Twitch CEO Addresses Demand for Rewind Feature

gamerant.com:

The CEO of Twitch has responded to viewers' demands for a rewind function on streams. The feature would put streaming on Twitch more in line with services like YouTube, which let viewers go back and see what they missed before they tuned in.

While Twitch was once the undisputed leader of live video streaming on the internet, YouTube, Kick, and even Meta have all tried to draw users towards their own services. Kick has offered enticing deals to streamers, drawing some away from Twitch exclusivity, while some streamers like Pokimane have moved to YouTube due to toxicity and other concerns. While Twitch is still a massive force in the medium, the competition is making some of its issues stand out, like an inability to rewind streams.

Now, Dan Clancy, CEO of Twitch, has made a brief statement regarding the requests for rewind capability. Clancy is interested in the feature, and is aware of the fact that users have been asking for it. However, he also indicated that adding the function is not as easy as one might expect. According to Clancy, because of the way Twitch «does its streaming,» adding the function would be expensive and would mean doing a overhaul of how the current system works.

Clancy points out that the system would also likely be expensive, as it would not only cost money to play back missed portions of streams, but would mean investing in additional storage to keep them. However, he did indicate that adding a limited rewind feature might be possible, suggesting that users could see a bit of what they missed. It's not clear how much users would be able to access under this sytem.

As Twitch hasn't been profitable in a long time, adding an expensive function to the service seems unlikely. Unfortunately, users likely won't be getting what they've been hoping for at this point in time. This fact could potentially lead more streamers and viewers to pay attention to other services.

However, Twitch is taking steps to try and improve its service and to address