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. Creators like Kai Cenat, who regularly draws in A-list celebrities like Kevin Hart and Travis Barker to his Twitch streams, is a great example of this. Rather than just talk at an audience, they’re talking with their community.

Art, cooking, music, and notably the DJ category – a first-of-its-kind for live streaming – are just a few of the other interests we see gaining significant growth in the last few years, each with dedicated communities and creators.

Sport is another category we’ve seen immense growth in. The Baller League, a community-focused, football league featuring both professional footballers and influencers, uses Twitch to connect with fans in real-time during live streams of its matches.

Twitch CMO Rachel Delphin

Spanish streaming sensation Ibai Llanos, whose ‘La Velada del Año' boxing event drew in 85,000 fans to a packed Bernabéu Stadium, which usually hosts sold out football games, peaked over 3.85 million viewers, a record breaking viewership for Twitch. Through events like these, Twitch is becoming the online destination for live sports, attracting massive audiences and rivaling traditional sports networks like ESPN.

It’s not just Twitch streamers bringing in the crowds. Even pop icon Charli XCX recently used Twitch to live stream an exclusive listening party for her new album, showcasing Twitch’s appeal for musicians and artists. We've also partnered with household names like Meta, Burberry, and Charlotte Tilbury, demonstrating the broad appeal and marketing power of Twitch.

As gaming increasingly merges with mainstream entertainment, Twitch offers a unique opportunity for the games industry to explore new markets, cultivating relationships with established and new communities, discovering new streamer evangelists, and ultimately allowing game developers to broaden their reach and engagement.

From Super Bowl slots to viral TikTok videos, there's many ways for publishers to get content and campaigns out, so what makes Twitch the most effective and meaningful?

Twitch offers gaming publishers and developers something unique: the opportunity to engage live with deeply passionate and highly connected communities. Influence among communities on Twitch is high. In a recent fan survey we conducted we found that 70% say their fandom and fan community are part of their everyday life, and 79% discovered their passion through others such as friends or celebrities.

More than short-lived viral moments or capturing 30 seconds of someone’s time, we offer lasting engagement and meaningful interaction with passionate online communities. For brands, 61% of our community said they enjoyed seeing brands sponsor or create content related to their fandoms.

You can do more than log an impression, you can make a lasting impression on Twitch.

What tools and features do creators have to help them connect with their audience on a deeper level to build a stronger sense of community?

The beauty of livestreaming is that you can go live from anywhere, anytime; be it from your bedroom, or while running a marathon. We pride ourselves on being a community that builds real connections between creator and viewer. Features like polls, chat add-ons, and loyalty programs all create ways for the audience to have constant involvement in the stream.

In addition, creators can use tools like 'Stream Together' to connect with other streamers on one feed, helping everyone build audiences and find new streamers to enjoy. Twitch’s offering is all about interacting with audiences in real time, building stronger connections and a sense of belonging for everyone.

These tools have huge potential in the games industry, as we aim to make content creation not only easy for our streamers, but for developers and publishers to engage with their communities. The discussions between streamers and chat can build genuine, organic hype around a game, while 'Stream Together' can expose a game to a wider array of related audiences. This level of interactive community building is hard to find anywhere else, making it really valuable — it’s all about creating a two-way conversation.

We’re constantly developing new tools to help the industry and streamers connect. With the Twitch mobile app, you have the ultimate flexibility and accessibility to stream from the palm of your hand. Features like Twitch Clips boost discoverability, by making your content easily shareable, leading to organic growth and reach, which translates to awareness and player interaction for game developers, and Twitch Drops allow developers to reward the players that tune in.

Image credit: Twitch

How does Twitch’s Brand Partnerships team work with interested brands to find streamers that match its intended audience authentically?

Our Brand Partnerships team takes a strategic approach to connecting brands with the right creators and events. We understand Twitch is made up of many different communities, from genre-specific groups, to micro-communities with unique interests — our team’s first job is to ensure we find creators with the right brand alignment, and for us to get to know a brand's goals and target audience.

We look at content style, who's watching, how engaged they are, and if the brand feels like a great fit. This makes the biggest impact and avoids partnerships that feel forced.

Beyond just partnering with creators, we offer a full suite of advertising solutions, from high-impact video and display ads, as well as custom, streamer-driven solutions. This allows brands to amplify their message and reach this valuable audience at scale. Brands can also leverage the support we have within the Amazon ecosystem. By combining Twitch's live, interactive environment with Amazon’s first-party insights, brands unlock a wealth of resources to not only reach but truly understand and engage this audience.

In addition to the digital options, you can completely bring your game to life at TwitchCon, where you can show off your game to attendees, engage with, and then stream for their millions of followers. The Brand Partnerships team have extensive experience taking brands and seamlessly integrating them with the Twitch community, and this shines more than ever in-person on the show floor.

We’ve seen successful brand partnerships with gaming developers Battlestate Games, and recently with the popular video game Far Cry, where we partnered with Audible to create 'The Lion's Den', an interactive, gamified digital recreation of a location from the game. Over two million viewers engaged with this campaign where we partnered with top Twitch gaming streamers and their viewers to collaborate and unlock an audio drama.

This campaign highlights our ability to create authentic, high-impact integrations focusing on genuine brand participation, ensuring that brand partnerships are not just promotional, but add real value to the viewer experience. This is especially important considering Twitch's highly engaged userbase, including over 70% of Gen Z who value authenticity and community connection above all else.

What makes TwitchCon an appealing event to partner with?

TwitchCon is more than an event; it's a cultural phenomenon and the biggest IRL celebration of live streaming. This makes it the convention with the highest density of live streaming creators anywhere in the world, offering something that other conventions can't: real, authentic connections within the live streaming community. The reach that brands secure by sponsoring these events isn’t just measured in the tens of thousands of attendees who are on the show floor, but in the fact they're attended virtually by millions across the world.

Because attendees are streamers, thousands of attendees will be broadcasting live impressions of what is on the show floor to their global communities. For example, last year’s TwitchCon Europe saw viewership on Twitch reaching over 2.2 million hours watched, with viewers tuning in from 213 countries. With this being said, the footfall of both events continues to be high. Last year's TwitchCon Europe in Rotterdam drew attendees from 78 countries with 17,000 in overall attendance, compared to 23,000 who attended the San Diego event.

"We're constantly developing new tools to help the industry and streamers connect"

For game developers, TwitchCon offers unparalleled access to a highly engaged audience. Imagine showcasing your game not to passive viewers, but to thousands of passionate people who are actively looking for new titles to not only play but share with their communities. That's the power of TwitchCon.

Meta, for example, showcased their new games for Meta Quest, including hands-on demos and immersive experiences with games like Assassin’s Creed Nexus VR, demonstrating the value that TwitchCon brings to even the biggest tech companies.

From this success, we followed this campaign by connecting top Japanese Twitch streamers for a three-hour livestream event to promote the Meta Quest 3S headset in Japan. The campaign garnered over 635,000 views and drove a remarkable surge in day-one sales. All of this was achieved through collaborating with Twitch.

This year is a huge milestone for us as we will be celebrating our ten year anniversary of the first TwitchCon. Every year, we partner with incredible brands from McDonalds to NYX and Samsung, providing the opportunity to build authentic connections through unforgettable IRL experiences. We can’t wait to make new memories and celebrate with more incredible partners, so if you want to find out more about what’s possible, get in touch here!