Networks

Ever since big game titles like Fortnite, League of Legends, Call of Duty, PUBG, or Overwatch, presented gamers with challenges and tournaments, there has been a rise in not only the number of gamers to each respective title, but also the rise of individuals watching the game. Whether its competitive gameplay or casual gaming, the rise of gamers watching other gamers game has become a largely lucrative trend. Not only to these streaming platforms gain money from subscribers and premium services, they’re able to capitalize on advertisements and in-platform currency to support streamers. With the rise of high performance gaming on the professional stage, viewership on these platforms have become comparable to that of ESPN. The key factors to the high viewer count on these services can only be explained by the talent these services are able to expose. The network exchange aspect of this topic can best be observed by the benefits each streamer is able to obtain by being part of a particular platform.

Twitch has held the front-runner for the service by being the designated unique platform specific for gaming; however, as other companies have noticed the profitability of such a service, they have introduced new platforms that provide a similar service. Much like many other companies that rely heavily on network effects, twitch has long-relied its ability to host large gaming tournaments and streamers like Ninja. However, with new options, these exclusive rights have been taken over by other companies as observed by the Microsoft’s recent acquisition of Ninja’s fanbase for its new platform Mixer. Through observations like this, we can consider each node to be a possible streaming platform. Although a streamers is not necessarily forced to be on a single stream, as they become more prevalent, they may be given the option to sign a contract. Keep in mind that a live broadcast tends to be difficult on multiple platforms; hence, most streamers tend to settle for a single platform to live stream on, but upload their content throughout platforms. Through observations, we can notice that such streamers are given the liberty to decide where to feature their talents and content based on the payouts that are offered by each service. As observed in the article above, a new player like Facebook can be more enticing in comparison to other platforms based on its sheer size.

With many doubters of these new services and the incomprehensibility of watching others play video games, it will be interesting to see how the e-sports and video game streaming industry changes.