaming live gaming video. |
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. |
2015 |
March 24 |
Security |
Twitch is reportedly hacked, resulting in users’ passwords being leaked. |
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. |
2015 |
August 26 |
Competition |
YouTube launches YouTube gaming, introducing full streaming to YouTube. |
2015 |
October 28 |
Product |
Twitch launches a second non-gaming category, "Creative", intended for streams showcasing the creation of artistic and creative works. This starts off with a Bob Ross painting marathon. |
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. A year later, he calls the decision a "mistake". |
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. |
2016 |
March |
Popular Use |
Twitch begins to stream all episodes of Julia Child's The French Chef, inaugurating the food channel on the site. |
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. |
2016 |
April 22 |
Product |
Twitch introduces a new 'Friends' feature. |
2016 |
May |
Popular Use |
ELeague, a professional Counter-Strike: Global Offensive league, begins pitting well-known gamers against one another on Twitch. 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. |
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. |
2016 |
August |
Competition |
Facebook starts allowing people to livestream their Blizzard-based games off of Twitch on its Facebook Live platform. |
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. |