SAN FRANCISCO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Twitch, the world’s leading social video platform for gamers, today launched “IRL”, a new content category designed to both enable and encourage Twitch’s creators to step outside of their traditional gameplay content, and share content captured from their everyday lives. This category was inspired by creator feedback regarding the ability to interact with their viewers in more vlog-inspired personal ways not tethered to video games. To support the category, Twitch is introducing new community guidelines and upcoming plans for the ability to broadcast your camera directly from the Twitch mobile app.
“We’re amazed by our creators who build thriving communities and create compelling content for millions of viewers,” said Emmett Shear, CEO of Twitch. “While gaming is their core identity, what we’ve heard repeatedly from them is that they are interested in sharing their everyday lives, thoughts, and opinions with their communities. IRL is designed to help our creators foster that kind of community interaction.”
Among the types of content users can livestream or video upload on IRL are updates and discussions about one’s life and channel, as well as personal highlights from events and trips, such as TwitchCon and places abroad. To accompany this new content category, Twitch has revamped its community guidelines (formerly Rules of Conduct) to specifically allow the broadcasting of non-gaming content.
IRL marks the latest example of the platform’s effort to help bring a variety of experiences to its gaming community. Other recent endeavors include the launch of Twitch Creative which celebrates the creative process; a passion which first surfaced among gamers doing cosplay and game-related fan art. The company also launched a Social Eating experiment in response to popular demand from gamers in South Korea where eating online with friends was already a cultural phenomenon.
Because IRL broadcasting lends itself to on-the-go experiences, Twitch is bringing native streaming to the Twitch mobile app. The mobile broadcasting feature launches in 2017 and will allow users to go live directly from their phone’s camera.
Starting today, Twitch creators are encouraged to broadcast IRL content, and viewers will have the opportunity to find the content at http://www.twitch.tv/IRL. To celebrate the launch of IRL, Twitch will be doing a livestreamed product announcement under the IRL category at 2:00pm PT today at twitch.tv/twitch_scar.
For daily updates on Twitch, visit the official company blog, Twitter feed, and Facebook page.
About Twitch
Twitch is the world’s leading social video platform and community for gamers. Each month, more than 100 million community members gather to watch and talk about video games with more than 2 million broadcasters. Twitch’s video platform is the backbone of both live and on-demand distribution for the entire video game ecosystem. This includes game developers, publishers, media outlets, events, user generated content, and the entire esports scene. Twitch also features Twitch Creative, a category devoted to artists and the creative process. For more information about Twitch, visit our About Page, Twitter feed (#Twitch), and blog.
