Owned by Amazon, Twitch is a popular live streaming video platform, that although is mainly targeted towards video game players, also has streams associated with creative content such as art and cooking, musical broadcasts and live broadcasts from eSport competitions.
Twitch is an incredibly popular platform, with around 100 million users per month and 1.5million broadcasters. Indeed, the platform is so popular that many, once casual gamers, have been able to give up their day jobs in order to become full-time streamers, who receive revenue from adverts, subscriptions and donations from their viewers.
Most recently, now that Amazon has become the owner, the Twitch app has seen integration with Amazon prime users as well as a vast improvement in the app quality on both mobile and tablet devices. To view streams, you simply download the free app from the Apple or Play store and use the search bar to find a game you want to watch. Or, simply browse what games are popular at that time. You don’t even need to be a member to watch a stream, however, if you want to use the chat room on a stream – which is a fantastic way for viewers to interact with the broadcaster – you will need to sign up to Twitch, which is also free. In fact, the only time viewers need to spend money using the app is if they choose to donate or subscribe to a streamer. This costs $4.99 a month and comes with benefits such as access to a streamer’s Discord channel, channel emoticons and subscriber only chat.
Of course, with Twitch becoming such a popular app, more and more streamers are playing games online. So how do you know the best streamers to watch? Well, it’s all about exploring the app to finding the streamers that you both enjoy watching and that play the games you like. To get you started, though, here are 5 Twitch accounts you should definitely be following:
Summit1g
Ex-competitive Counter-Strike player turned full-time streamer, Summit1g is a must-follow for fans of first player shooters. Not only will you be bowled over by the 27-year-old’s skills as a player, but Summit1g’s comedic style make him an incredibly fun and addictive player to watch. It’s little wonder then that he has well over 2 million followers. Expect to see Summit1g to be playing games such as Dark Souls 3, Player Unknown Battlegrounds and the occasional GTA racing stream.
Tsm_bjergsen
At just 21-years-old, Tsm_bjergsen is a professional League of Legends player with over 1.3m followers on Twitch. Playing for Team SoloMid as a mid laner, which he joined in 2013, he’s considered one of the best mid laners in the West. On his Twitch account expect to see streams of his practices for upcoming League of Legend tournaments.
Moldran
Moldran is a former professional World of Warcraft player, who gained immense popularity from streaming Diablo 3. In fact, he was voted the most popular Diablo streamer in 2014 as well as the 3rd most educational streamer of Blizzard games in a poll. These days, Moldran is famed for his fun streams where he interacts with his viewers as much as possible, playing a variety of games. He’s also recently partnered with PartyPoker, where he live streams his poker games to his 71k followers.
DrDisRespectLive
If you like to watch a skilled player who’s also incredibly funny, then you can’t get better than DrDisRecpect. Basing his character on a 1980s video game villain, Dr DisRespect is not only hilariously funny but has brilliant graphics and tricks that he utilises during his stream. Mainly playing FPS, expect to see him playing games such as Player Unknown Battlegrounds.
GamesDoneQuick
Unlike the other Twitch channels on this list, GamesDoneQuick isn’t based on one streamer, but is instead a bi-yearly event that sees speedrunners from across the globe come together for a week-long event aimed at raising money for charities such as Doctors Without Borders. The events, Awesome Games Done Quick (January) and Summer Games Done Quick (July), have streamers playing a mix of retro and current games 24 hours a day for a week, all with the aim of completing a game as quick as possible. Indeed, there are even world records associated with each game. This channel is particularly good for introducing viewers to new streamers to watch and follow, plus it’s all for a worthy cause!
