Gaming is no longer a subculture, it is very much in the mainstream – and Twitch's audience has followed this trend, with brands, creators and celebrities alike, from Valkyrae to Charlie XCX to NASA turning to the streaming site.While gaming remains a core part of Twitch's DNA, in recent years its content categories have expanded beyond gaming, to reach online fan communities from music to sports and more, creating an even more diverse ecosystem for games to be marketed on and 20 billion hours watched in 2024 alone.Just as integral to the live streaming service is TwitchCon, a convention that began in 2015 in San Francisco, which brings the livestreaming community together to celebrate their passions with each other and their audiences.It's since become a semi-annual event held in North America and Europe respectively, the latter getting its inaugural convention in 2019 in Berlin.As TwitchCon approaches its tenth anniversary in 2025, with Rotterdam hosting TwitchCon Europe on May 31 to June 1, while TwitchCon San Diego follows later on October 17 to October 19, Twitch CMO Rachel Delphin tells us why long-form content is the key to community building, with 70% of Twitch’s audience confirming their fandom and fan community are part of their everyday life. How has Twitch evolved from a service for watching people livestream games? Twitch is where people come for the content and stay for the community.
With over 90% of Gen Alpha and Gen Z consumers engaging with gaming it remains a core part of our DNA, but we have blossomed into a diverse entertainment destination for people to gather around anything they’re deeply passionate about. 'Just Chatting', which garnered six billion hours of viewership last year, is a great example of this evolution.Look at it as the modern take on a traditional talk show where hosts, streamers in this case, can connect with their audience in real time for as long as they like.